Stone tools: humanity’s first invention

The knife in your kitchen, the tailor’s scissors and the mason’s hammer all belong to one family. The ancestor of that family was an ordinary stone, struck against another stone by someone to produce a sharp-edged flake. When and where did this happen? The oldest known answer scientists have found so far comes from a dry hillside in Kenya, and it is about 3.3 million years old.

The Lomekwi discovery

Archaeologist Sonia Harmand and her team excavated at a site called Lomekwi 3 on the western shore of Lake Turkana. According to their study, published in the scientific journal Nature in 2015, stone tools were found buried in their original position. Fossils of early human-like creatures from the same area and period were also present. The study puts the age of the site at about 3.3 million years.

The team named this ancient industry “Lomekwian”. They wrote that it is about 700,000 years older than the Oldowan, the oldest tradition known until then. The makers struck flakes from a large stone and also used it for battering.

Before this discovery, the common view was that the first stone tools were made by members of our own genus, Homo, and that the invention was linked to climate change and the spread of open grasslands. According to the Lomekwi researchers, the environment there was relatively wooded, and the tools predate the appearance of Homo. The discovery therefore raises a new question about the older theory.

Oldowan: hammerstone, core and sharp flake

According to the Human Origins Program of the Smithsonian Institution in the United States, toolmaking had begun at least 2.6 million years ago. It is called the “Oldowan”, named after the famous Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. This simple kit had three parts: a hammerstone, bearing marks of blows on its surface; the large stone, or core, from which flakes were struck; and the sharp-edged flakes themselves, which were used for cutting.

In Kenya, tools about 2.3 million years old were found at Lokalalei. They were discovered in 1997 by a team led by Hélène Roche and Mzalendo Kibunjia. According to the Smithsonian, early humans used such tools for cutting, battering and pounding for more than two million years. With their help they could also obtain meat and bone marrow from large animals.

The handaxe: a deliberate design

The next major step was what experts call the “Acheulean”. According to a study published in Nature in 2011, these tools appear about 1.76 million years ago at Kokiselei 4, also in West Turkana. This was the oldest known evidence at the time. Older Oldowan-style tools were found alongside them at the same site, which shows that the two methods continued together for some time.

The Acheulean is recognised by the “handaxe”. According to the Smithsonian, a large flake was first struck off, and the piece was then shaped by removing small flakes from its edges. In other words, the maker had a design in mind beforehand. The tradition lasted for a remarkably long time and ended in different regions between about 400,000 and 250,000 years ago. The Smithsonian’s collection includes a handaxe from Isampur in South Asia, said to be about 1.1 million years old.

Riwat in Pothohar

Pakistan also figures in this debate. A British archaeological mission excavated at Riwat in the Soan river valley near Rawalpindi in 1983. Robin Dennell and colleagues wrote in the journal Antiquity in 1988 that the quartzite stone pieces found there were about two million years old. The claim carried the story of tools from Africa to the subcontinent.

The date has been debated among experts ever since. The objection is that the pieces were not found entirely in their original position, so their age is hard to determine. Another ancient stone industry, named after the same valley, is called the “Soanian”. Its traces are spread along the Siwalik hills in Pakistan, India and Nepal.

From tool to mind, and to today

According to the Smithsonian, the pace of new inventions quickened about 200,000 years ago. Points were made that could be tied to a wooden shaft to form a spear. Awls were made to pierce hides, and scrapers to scrape hides and wood. In later periods, bone, ivory and antler also became raw materials.

Stone tools are the most lasting witnesses of the past. According to the Smithsonian, they show where and when early humans lived, how they spread, and how skilled their hands and minds were.

The journey from stone to steel knife spans millions of years, but the basic idea is the same: using one hard object to cut or shape another. Later articles in this series will cover fire, the bow and arrow, the needle and clay pots. Behind all of them lies the same ability, whose first evidence was found at Lomekwi.