Researchers: Tools from 2.6 million years ago have been found

Oldowan tools/WIKIPEDIA

Near the Lucy site:

That’s according to an analysis of 300 stone artefacts – including sharp-edged rock flakes and the rocks they have been chipped from, known as “cores” – published in the journal PNAS.

The new trove of artefacts was unearthed in Ethiopia’s Afar Basin, a region that rocketed to fame in 1974 when the 3.2-million-year-old remains of our ancient relative “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis) were discovered…

“By 2.6 million years ago, they were beginning to understand the relationship between the folk physics of where to strike something, and how hard to hit it, and what angles to select,” he says.

Dyani Lewis, “For those about to rock: the birthplace of humanity’s tool kit found” at Cosmos

Well, you have to start somewhere.

Paper. (paywall)

See also: Researchers: Early Human Toolkit (400 Kya) Showed Precision Toolmaking

and

Researchers: Complex Tools Don’t Show Ancient Humans Were Smart

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