February
10
/ 2023
A multi-year series of excavations at a site near Lake Victoria in Kenya unearthed a collection of Oldowan stone tools that are likely the oldest ever found on Earth, dating back to the Pliocene epoch (between 5.3 and 2.5 million years ago). According to the American and British researchers involved in the latest study of the recovered artifacts, these tools (estimated to be a bit under 3 million years old) would have been used to butcher deceased hippos and pound edible plant material into a more appetizing shape. Who, exactly, was doing the butchering and the pounding? Past studies of Oldowan artifacts, which represented a huge leap forward in toolmaking technology, have credited their creation and use to the forerunners
