Archaeologist Sonia
Harmand, of Stony Brook University in New York presented her findings at the
annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society in California. She said that in 2011, after taking a wrong
turn, she and her team spotted a cluster of tools on the landscape, and began
to excavate.
The site is now know as
Lomekwi 3, just west of Kenya’s Lake Turkana.
Since that initial
discovery, the team has unearthed a total of 20 flakes, anvils and cores. All of the materials were immaculately
preserved in sediment, and an additional 130 pieces were found on the surface.
The tools are
approximately 3.3 million years old.
Alison Brooks, an
anthropologist at George Washington University, agrees with Harmand’s view,
saying of the tools that “they could not have been created by natural forces…
the dating evidence is fairly solid.”
Before this discovery,
the oldest known stone tools were found in Ethiopia and are approximately 2.6
million years old. In addition,
researchers in Ethiopoa discovered animal bones that were 3.4 million years old
displaying evidence of cut marks on them, meaning that early human ancestors
inflicted these marks using stone tools.
 |
| Ethiopian stone tools. Image: PNAS |
The origin of tool-making
is long-thought to begin with the appearance of the genus Homo at about 2.8
million years. This new evidence potentially suggests that either ancient
australopithecines like “Lucy” had developed stone tool use before Homo
evolved, or else older members of the Homo genus have yet to be found.
“I think
[australopithecines] would have had the cognitive capabilities to do it, and
even though their hands were probably not as dexterous, they probably would
have had no problem flaking stone,” says Nicholas Toth, a paleoanthropologist
at the Stone Age Institute and the University of Indiana, Bloomington.
Call me to discuss your
insurance needs on 0208 2550617 / 07768 865983
No comments:
Post a Comment