HOMO FABER

Splitting stones 3.3 million years ago!

This volcanic rock, named phonolite, deliberately fractured to obtain a sharp blade, is for the time being the oldest manmade tool.

Lomekwi 3 archaeological site, West Turkana, Kenya, 3.3 million years old.

Stone tool discovered at Lomekwi 3, west of Lake Turkana (Kenya), dating back to 3.3 million years ago.
Kenya National Museums Collection, Nairobi
Photo: Vincent Lesbros – FERRASSIE TV

To put things in context, you have to imagine our primate ancestors living in Africa 4 million years ago along with numerous other massive animal species: proboscidians, rhinocerotoidea, hippopotamids, giraffids, equids, bovids, suids, carnivores and a number of reptiles, crocodilians and tortoises. Amongst all these colossal vertebrates, some of these primates began to experiment with flint knapping.

Original fossils and casts of some of the large vertebrates our primate ancestors used to live with in Africa some 4 million to 1 million years ago.
Kenya National Museums Collection, Nairobi
Photo: Vincent Lesbros – FERRASSIE TV

Traces of teeth of this giant-sized crocodile, which could be up to 10 metres long, have been found on Homo habilis bones, said to be 1.9 million years old and retrieved at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

Ramasuchus lloydi tooth, extinct genus of giant crocodile.
Lomekwi 3 archaeological site, West Turkana, Kenya
Kenya National Museums Collection, Nairobi
Photo: Vincent Lesbros – FERRASSIE TV

We may speculate that when they made the very first tools they were thinking of steadily dominating nature and taking over the planet. In actual fact, at the outset, they were just wanting to live a better life in a thriving biodiversity.

Prehistoric « tool kit » including nucleuses, flakes, hammerstones and anvils.
Lomekwi 3 archaeological site, West Turkana, Kenya
Kenya National Museums Collection, Nairobi
Photo: Vincent Lesbros – FERRASSIE TV

The first stone tools 3.3 million years ago

The first stonecutters, the first artisans, fractured volcanic rocks, phonolite and basalt to produce sharp flakes.

This was 3.3 million years ago on the west bank of Lake Turkana, in Africa, in Kenya.

In terms of age, the former record breaking find had been “pebble tools”, said to be 2.6 million years old, discovered at Gona in Ethiopia in 1976 by the same team, directed at the time by Hélène Roche.

Carrying on with their research work, this French mission, now headed by Hélène Roche’s disciple, Sonia Harmand, has pushed the stone tool timeline back a further 700,000 years thanks to these new discoveries made in 2011 and 2012 whilst working on the West Turkana Archaeological Project.

Pierre-Jean Texier, a high-ranking lithic expert, one of the scientific commissioners of the HOMO FABER exhibition, with his light blue eyes and his warm smile, clearly explains just how important these objects are: flakes, nucleuses, hammerstones and anvils.

Pierre-Jean TEXIER, Director Emeritus for research at the CNRS – UMR 7269, Laboratoire méditerranéen de Préhistoire, Europe-Afrique, LAMPEA, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University.

The creator of the oldest tools on earth

Science is moving forward and its vocabulary is expanding accordingly. Like on the banks of Lake Turkana, in Kenya, during the period corresponding to the oldest tools to date (3.3 million years), they have now found the remains of a Kenyanthropus platyops and those of several Australopithecus afarensis. They are arguably those volcanic “rockcutters” who knew the way to obtain sharp flakes.

As such, they belong to the « hominin » family, a new term assembling the Kenyanthropus platyops, the Australopithecus and the various species of the Homo genus.

It remains to be seen whether one should create a genus apart for the one Kenyanthropus that has been discovered. Would it not be more judicious to place it in the Australopithecus family which was later to reveal the famous “Lucy” (3.18 million years old)?

Once again, Pierre-Jean Texier’s analysis is crucial.

The cranium of Kenyanthropus platyops, discovered west of Lake Turkana in Kenya, said to be between 3.5 and 3.2 million years old. The only representative of the Kenyanthropus species – quite likely Australopithecus afarensis.

Serial production 2.3 million years ago

A million years on, percussion flaking began to evolve. On reassembling the original little blocks, it became obvious that the latter had been carefully selected. These nucleus were swiftly split to give successive series of two to five flakes, so as to consistently preserve the original geometry. Let’s hear Pierre-Jean Texier talking about all this.

Remains from which the scientists have been able to assemble “a whole”. Lokalalei Site 2C, West Turkana, Kenya, 2.3 million years.

Around 1.8 million years ago, the stonecutters at Kokiselei 5, west of Lake Turkana in Kenya, began selecting hard rocks suitable for cutting, no longer caring much about their original morphology. Their “strike strategies” progress to reorientate and maximise the output. Around 1.8 million years ago, on the Kokiseilei 4 site, pickaxes, uniface blades and biface tools were crafted out of large pebbles or phonolite slabs thinned down by the stonesplitting technique. A new cutting method: ground-breaking carving!

Pickaxes, uniface blades and biface tools crafted with a stonehammer.
Kokiselei Site 4, West Turkana, Kenya, 1.7 million years old.
Kenya National Museums Collection, Nairobi
Photo: Vincent Lesbros – FERRASSIE TV

In the south of Caucasia, the Dmanisi Site in Georgia has revealed a large number of human remains which, as yet, appear to be the oldest traces of the genus Homo outside the African continent. So, the HOMO FABER exhibition completes the collections from Africa, adding the ones from Dmanisi, coming from the National Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi.

Sophie Cattoire
Translated into English by Valérie Saraben

Cranium and jaw of Dmanisi hominins - Homo erectus georgicus - Dmanisi, Georgia, 1.8 million years old
Georgia National Museum Colllection.
This skull that, as yet, remains the oldest vestige of the genus Homo in Eurasia, indicates that Caucasia was one of our ancestors’ first destinations when they left their African home.
Photo : Sophie Cattoire - FERRASSIE TV

HOMO FABER

2 MILLION YEARS OF STONE TOOL HISTORY
From Africa to the gateways of Europe

On display at the Musée National de Préhistoire in les Eyzies until 29 November 2021.

Director of the Musée National de Préhistoire
Nathalie Fourment

Commissioner-General for the exhibition
Jean-Jacques Cleyet-Merle
Scientific experts
Jean-Philip Brugal
Ana Mgeladze
Pierre-Jean Texier

Guided tour HOMO FABER