#oldowan

[probablyasocialecologist]

To craft early tools, ancient human relatives transported stones over long distances 600,000 years earlier than previously thought

In southwestern Kenya more than 2.6 million years ago, ancient humans wielded an array of stone tools—known collectively as the Oldowa

In southwestern Kenya more than 2.6 million years ago, ancient humans wielded an array of stone tools—known collectively as the Oldowan toolkit—to pound plant material and carve up large prey such as hippopotamuses. These durable and versatile tools were crafted from special stone materials collected up to eight miles away, according to new research led by scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Queens College. Their findings, published Aug. 15 in the journal Science Advances, push back the earliest known evidence of ancient humans transporting resources over long distances by some 600,000 years. “People often focus on the tools themselves, but the real innovation of the Oldowan may actually be the transport of resources from one place to another,” said Rick Potts, the senior author of the study and the National Museum of Natural History’s Peter Buck Chair of Human Origins. “The knowledge and intent to bring stone material to rich food sources was apparently an integral part of toolmaking behavior at the outset of the Oldowan.”

[...]

While many nonhuman primates carry food and rocks, they only utilize materials that are nearby. Some, like chimpanzees, are known to transport stones over short distances. But the hominins at Nyayanga appear to have consistently procured material from over six miles away. The ability to transport resources is a major milestone in human evolution. According to Potts, it exhibits ancient hominins’ ability to plan ahead and assess the requirements for processing food. It also illustrates an ability to mentally map their environment and remember locations with high-quality rocks. “The mental maps of the oldest known hominins to persistently make stone tools well surpassed their immediate surroundings, even surpassing a few miles,” Potts said.

15 August 2025

[archaeologicalnews]

2-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Unearthed in Tanzania

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has discovered a large collection of 2-million-year-old stone tools, fossilized bones and plant materials at the site of Ewass Oldupa in the western portion of the ancient basin of Olduvai Gorge (now Oldupai) in northern Tanzania.

The newly-discovered stone tools belong to the Oldowan, the oldest-known stone tool industry.

Dating as far back as 2.6 million years ago, the Oldowan tools were likely manufactured by Homo habilis, and are a major milestone in human evolutionary history.

“Our research sheds further light on our distant origins and evolutionary history,” said co-author Professor Tristan Carter, a researcher in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University.

“The exposed canyon wall reveals 2 million years of geological history and ancient sediments have preserved the stone artifacts remarkably, as well as human and faunal remains.” Read more.

[anthropolos]

Hey! I have a biological anthropology project, and my topic is on environmental effects on early hominin tool use (oldowan and acheulean industries). I know it's a very vague/broad topic, but would you happen to know of any articles about the environment and tool use, or even just about variation in tool use? Not necessarily involving the environment in the latter's case.

Whoa boy I do not!

I’m not in the business of bio - but some of my followers are

Anyone can help? 

[inspofromancientworld]

Stone Tools: Oldowan

Source: https://becominghuman.org/pathways-to-discovery/the-fossil-record/archaeology-tools-and-artifacts/oldowan-hominins/

Oldowan, or Mode I, tools are named for the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where they were first found in the 1930s and dated from 2,600,000-1,760,000 years ago, and have now been found through most of Africa. These were thought to be the oldest stone tools until 2015, when the announcement about Lomekwi was made. Deposits of Oldowan tools have been found in conjunction with Paranthropus, Australopithecus, and early Homo remains. The oldest tools appear in eastern Africa before spreading to southern Africa and then was taken into Europe and Asia as H erectus spread around 1,800,000 years ago.

In general, there are four types of stone assemblages: 'Flaked Pieces', which are cores and large choppers; 'Detached Pieces', such as flakes or fragments from the Flaked Pieces; 'Pounded Pieces', such as stones used as hammerstones to shape Flaked and Detached Pieces; and 'Unmodified Pieces', which were transported to various sites. Many of the tools are fairly close to the shape that they ultimately were used in, a style known as 'pebble tools'.

Source: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/early-humans-moved-stones-long-distances-to-make-tools-600000-years-earlier-than-thought-180987247/

To create the tools, river cobbles are collected, 'a roughly spherical hammerstone is struck on the edge, or striking platform, of a suitable core rock to produce a conchoidal fracture [a fracture that doesn't follow any natural planes of separation] with sharp edges useful for various purposes', leaving behind flakes, some of which might be useful. This type of knapping causes 'a characteristic bulb with fine fissures on the fracture surface. The flake evidences ripple marks'. As the period progresses, flakes could have been reworked to be more usable. Based on experimental replication, those who made the stones were mainly right-handed, showing that lateralization had already evolved in hominins.

