Discovery of 3.3 Million-Year-Old Stone Tools: Oldest Ever Found

The oldest stone tools ever discovered were unearthed at a 3.3-million-year-old archaeological site in West Turkana, Kenya, according to research published in 2015 in the journal, “Nature.” The authors described the find as “a new beginning to the known archaeological record,” as these stone tools predate those of the Oldowan toolkit by 700,000 years.

Archaeological excavations at a site called Lomekwi 3 commenced in 2011, when the first ancient artifacts were found.

In 2012, archaeological work continued. Even more discoveries were unearthed during this period, including according to the study. A total of 149 artifacts were excavated from the location.

Among the stone tools discovered were sharp flakes of stone, according to the research. Dating of the volcanic ash and minerals around the area helped to establish the age of the stone tools at 3.3 million years.

These stone artifacts predate the genus Homo, but the exact creators remain unknown, although numerous theories exist.

“There was a hominin called Kenyanthropus platyops, which has been found very close to where the Lomekwi 3 tools are being excavated. And that hominin was around at the time the tools were being made,” Dr. Nick Taylor, from the National Centre of Scientific Research in France and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands said, per the BBC.

“More widely, in the there is another hominin, Australopithecus afarensis, which is famously known from the fossil Lucy, which is another candidate,” Taylor also said, per the source.

This discovery raised numerous questions for researchers about the sophistication of these ancient species.

“It suggests that species like Australopithecus might have been intelligent enough to make stone tools – that they had the cognitive and manipulative abilities to carry tasks like this out,” said Dr. Ignacio de la Torre of University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, per BBC.

These 3.3-million-year-old stone tools are not the latest to be found in Kenya. In fact, a study published in February 2023 in the journal “Science” highlighted more , that were also among some of the world’s oldest.

Those particular tools date back 2.9 million years, with the intent of cutting up hippos for meat, the researchers reported in the study.

While these stone tools may not date back quite as far as the 3.3-million-year-old tools, the newer find fits more in line with the Oldowan tools that have appeared throughout Africa and other places throughout the world, Shannon McPherron, an archaeologist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who The Associated Press noted was not involved with the study, told the outlet.

These tools were made by holding a rock in one hand and then hitting it with another stone, causing sharp flakes to chip off, Kathy Schick of the Stone Age Institute in Indiana, who the Associated Press noted wasn’t involved in the research, told the outlet.

These particular tools were found at the Nyayanga site, during excavations that commenced in 2015.