Stone tool

Stone tools are tools made of stone. They are the reason the stone age was given its name. They were the first known tools used by mankind, and were used by all human species, such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus. Recently it was learned that stone tools were used before the genus Homo evolved. These oldest tools come from the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years ago. They are 700,000 years older than any tools found before.^[1]

Volcanic ash and minerals around the tools allow them to be dated. The tools look like those described as Oldowan. They might have been made by members of species such as Australopithecus afarensis or Kenyanthropus platyops. The research team has proposed the term "Lomekwian" for these tools, and say they mark the start of archaeology. The palaeoenvironment was wooded.^[2]

Related pages

• Palaeolithic
• Hand axe

References

1. Morelle, Rebecca 2015. Oldest stone tools pre-date earliest humans. BBC News Science & Environment.
2. Harmand, Sonia et al 2015. 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 521, 310–315.