Two million stone tools found in East Africa

JENA, GERMANY—Court News Service reports that an international team of researchers has discovered stone tools between two and 1.8 million years old in Tanzania’s Ewass Oldupa, western of the Oldupai Gorge, a 28-mile-long canyon known for its hominin fomin. Restored from layers of stratified sediments, the artifacts are the oldest stone tools found in the gorge to date. Tools include pebbles and cobblestone cores, sharp-edged flakes and polyhedral pavers. Fossils of wild cattle, pigs, hippos, panthers, lions, hyenas, primates, reptiles and birds have also been found in the strata, along with evidence of habitat change over the 200,000-year period. Habitats include river and lake systems, fern meadows, forests, palm groves, dry steppes, and evidence of natural combustion. The repetition of Oldowan̵

7;s cannons in these strata suggests that hominins moved in and out of the area during periods of volcanic activity and environmental displacement. “We see that we have a lot of flexibility and flexibility, even though ecosystems are changing,” said team member Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute for Human History Science. “I think this is partly the beginning of our own family and partly our heritage.” Read the original scientific paper on this study in Nature Communications. To read about an 800,000-year-old bone point from Olduvai, go to The Bone Collector.