A new report tells us that the time when the first stone tools were used by our ancestors was 3.3 MYA (Million Years Ago). John Hawkes has a discussion of the report on his blog
Stone tools now 3.3 million years old. Previously the oldest tools have been dated to around 2.5 MYA. This makes a considerable increase in the time span of stone tool making.
The archaeologists who made the find did it by accident. They were looking for a previously excavated site when they took a wrong turn. They found stone tools both on the surface and in excavations. The tools are different from the Olduwan technology which has been considered the oldest tool making technology. The Olduwan technology is named for the site where stone tools were first found in the Olduvai gorge.
Dr. Hawkes concludes that stone tools were developed by "multiple lineages of early hominins". He believes that the early hominins developed stone tool manufacture from the use of tools by elaborating on the use of tools by all apes. The hominin addition was the deliberate creation of tools from stone, a faculty which the apes do not share.
The thing I take away from this is that there was no one straight line of development from an apelike predecessor to modern humans. There have been multiple branches of the hominin family tree all along the way.
Bill Gill
