Just as important as what?

Question

The following passage is from the website as follows:

http://www.epubbud.com/read.php?g=H8AVF5J5&tocp=7

Of course, stone tools would have been only a tiny tip of a technological iceberg, dominated by wood, which has long since rotted away. Antler, ivory and bone were just as important. String, made from plant fibres or leather, was almost certainly in use by then to catch fish and rabbits in nets or snares, and to make bags for carrying things in.

In the underlined sentence, I’m not sure about ‘as what antler, ivory and bone were as important.’

In a way I thought ‘what’ can be ‘stone tools’ but ‘what’ can also be ‘wood’ in another.

Can you give me what you have in your mind?

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Antler, ivory and bone were just as important as stone in tool-making.

Anonymous · Answer

One way of looking at this is that even in those early times, technology, such as it was, was apparently quite developed and complex. In the field of tools alone, you had stone, wood (whose use can only be inferred today, since it has rotted away), antler, ivory, bone, plant fiber string (use inferred since it has rotted away), and leather cord (use inferred since it has rotted away. Thus you had a huge technological iceberg, so to speak, in those early times with respect to tools:

.......................stone
..................antler, ivory, bone
.............plant fibre, leather cord
.........wood and wood products

In this technological pyramid, the base, consisting of wood and wood products, would be the widest and most varied - and most important - since wood would have been the dominant material; it's easy to work, widely available, easy to procure, versatile. The next widest section would be plant fibre and leather products - plant fiber is widely available but harder to procure than wood, leather is much harder to procure, and both are a little tricky to work with. The next widest section would be antler, ivory, and bone - even harder to procure, and harder to work, but quite sturdy once fashioned. The narrowest section would be stone - readily available, but difficult to work, almost permanent once fashioned.

So, although stone is the durable material and has been the most well-preserved archeologically all these years, one should not be led by this to believe that the ancients used only crude rock-like stone implements to hammer away at things. Even in those early years. the technology of tools was apparently vast and sophisticated, with stone only the tip of the technological iceberg, so to speak. We can infer the use of wood, plant fiber, and leather, in a vast variety of ways. And antler, ivory, and bone too.

Stenka25 · Answer

Thanks a lot for your awesome answer, Anonymous.

Stenka25 · Answer

Thanks a lot for your immediate answer, AlpheccaStars.

Just as important as what?

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