Oldest human tools discovered in Africa, dated to 3.3 million years ago

At the annual meeting of the Palaeoanthropology Society in the US this week, researchers announced the discovery of a set of stone tools in Kenya that they think are the oldest ever found. And not just by a little bit – they’ve been dated to 3.3 million years ago, which makes them 700,000 years older than any other tools ever found.

The implications for this are pretty huge, because they predate the arrival of our genus Homo – thought to be 2.8 million years old – which suggests that ancient, long-gone australopithecines such as ‘Lucy’ could have been making and using tools long before our genus even existed.

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What Is also becoming apparent is that there were several species of hominid all coexisting and relatively recently as well.

I think that was already known.

dv said:

I think that was already known.

It was, but the degrees, longevity and extent of overlap are new. And not just one species co existing, multiples.

dv said:

I think that was already known.

Would have been exciting times

CrazyNeutrino said:

Oldest human tools discovered in Africa, dated to 3.3 million years ago

At the annual meeting of the Palaeoanthropology Society in the US this week, researchers announced the discovery of a set of stone tools in Kenya that they think are the oldest ever found. And not just by a little bit – they’ve been dated to 3.3 million years ago, which makes them 700,000 years older than any other tools ever found.

The implications for this are pretty huge, because they predate the arrival of our genus Homo – thought to be 2.8 million years old – which suggests that ancient, long-gone australopithecines such as ‘Lucy’ could have been making and using tools long before our genus even existed.

more…

Is tool using/making a big deal?
It wouldn’t take an over abundance of intelligence to do so say compared to language, counting, art, etc.
I suppose it does show the evolution of cognitive ability.
I wonder if perhaps a few individuals worked it out and either taught the rest or they imitated the smarter ones or even if it evolved amongst many different tribes seperated by distance.

Cymek said:

Is tool using/making a big deal?
It wouldn’t take an over abundance of intelligence to do so say compared to language, counting, art, etc.
I suppose it does show the evolution of cognitive ability.
I wonder if perhaps a few individuals worked it out and either taught the rest or they imitated the smarter ones or even if it evolved amongst many different tribes seperated by distance.

There are examples of animalia that use tools and they never evolved into humans.

Cymek said:

Is tool using/making a big deal?
It wouldn’t take an over abundance of intelligence to do so say compared to language, counting, art, etc.
I suppose it does show the evolution of cognitive ability.
I wonder if perhaps a few individuals worked it out and either taught the rest or they imitated the smarter ones or even if it evolved amongst many different tribes seperated by distance.

IIRC tool use predates language. This is certainly the case with chimpanzees. Further the dexterity of our hands probably helped brain development.

Witty Rejoinder said:

Cymek said:

Is tool using/making a big deal?
It wouldn’t take an over abundance of intelligence to do so say compared to language, counting, art, etc.
I suppose it does show the evolution of cognitive ability.
I wonder if perhaps a few individuals worked it out and either taught the rest or they imitated the smarter ones or even if it evolved amongst many different tribes seperated by distance.

IIRC tool use predates language. This is certainly the case with chimpanzees. Further the dexterity of our hands probably helped brain development.

take a look at Dr Elizabeth Brannon’s work. She did a lot of studies with primates on ‘intelligence’ and tool use

there’s something of being properly bipedal and having dexterity of digits, that ‘drives’ cognitive evolution, though I suppose they’d progress incrementally together, still standing up ‘properly’ and having those hands with good fingers, sort of compels something…

try ‘gain with couple other pictures.

and sweet love

Of course tools predate language! How else were the monkeymen gonna club the cutest females in the tribe and lead them off for shenanigans in the cave?

The word “tools” is not the point. The point is “core and flake stone tools”. Tools made by using grass and sticks and banging rocks together have been around from time immemorial. Otters and lammergeiers use stones as tools. Human babies use found objects as tools.

“Core and flake” stone tools are another matter entirely, for starters it means selecting stones with the right mineral composition, and then hammering those stones in precisely the correct manner to turn two rocks into dozens of useful tools. Core and flake tools are not the first stone tools, they’re the first examples of “mass production”. The invention of mass production is not something that anyone can do, even now; even an adult modern human given a field of rocks and told to make tools would not invent mass production.

mollwollfumble said:

The word “tools” is not the point. The point is “core and flake stone tools”. Tools made by using grass and sticks and banging rocks together have been around from time immemorial. Otters and lammergeiers use stones as tools. Human babies use found objects as tools.

“Core and flake” stone tools are another matter entirely, for starters it means selecting stones with the right mineral composition, and then hammering those stones in precisely the correct manner to turn two rocks into dozens of useful tools. Core and flake tools are not the first stone tools, they’re the first examples of “mass production”. The invention of mass production is not something that anyone can do, even now; even an adult modern human given a field of rocks and told to make tools would not invent mass production.

Tools are a means to an end, no matter how simple.