US EditionStudy: 2.75M-Year-Old Stone Tools Found in Kenya May Rewrite History
- David R. Braun, professor of anthropology at the George Washington University, reported continuous Oldowan tool use at the Namorotukunan archaeological site, Turkana Basin, Kenya, from 2.75 to 2.44 million years ago.
- Faced with recurring wildfires and droughts, plant fossils and isotopic records show landscapes shifted from wetlands to dry grasslands around 2.8 million years ago, and Rahab N. Kinyanjui said, `Geological evidence suggests that tool use probably helped these people survive dramatic changes in climate.`
- Archaeologists at Namorotukunan excavated 1,300 artifacts within a 46-meter sediment record, finding more than 1,200 nearly identical pieces across three horizons and using argon-argon, paleomagnetism, chemical signatures, and plant microfossils to date layers.
- The study challenges assumptions that sustained tool use began later with larger brains between 2.4 and 2.2 million years ago, as the Namorotukunan evidence forces a rethink of human-evolution narratives, authors say.
- The international team, working with the National Museums of Kenya and the Daasanach and Ileret communities, found cut-mark evidence on animal bones linking tools to meat consumption, showing diets broadened across changing landscapes.
22 Articles
22 Articles
Stone Tools Used For 300,000 Years Straight: Early Humans' Tech Wasn't Primitive -- It Was Near Perfect
Researchers working at Namorotukunan, a site in the Turkana Basin of northern Kenya, have uncovered three distinct layers of stone artifacts spanning from 2.75 million to 2.44 million years ago. The post Stone Tools Used For 300,000 Years Straight: Early Humans’ Tech Wasn’t Primitive — It Was Near Perfect appeared first on Study Finds.
2.75-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Could Rewrite Early Human History
Stone tools found in the Turkana Basin, Kenya. Credit: David R. Braun / CC BY 4.0 A newly published study reveals that early humans in Kenya’s Turkana Basin were crafting stone tools as far back as 2.75 million years ago, challenging long-held assumptions about the origins of technology in human history. The tools, uncovered at the Namorototukunan site, represent one of the oldest and longest-lasting examples of Oldowan technology ever found. Th…
Some of the First Humans Used Tools Continuously
A newly uncovered trove of ancient stone tools in northwest Kenya suggests early humans didn't use them sporadically but routinely over hundreds of thousands of years, at the very emergence of humanity. Archaeologists at the Namorotukunan site in the Turkana Basin uncovered 1,300 stone flakes, hammerstones, and cores that...
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