The origins of stone tool technology in Africa: a historical perspective

The search for the earliest stone tools is a topic that has received much attention in studies on the archaeology of human origins. New evidence could position the oldest traces of stone tool-use before 3.39 Myr, substantially earlier than previously documented. Nonetheless, the first unmistakable e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences 2011-04, Vol.366 (1567), p.1028-1037
Main Author: de la Torre, Ignacio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa
African culture
Anthropology, Cultural
Archaeological paradigms
Archaeology Of Human Origins
Australopithecines
Australopithecus
Biological Evolution
Early Pleistocene
Empirical evidence
Evolution
History Of Palaeoanthropology
History of technology
History, Ancient
Humans
Oldowan
Raw materials
Stone Tools
Technology - history
Time Factors
Tool Use Behavior
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Summary:The search for the earliest stone tools is a topic that has received much attention in studies on the archaeology of human origins. New evidence could position the oldest traces of stone tool-use before 3.39 Myr, substantially earlier than previously documented. Nonetheless, the first unmistakable evidence of tool-making dates to 2.6 Ma, the period in which Oldowan assemblages first appear in the East African record. However, this is not an unchangeable time boundary, and considerations about the tempo and modo of tool-making emergence have varied through time. This paper summarizes the history of research on the origins of stone knapping in Africa and places the current evidence in a historical perspective.
ISSN:0962-8436
1471-2970
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2010.0350