A paper published in Nature describes the finding of the most ancient stone tools, and informs that they predate the genus "Homo". So it was not old Homo habilis who made the first tools. Instead it was made by some other hominin. The authors propose the name Lomekwian for this pre-Oldovan lithic technology.
Below are some photos, of the tools and the site (yes, like my previous post, this one too was inspired by news that I read today in bbc.com)
Lomekwian tools and the site. From BBC.com
The paper (can be read in full) is: Harmand, S. et al. 3.3 Million-Year-Old Stone Tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, published online May 21, 2015
It is an exciting find, pushing back the origin of tool making to the very first of our kin. But it also makes me wonder about the prejudice in science. Similar stones found in America, at the Calico site would be dismissed as geofacts, made by nature, flash floods knocking stones together in a desert environment. Nobody even suggests such an origin for African stones. After all, oldest hominin fossils come from Africa so any old chipped stone found in the area where these people lived must surely have been made by them.
Below are some stones from Calico (source)
They look man-made don't they? However they are considered as natural.
In America, on the other hand, we all know that Siberians migrated there some 15 kya after spending some time isolated in Beringia so anything found in America that does not resemble a modern Homo sapiens "advanced" tool is not even identified by those looking for stone tools (Mousterian, Acheulean or Oldovan tools are not considered when seeking stone tools in America).
We need scientists with an open mind, seeking the truth, not just seeing what they were taught to see...
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