The artifacts were found at the archaeological site Lomekwi 3 on the western shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. They show that at least one group of ancient hominin started intentionally ‘knapping’ stones to make sharp tools long before previously thought. “These tools shed light on an unexpected and previously unknown period of hominin behavior, and can tell us a lot about cognitive development in our ancestors that we can’t understand from fossils alone. Our finding disproves the long-standing assumption that Homo habilis was the first tool maker,” said Dr Harmand, lead author of a paper published in Nature. Homo habilis was always thought to have been the first tool makers when they were discovered by the Leakey's and classified in the 1960's, after their tools were first discovered by the Leakey's in the 1930's in the Olduvai Gorge. Homo habilis, "handy man", were associated with the tools they made. It was assumed that the making and use of stone tools started with them. “Conventional wisdom in human evolutionary studies since has supposed that the origins of knapping stone tools was linked to the emergence of the genusHomo, and this technological development was tied to climate change and the spread of savannah grasslands,” said co-author Dr Jason Lewis of Stony Brook University. “The premise was that our lineage alone took the cognitive leap of hitting stones together to strike off sharp flakes, and that this was the foundation of our evolutionary success.” This new discovery throws a spanner in the works. Simply because these larger stone tools predate Homo habilis by at least one million years. The newly-discovered tools are much larger than later Oldowan tools. “And we can see from the scars left on them when they were being made that the techniques used were more rudimentary, requiring holding the stone in two hands or resting the stone on an anvil when hitting it with a hammerstone,” Dr Harmand said. “Some of the gestures involved are reminiscent of those used by chimpanzees when they use stones to break open nuts.” The study of the Lomekwi 3 artifacts suggest they could represent a transitional technological stage – a missing link – between the pounding-oriented stone tool use of a more ancestral hominin and the flaking-oriented knapping of later, Oldowan toolmakers. “I have no doubt that these aren’t the very first tools that hominins made,” Dr Harmand said. “They show that the knappers already had an understanding of how stones can be intentionally broken, beyond what the first hominin who accidentally hit two stones together and produced a sharp flake would have had. I think there are older, even more primitive artifacts out there.” “The Lomekwi 3 stone tools join cut-mark evidence from Dikika in pushing the origins of stone cutting tools back to almost 3.5 million years ago. This raises new questions about the differences between stone tools made by earlier hominins and those by recent humans. The really interesting scientific question is, What pushed early hominins to make stone tools at that place and at that point in time? What were they doing with the tools?” said Prof John Shea of Stony Brook University, who was not involved in the study. “The capabilities of our ancestors – and the environmental forces – leading to early stone technology are a great scientific mystery. The modified stones from Lomekwi begin to lift the veil on that mystery, at an earlier time than expected. Researchers have thought there must be some way of flaking stone that preceded the simplest tools known until now. Dr Harmand’s team shows us just what this even simpler altering of rocks looked like before technology became a fundamental part of early human behavior,” said Dr Rick Potts of Smithsonian Institution.
Many inventions are ahead of their time, with prototypes often appearing, way before it catches on. For example, the Romans had already invented a steam engine, but it took 1800 years before this useful invention would be ready for prime time. The primitive fear of novelty often makes the future have to wait, until necessity appears. If it is not broken, don't even try to fix it. If you look at the using and making of stone tools, both actions copy the working of the jaw and teeth. We have one moving jaw (tool) and one fixed jaw (big flat rock). Both can be used to crush things, so we can eat them; nuts and clams. Stone tools were an extrapolation of the human and/or animal jaw. Like the steam engine, these first artifacts may have been way ahead of its time. This invention will not catch on if there is plenty of soft food. The necessity for this invention makes more sense, only after the food supply starts to get gnarlier. Then necessity is the mother of invention; bigger teeth to pre-chew. Dogs can and will chew points to sticks. Humans could originally find and collect such sticks in their wanderings, even without fabrication tools; natural tool. As the demand for sticks increases, someone needed to invent the artificial dog jaws, with even stronger teeth. Before this need appears, this would be taboo and very scary; he is a witch. The finding of large stone tools, shows this early prototype was coping a large animal. It would need to be an animal that was easy to observe, who had access to a tasty food supply.
It could. The timing would fit. But by the looks of it, stone tools could have been made and used prior to this as well, because this showed a practiced use of tools to craft it. It may have been basic, but this is something that did take some skill.