The tools can be classified into three general classes, with Debitage, or waste, being those that show signs of modification but not of use. Heavy duty tools generally cores that have a sharpened edge that could have been worked on one or both sides of the edge as well as the hammerstones. Light duty tools are generally the flakes that were used as scrapers, awls for boring, and burins for engraving, though there is some overlap, such as heavy duty scrapers. Utilized pieces are those that started as one thing and then were modified and used for something else.

Based on how animal bones are scattered at many of the sites around tool assemblages indicate that hominins most likely lived in groups that had contact with each other, with individuals able to move between groups. Being more detailed than that isn't possible because of the length of time covered by the Oldowan and the high likelihood that the sites were used by various groups during that time. It's also thought that they scavenged the meat they ate based on the relatively high abundance of limb bones found around hominin sites.

[transpondster]

Researchers find 3-million-year-old tools in Kenya, showing development of human ancestors

On a lakeside peninsula in Eastern Africa, archaeologists have found clues about a society that lived there over 3 million years ago.

"I  think the Oldowan technology is probably the most important technological innovation that ever happened in human history," Plummer told "CBS Saturday Morning." 

"It allowed (the pre-human ancestors) to access a whole array of foods that they would never have had access to before."

Plummer said that new diet would have fueled body and brain growth, starting a "feedback loop" that created more sophisticated beings who "start doing more with technology." An similar, even older cutting tool was also found in Kenya, but that technology apparently died out, so Plummer believes this tool is the one that can be credited for those developments.

"I think that's all starting with the Oldowan," Plummer said.

Who made the tools is another surprise. Along with the tools, Plummer's team found the tooth of a paranthropus, an early hominin that is not a direct ancestor of humans. That suggests that the first tool making is not a human legacy, but an idea humanity's ancestors copied, then used to dominate other hominins, who ultimately died out.

"We are the last biped standing, as I call it," Potts said. "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." 

[sherdnerdcollective]

Oldowan Joke Sticker by Trowel-Tales

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[proto-blog]

[randomtangle]

Warfare Wednesday: Stone Tools

To start Warfare Wednesdays, I’m going to take it back to 3.3-3.2 million years ago to with Kenyanthropus platyops, the earliest known tool-making hominid.

So, stone tools. They are grouped by archaeologists into industries. Grahame Clark grouped the industries into a sequence in their evolution, from Mode I to Mode V. Let’s take a look!

Pre-Mode I

“Aha!” You cry, thinking you’ve caught me slipping up my act. “This isn’t Mode 1!” And you’re right. It predates it. In fact, it predates humanity. How does that work? Because Kenyanthropus platyops existed.

This crusty old skull is responsible for these little guys:

Weapons! Or, erm, tools, heheh. Flint flakes (yum!) made with knapping by use of a lithic core and a hammerstone. Sounds complicated but it’s literally hitting two rocks together. But you wanted human tools. Lets get to those.

Mode I: Oldowan Industry

Pictured above is a drawing of an Oldowan chopping tool. The industry is named after the sites in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where mass amounts of these tools were discovered. They are identified primarily by their core forms; simple river rocks. They were struck by spherical hammerstones, as shown by their conchoidal fractures (the way brittle materials fracture following no natural planes of separation). They were held proximally and brought down upon their foestargets. They are believed to have been manufactured by either Australopithecus garhi or Homo habilis.

Mode II: Acheulean Industry

The Acheulean industry is named after the site in Saint-Acheul, France, where early human has lived since at least the time these tools were manufactured. They are notable by their bifacial quality and amygdaloidal (almond-shaped) shape. Most famous are the hand axes. Taking a look at Mode I compared to Mode II, the upgrade in quality it clear. Oldowan tools are cruder and simply one sharp edge on a rock, while Acheulean tools are more deliberate and thoughtfully manufactured. Due to their lack of a haft, they were probably not used for killing, but instead butchering. It should be noted that in folklore, tools such as these have been called thunderstones and kept as amulets, based off of the belief that they arose where lightning had struck.

Mode III: Mousterian Industry

The Mousterian industry is named after Le Moustier in France, where examples were first discovered in the 1860s. They feature usage of the Levallois technique of knapping around a core (called a “tortoise core”, above) in the shape of the desired tool and subsequently separating it. (Pictured below). it is also known as “prepared core technique”.

This allowed for smaller and sharper tools formed from the flaked tools. Just see for yourself!

Mode IV: Aurignacian Industry

The Aurignacian industry, named after Aurignac, France, is notable for its blades instead of flakes. We start to see daggers and killing weapons. It’s also notable there was a rise in bone and antler tools, but we’re not talking about those here.

Mode V: Microlithic Industry

The Microlithic was by far the most advanced and varied. Long, geometrical tools, such as the harpoon depicted above (left) and trapezoidal ones (right) are just two examples of what the microlithic contained. These are your spear points and arrowheads. Finally approaching something that seems almost modern, if it were made of metal. (That’s foreshadowing.)

I hope you found this interesting! Thank you for reading!