Proto Human Tools

In a discovery that could drive historians to re-write early human history, archaeologists in Kenya have unearthed the oldest stone tools ever found. The tools dating back to 3.3 million years, pushes the record of oldest stone tools found, by 7,00,000 years.

The findings also challenge the notion that our most direct ancestors Homo sapiens in the genus Homo were the first to use tools, thereby throwing light on the existence of an earlier group of proto humans. Earlier, hominion groups- Kenyathropus platyops and Australopithecus afarensis were excavated from sites which were close to the tool excavation site. These hominion were not thought to be intelligent. However, the discovery of such sophisticated tools implies that these proto humans might have had thinking abilities.

The findings published in the journal Nature, sheds light on 149 stones and stone flakes that were discovered west of the Lake Turkana in a remote area of northern Kenya. The first tools from the site were discovered in 2011 when researchers took a wrong turn in a dried riverbed. These tools include hammers and anvils of different sizes. Until, this discovery, the oldest known tools were 2.6 million years old.