OUR ancient ancestors were churning out bone tools 1.5 million years ago – a million years earlier than we thought.
Dozens of tools belonging to the handy lot have been found, rewriting the history of humanity.
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They were discovered in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
It’s a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, and contains evidence of very early human occupation.
Until now, the standardised bone tools we’d found only dated back 500,000 years.
But the new discovery show that early hominins were “systematically” producing bone tools long before.
It included a tool shaped out of an elephant humerus. Elephant bones were brought to the site either as tools themselves, or as materials for making more tools.
And scientists also found tools shaped on-site from hippopotamus bones.
Eastern Africa is where some of the earliest evidence of tool use by the first Genus Homo ancestors have been found.
That includes the Oldowan culture, which is responsible for stone artefacts found at the Olduvai Gorge.
This culture is believed to have lived between 2.6 and 1.5 million years ago.
And they’re known for producing stone sharp flakes, which were made by striking two rocks against each other.
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This technological revolution then led to a new culture called the Acheuleans.
They lasted from 1.7 million years ago up until 150,000 years ago.
The group is well-known for their hand axes and “almond-shaped” stone artefacts, which would’ve required “remarkable technical ability”.
“Prior to our discovery, the technological transition from the Oldowan to the Acheulean was limited to the study of stone tools,” said Ignacio de La Torre, of the CSIC Instituto de Historia.
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Early humans saw the animals they lived with on the African savannahs as a hazard or competitors.
Scientists believe humans were “preys to cats and large birds”.
And humans would have to compete with hyenas and vultures to access carcasses.
Humans would also obtain protein from the bone marrow of prey leftovers that were abandoned by carnivores.
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A timeline of life on Earth
The history of the planet in years…
- 4.6 billion years ago – the origin of Earth
- 3.8 billion years ago – first life appears on Earth
- 2.1 billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve
- 1.5 billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge
- 550 million years ago – first arthropods evolve
- 530 million years ago – first fish appear
- 470 million years ago – first land plants appear
- 380 million years ago – forests emerge on Earth
- 370 million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land
- 320 million years ago – earliest reptiles evolve
- 230 million years ago – dinosaurs evolve
- 200 million years ago – mammals appear
- 150 million years ago – earliest birds evolve
- 130 million years ago – first flowering plants
- 100 million years ago – earliest bees
- 55 million years ago – hares and rabbits appear
- 30 million years ago – first cats evolve
- 20 million years ago – great apes evolve
- 7 million years ago –first human ancestors appear
- 2 million years ago – Homo erectus appears
- 300,000 years ago – Homo sapiens evolves
- 50,000 years ago – Eurasia and Oceania colonised
- 40,000 years ago – Neandethal extinction
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But this changed with the advent of tools.
“Our discovery indicates that, from the Acheulean period, no longer were animals only dangerous, competitors or just foodstuff,” de la Torre explained.
“But also a source of raw materials for producing tools.”
The research shows that the transition between the Oldowan and the early Acheulean was marked by East African hominins began using bone rather than just stone.
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“By producing technologically and morphologically standardized bone tools, early Acheulean toolmakers unravelled technological repertoires that were previously thought to have appeared routinely more than 1 million years later,” said de la Torre.
“This innovation may have had a significant impact on the complexification of behavioural repertoires among our ancestors.
“Including enhancements in cognition and mental templates, artefact curation and raw material procurement.”
The breakthrough research was published in the journal Nature.
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