Discovery of ancient stone tools in Kenya date back 3.3 million years

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unearthed an assortment of 3.3 million-year-old stone tools that have been linked to our apelike ancestors.

Stone tools predating earliest humans discovered

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unearthed an assortment of 3.3 million-year-old stone tools that have been linked to our apelike ancestors.

Researcher Dr Nick Taylor said the tools, found on the shores of Kenyan lake, are the earliest known tools to be discovered.

“They are significantly earlier than anything that has been found previously,” he told BBC.

“It’s really quite astonishing to think what separates the previous oldest site and this site is 700,000 years of time. It’s monumental.”

In this undated photo made available in May 2015 by the Mission Prehistorique au Kenya - West Turkana Archaeological Project, Sonia Harmand and Jason Lewis hold stone tools found in the West Turkana area of Kenya. The artifacts, dated at 3.3 million years old, are much older than the earliest known trace of our own branch of the evolutionary family tree. So it’s a new challenge to the traditional idea that only members of our branch made stone tools. The discovery was reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (MPK-WTAP via AP)

Mr Taylor said the tools included anvils, hammer stones, worked cobbles and cores for cutting edges.

“The very largest one we have weighs 15kg, which is massive,” he said.

“On this piece, it doesn’t show the signs of actually having been flaked to produce other artefacts.

“It probably rested in the soil and the other cobbles brought to the site, which were intended to be smashed apart to make tools, were struck against this large anvil.”

This undated photo made available in May 2015 by the Mission Prehistorique au Kenya - West Turkana Archaeological Project shows the excavation of a stone tool found in the West Turkana area of Kenya. This and other artifacts, dated at 3.3 million years old, are much older than the earliest known trace of our own branch of the evolutionary family tree. So it’s a new challenge to the traditional idea that only members of our branch made stone tools. The discovery was reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (MPK-WTAP via AP)

Mr Taylor said the discovery contradicts assumptions that the earliest stone tools were made by the Homo genus, but he was unable to conclude which ancient primate was responsible.

“There are a number of possible candidates at present,” he said.

“There was a hominin called Kenyanthropus platyops, which has been found very close to where the Lomekwi 3 tools are being excavated.

“More widely in the East African region there is another hominin, Australopithecus afarensis, which is famously known from the fossil Lucy, which is another candidate.”

Regardless of which primate made the tool, it is an impressive discovery nonetheless.

The findings have been published in journal Nature.