(New York) Archaeologists in Kenya have unearthed some of the oldest stone tools ever found, but it’s unclear who used them for sure.
Experts had assumed for a while that only our direct ancestors made tools. But two fossilized teeth found with the tools in Kenya belonged to an extinct human cousin, Paranthropus, according to the study published Thursday by the journal. Science.
This suggests that our direct Homo ancestors may not have been the only ones who knew how to make tools in the Stone Age, said the study’s author, researcher Rick Potts of the Human Origins program at the Smithsonian.
“These teeth are a real mystery,” he said. One wonders who were these ancient toolmakers? »
The tools were made about 2.9 million years ago, when early humans used them to skin hippos before eating them, the study said.
Stone tools made some 3.3 million years ago have already been found in Kenya, long before the emergence of our Homo ancestors. These tools were a bit simpler, and so far they’ve only been found in one place, said archaeologist Shannon McPherron of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.
The newest discovery is in line with the Oldowan tool tradition, Potts said. These tools have been found across Africa and elsewhere on a scale of over a million years, which speaks to their popularity.
Ancient humans held a stone in one hand and struck it with another, creating extremely sharp shards, explained anthropologist Kathy Schick of the Stone Age Institute in Indiana.
With these stones and shards, our ancestors could cut and crush many materials, said the study’s lead author, anthropologist Thomas Plummer of Queens College at City University of New York.
The site, known as Nyayanga, is an environment of green hills on the shores of Lake Victoria. Since excavations began in 2015, researchers have found large amounts of artefacts and animal bones there, in addition to the two teeth of Paranthropus.
Marks on several hippo bones show they had been cut up for their meat, which would have been eaten raw, Mr Plummer said. The first humans also probably used their tools to smash the bones of antelopes to extract the marrow, or to prepare tough roots, conclude the authors.
“Stone tools allow them, even so long ago, to extract a lot of resources from their environment,” said Plummer. If you can skin a hippo, you can skin pretty much anything. »
It was easy in the past to assume that our direct ancestors used these tools, he added. But the teeth don’t rule out that other ancient humans made their own tools, the researchers say — even extinct cousins like Paranthropus, with their big teeth and small brains.
The mystery will not be solved anytime soon.
It cannot be known, for example, whether Paranthropus used these tools, or whether he simply died, by chance, where they were, Ms.me Schick: “When you find hominid remains with stone tools, you always have to ask if it is the meal or the hunter. »