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During the course of human evolution, lithic technology became a critical element of hominin foraging ecology and a contributor to feedback loops selecting for increasingly sophisticated tool use, cognition, and language. Here we review the first million years of technology, from 3.3 million years ago (Ma) to 2.3 Ma. This time interval includes the two oldest archaeological industries (the Lomekwian and the early Oldowan) known exclusively from Africa, which collectively overlap with four genera of hominins (human relatives and ancestors). These Early Stone Age (ESA) industries focused on the production and use of sharp edges for cutting, as well as the use of larger, sometimes unworked stones for pounding. We review our current understanding of these technologies, where they were found, how they were made, what they were used for, and the hominins that could have produced them, and consider them in the context of nonhuman primate archaeology.
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This content will become publicly available on August 15, 2026
Selective use of distant stone resources by the earliest Oldowan toolmakers
The adaptive shift that favored stone tool–assisted behavior in hominins began by 3.3 million years ago. However, evidence from early archaeological sites indicates relatively short-distance stone transport dynamics similar to behaviors observed in nonhuman primates. Here we report selective raw material transport over longer distances than expected at least 2.6 million years ago. Hominins at Nyayanga, Kenya, manufactured Oldowan tools primarily from diverse nonlocal stones, pushing back the date for expanded raw material transport by over half a million years. Nonlocal cobbles were transported up to 13 kilometers for on-site reduction, resulting in assemblage patterns inconsistent with accumulations formed by repeated short-distance transport events. These findings demonstrate that early toolmakers moved stones over substantial distances, possibly in anticipation of food processing needs, representing the earliest archaeologically visible signal for the incorporation of lithic technology into landscape-scale foraging repertoires.
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- PAR ID:
- 10631763
- Publisher / Repository:
- Science Advances
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science Advances
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 33
- ISSN:
- 2375-2548
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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