Palab Goš
Function, BBC Science
The first humans on Earth, who lived several million years ago, may have been inventors, a discovery in northwestern Kenya suggests.
Researchers have discovered that primitive humans who lived 2,75 million years ago at the Namorotukunan archaeological site used stone tools continuously for 300.000 years.
Previous evidence suggested that tool use in the early stages of human evolution was sporadic, that tools developed randomly and were quickly forgotten.
The find at Namorotukunan is the first evidence to indicate that the technology was passed down for thousands of generations.
This discovery provides extremely strong evidence for a fundamental rethinking of our understanding of human evolution, says Professor David Brown of George Washington University in Washington, DC, who led the research published in the journal Nature. Nature Communications..
"We thought the use of tools could only be short-lived."
"But when we see the use of the same thing over 300.000 years, that's just not possible," says Professor Brown.
"This is a long continuum of behavior."
"Humans and their ancestors probably started using tools much earlier and have been using them for longer than we previously thought."
- A monk from Serbia and the world's decipherment of the Indus script
- Ela al-Shamahi on the BBC series Man: 'To understand who we are and where we come from'
- What 'Dedinje' looked like during the Roman Empire
Archaeologists spent 10 years at the Namorotukunanu site, where they discovered 1.300 sharp stone tablets, retouching stones, and worked stones, all of which were carefully carved.
These tools were made using a technology known as Olduvai (named after the Olduvai Gorge site in northern Tanzania), which represents the first widespread method of making stone tools in human history.
The same types of tools appear in three different soil layers, and the deeper the layer, the older the period it represents.
Each stone was carefully selected for its quality, indicating that the makers were skilled and knew exactly what they were looking for, explains Dr. Dan Palcu Rollier from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and a senior geoscientist on the research team.
"What we see here at the site is an incredible level of sophistication," he told BBC News.
“These people were extremely insightful geologists.
"They knew how to find the best raw materials, and these stone tools are exceptional."
"We can practically cut ourselves with some of them."
Geological evidence suggests that tool use likely helped these people survive dramatic climate changes.
The landscape has changed from lush wetlands to dry grasslands affected by fires and semi-desert, says Rahab N. Kinyanjui, a senior research associate at the National Museums of Kenya.
These major environmental changes would usually force animal populations to either evolve to adapt or leave the area.
But toolmakers in this region managed to survive using technology, not biological adaptation, explains Dr. Palku Rolier.
"Technology enabled these early inhabitants of the eastern Turkana Basin to survive in a rapidly changing environment, not by adapting, but by changing the ways they obtained food."
Evidence of stone tools in various layers shows that over a long and continuous period, these primitive people defied biological evolution, finding ways to control the world around them and not letting the world control them.
And this happened at the very beginning of the human race, points out Dr. Palku Rolijer.
"Tool use meant they didn't have to evolve by changing their own bodies to adapt to changes."
"Instead, they developed the technology they needed to get to food – tools to cut open animal carcasses and dig up plants."
There is evidence for this at the site itself: animal bones were found that were cut with these stone tools, which means that throughout all these changes, these early humans consistently used meat as a food source.
"Technology gave these early inhabitants an advantage," says Dr. Palku Rolier.
"They were able to access different types of food as the environment changed."
"Their food source was changing, but thanks to technology they were able to overcome these challenges and find new food sources."
Around 2,75 million years ago, this region was inhabited by some of the earliest humans, who had relatively small brains.
It is assumed that these early humans lived alongside their evolutionary ancestors - the Australopithecus, who had larger teeth and a combination of chimpanzee and human features.
The tool users at the Namorotukunanu site were most likely members of one of these groups, or perhaps both.
This discovery challenges the belief long held by many experts on human evolution that continuous tool use emerged much later, 2,4 to 2,2 million years ago, when humans had already developed relatively larger brains, explains Professor David Brown.
"The argument is that then there is a fairly significant increase in brain size."
"That's why it's often argued that tool use allowed them to 'feed' that large brain."
"But what we see in Namorotukunan is that these very early tools were used before brain size increased."
"We probably greatly underestimated these human ancestors."
"We can now trace the roots of our ability to adapt to change through technology much earlier than we thought - all the way back to 2,75 million years ago, and probably much earlier."
BBC is in Serbian from now on and on YouTube, follow us HERE.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube i Viber. If you have a topic suggestion for us, please contact bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
- Grand Egyptian Museum opens, Tutankhamun's entire tomb on display for the first time
- 4.000-year-old Egyptian handprint found
- DNA test from bone could reshape ancient Egyptian history
- Neanderthals as artists: What an ancient fingerprint reveals
- Gladiators did fight lions - here's the first proof
- Lost worlds emerging from glaciers
Bonus video:
