https://sputnikglobe.com/20230210/about-29-million-years-old-discovery-in-kenya-casts-doubt-on-first-toolmaker-theory-1107318181.html
About 2.9-Million Years Old Discovery in Kenya Casts Doubt on First Toolmaker Theory
About 2.9-Million Years Old Discovery in Kenya Casts Doubt on First Toolmaker Theory
Sputnik International
A recent study on archaeological findings in Kenya cast doubts on the initial assumption that direct relatives of human beings in the Homo lineage were the only tech-savvy creatures of the Stone Age.
2023-02-10T13:45+0000
2023-02-10T13:45+0000
2023-02-10T13:45+0000
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Archeologists were left with more questions than answers following the discovery of the oldest stone tools ever found. According to a study published in the journal Science, two fossil teeth that belonged to an ancient cousin of humans known as Paranthropus were found alongside 330 tools dating back 2.9 million years at a site in Kenya.Study co-author Rick Potts, who is also a director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Human Origins Program, stated that the findings cast doubts on an assumption that direct relatives of human beings in the Homo lineage were the only tech-savvy creatures of the Stone Age.The study focused on the fossil site dating back to around 2.6-3 million years ago, in southwestern Kenya known as Nyayanga, which is located on the shores of Lake Victoria. The excavations on the site started in 2015. Since, researchers have found a trove of prehistoric artifacts, including stone tools and animal bones.The artifacts represent the oldest-known examples of a stone technology, known as the Oldowan toolkit, whose appearance was a technological breakthrough. Oldowan tools, looking like stones with one to a few flakes removed, are the oldest widespread hominin tools. The term hominin refers to various species, including Paranthropus, considered closely related to humans. The oldest Oldowan tools were previously dated from around 2.6 million years ago in Afar Triangle, Ethiopia. However, the recent discovery expanded their distribution by over 1,300 kilometers. According to researchers, the tools unearthed in Kenya belonged to an Oldowan toolkit and were used to process a variety of food, in particular, to butcher animals, including hippopotamus.The artifacts were manufactured from a diverse array of raw materials, such as quartz and rhyolite.There were several types of tools, found at the site: hammerstones and stone cores, which were used to pound plants, bone and meat, and sharp-edged flakes to cut meat. The rocks and flakes enabled early humans to slice and crush a wide range of materials and therefore significantly expand their menu and dietary strategies.Scientists had long associated Oldowan tools with the genus Homo. But no Homo fossils were found at Nyayanga. As for the molars discovered at the site, they represent the oldest-known fossils of Paranthropus, an extinct hominin, which combined ape-like and human-like traits, and can be characterized by robust skulls, huge jaws for chewing tough vegetation like roots and tubers. This discovery allowed the researchers to assume that they may have used the stone tools or even have been their makers. All in all, the study concluded that the recent discovery expanded the geography of the earliest Oldowan and provided new evidence of its use in diverse tasks, shedding light on the dawn of technology. But at the same time, it left an unfathomable mystery of whether Paranthropus was using the tools or its fossils were accidentally found at the site.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20221214/archaeologists-discover-5000-year-old-cemetery-in-lake-turkana-kenya-1105447742.html
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east afrcia, kenya, archaeology, archaeological site, ancient tools, stone tools, stone age, paranthropus
east afrcia, kenya, archaeology, archaeological site, ancient tools, stone tools, stone age, paranthropus
About 2.9-Million Years Old Discovery in Kenya Casts Doubt on First Toolmaker Theory
Scientists previously suggested that only direct ancestors of modern humans were capable of making tools from stones. However, a study on recent discoveries in Kenya concluded that other theories can't be ruled out.
Archeologists were left with more questions than answers following the discovery of the oldest stone tools ever found.
According to a
study published in the journal Science, two fossil teeth that belonged to an ancient cousin of humans known as
Paranthropus were found alongside 330 tools dating back 2.9 million years at a site in
Kenya.Study co-author Rick Potts, who is also a director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's Human Origins Program, stated that the findings cast doubts on an assumption that direct relatives of human beings in the Homo lineage were the only tech-savvy creatures of the Stone Age.
"Those teeth open up an amazing whodunit — a real question of, well, who were these earliest toolmakers?" said Potts.
The study focused on the fossil site dating back to around 2.6-3 million years ago, in southwestern Kenya known as Nyayanga, which is located on the shores of Lake Victoria. The excavations on the site started in 2015. Since, researchers have found a trove of prehistoric artifacts, including stone tools and animal bones.
The artifacts represent the oldest-known examples of a stone technology, known as the Oldowan toolkit, whose appearance was a technological breakthrough. Oldowan tools, looking like stones with one to a few flakes removed, are the oldest widespread hominin tools. The term hominin refers to various species, including Paranthropus, considered closely related to humans. The oldest Oldowan tools were previously dated from around 2.6 million years ago in Afar Triangle, Ethiopia.
However, the recent discovery expanded their distribution by over 1,300 kilometers. According to researchers, the tools unearthed in Kenya belonged to an Oldowan toolkit and were used to process a variety of food, in particular, to butcher animals, including hippopotamus.
"It appears that these tools were widespread much earlier than previous estimates and were widely used for food processing. Which hominins were using these tools remains uncertain, but Paranthropus fossils occur at the site," the study read.
The artifacts were manufactured from a diverse array of raw materials, such as quartz and rhyolite.There were several types of tools, found at the site: hammerstones and stone cores, which were used to pound plants, bone and meat, and sharp-edged flakes to cut meat. The rocks and flakes enabled early humans to slice and crush a wide range of materials and therefore significantly expand their menu and dietary strategies.
Scientists had long associated Oldowan tools with the genus Homo. But no Homo fossils were found at Nyayanga. As for the molars discovered at the site, they represent the oldest-known fossils of Paranthropus, an extinct hominin, which combined ape-like and human-like traits, and can be characterized by robust skulls, huge jaws for chewing tough vegetation like roots and tubers. This discovery allowed the researchers to assume that they may have used the stone tools or even have been their makers.
"The association of these Nyayanga tools with Paranthropus may reopen the case as to who made the oldest Oldowan tools. Perhaps not only Homo, but other kinds of hominins were processing food with Oldowan technology," said lead author of the research anthropologist Thomas Plummer of Queens College in New York City.
All in all, the study concluded that the recent discovery expanded the geography of the earliest Oldowan and provided new evidence of its use in diverse tasks, shedding light on the dawn of technology. But at the same time, it left an unfathomable mystery of whether Paranthropus was using the tools or its fossils were accidentally found at the site.
14 December 2022, 13:55 GMT
