Tools made by cutting-edge technology 3 million years ago were unearthed on the shores of Lake Victoria – Africa, not of Homo sapiens or any other species once called “human”.
According to Science Alert, the discovery comes from a site that began excavating in 2016 on the shores of Lake Victoria in Nyaanga – Kenya, with a design similar to the Oldowan tool – the earliest line of stone tools created by human hand.
“Human” here is not us Homo sapiens, but other cousins of the same genus Homo, species that are thought to have broken away from the world of hominids to become more advanced creatures
The analysis showed that the tools were made between 2.6 and 3 million years ago, including 330 items in all, found among 1,776 fossil animal bones showing signs of being slaughtered.
This date is further than that of the oldest Oldowan tools excavated previously, which are about 2.6 million years old.
But according to a team led by paleontologist Rick Potts from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, these tools suggest that Oldowan technology may not be human.
The tools have been dug up and restored – Photo: SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
They included items that could easily crush an elephant’s jaws and even a lion’s jaws with sharp fangs. Another set of tools that effectively remove meat from bones, extract bone marrow, and even grind plant materials.
This technology spread across Africa 2 million years ago. With a pre-dated 2 million years, the discovery of the Nyayanga site has helped extend the geographical reach of the technology down to 1,300 km to the southwest after years of being found only in Ethiopia’s Afar Triangle.
The most shocking thing from Nyaanga was that for the first time, they found what could have belonged to the owner of the toolkit – two molars, one intact, one broken.
An analysis to find out what species of the human genus it was gave the unexpected result: It was the hominid Paranthropus, a distant cousin of humans, not the genus Homo. Carbon isotope analysis of tooth enamel shows that this “person” is likely to have eaten dishes prepared with that arsenal of stone tools.
The genus Paranthropus is also in the tribe of Humans but is not considered “human”, but rather a form of hominid, which is completely extinct; while the genus Homo has one species left, which is us Homo sapiens.
The team concluded: Oldowan tools are often attributed to the genus Homo, but the overlapping existence of other hominids such as Paranthropus and now two teeth as evidence, suggests that humans are not the only ones. The most skilled at making stone tools, which help them eat more dishes.
Scientists are still analyzing more specimens and other things at this particular site to make a more specific claim. “Finding Paranthropus with these stone tools opens up a fascinating mystery,” said Dr Potts.
The preliminary study has just been published in the scientific journal Science.