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Archaeologists Find 3 Million-Yr-Old Tools at Site Dubbed 'The Cradle of Humankind', Leave Them Stunned

According to archaeologist Tom Plummer, these are "probably the most important technological innovation that ever happened in human history."
PUBLISHED JAN 13, 2025
Knocked Pieces of Stone With Sharp Edges (Representative Cover Image Source: CBS News | YouTube)
Knocked Pieces of Stone With Sharp Edges (Representative Cover Image Source: CBS News | YouTube)

A revolutionary three-million-year-old stone tool discovery in Kenya's Homa Peninsula provided a more significant insight into the very first technological innovations of man, stated CBS News. The small knives, which scientists called flakes, have kept their sharp edges after millions of years and were among the very first examples of tool use on Earth, according to findings from the site now labeled 'the cradle of humankind.'



 

According to Tom Plummer, lead archaeologist with the City University of New York, these are "probably the most important technological innovation that ever happened in human history." Part of what is called an Oldowan tool kit, the tools were made by early hominins who learned to knock pieces of stone against one another to create sharp edges. "It allowed hominins to access a whole array of foods that they never had access to before," said Plummer, adding that these tools were used on everything from peeling fruits and vegetables to butchering large prey such as hippos. Confirmation that the tools were being used in butchery came when the research team found cut marks on hippo bones nearby, and excitement amongst the team began to grow, as per The Daily Mail.



 

The significance of this discovery extends beyond the tools themselves. As Rick Potts, head of the Smithsonian's human origins program and leader of research on the peninsula, said, "We are the last biped standing, as I call it. All of those other ways of life became extinct. And so that gives us a lot to think about, and it draws attention to the fragility of life, even in our own journey through time." Long a treasure trove regarding human origins, the Homa Peninsula has already yielded the famous 'Lucy' fossils—the remains of a pre-human relative that lived upwards of three million years ago. According to the local archaeological legend, Blasto Onyango, who discovered a skeleton identified as Turkana Boy, careful digging is essential for discoveries, as significant finds often take "four or five years" of patient excavation.

The knives recovered are still sharp three million years after their use.  (Representative Image Source: Youtube | Photo by CBS Saturday Morning)
The knives recovered are still sharp three million years after their use. (Representative Image Source: Youtube | Photo by CBS Saturday Morning)

Recent advances in technology have allowed researchers to refine the timeline of human evolution. Whereas scientists know that modern humans appeared in Africa around 300,000 years ago, they now understand that their hominin ancestors began walking upright at least six million years ago. "Some of the things that we thought occurred in a very short period of time, within the last one million years, are now stretched out over a six million year period," Potts reflected. "That includes tool making."



 

Perhaps most intriguingly, it challenges the very notions of our ancestry. In conjunction with tools, the team also found a paranthropus tooth, hinting that tool-making may not have been just a human invention but rather an innovation that humans took over and gradually refined to ensure their survival, while other hominid species went extinct. This painstaking work continues in the field, with Rose Nyaboke, among other researchers at the site, carefully considering which artifacts to preserve. "We don't just pick anything. It has to have a paleontological meaning," she said, underscoring the reasoned nature of modern archaeological research in understanding our distant past.

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