Tool usage is one of the things that set humans apart from most of the animal kingdom, and 20 years ago, it was believed that a "human revolution" of skill and innovation happened among early humans about 50,000 years ago, along with symbolism and art. New findings in Kenya suggest that such developments may have occurred significantly earlier than believed and possibly due to environmental changes.
Tools From The Kenya Site
In three studies, researchers who studied evidence from the Olorgesailie Basin in Kenya map out a possibly new understanding of when human ancestors began innovating and how this change may not have been as gradual as earlier believed.
In one study, researchers detailed some of their incredible findings, one of which are 300,000-year-old paleo-crayons or black pigments that were not locally sourced but instead imported, suggesting that trade with other hunter-gatherer groups possibly occurred. Furthermore, they also found traces of obsidian tools and weapons at the site but no local source for it, again suggesting a trade situation especially since there were also other groups living at the nearest possible obsidian source.
Forced Innovation
Another study reviewed the site's sediments and soil samples and revealed how the environmental changes at the time might have pushed early humans into going farther and searching for more stable food and water supplies. Evidently, from being a stable system, environmental changes turned the region into an unstable location where food and water sources became unpredictable and many grazing animals went extinct.
This counters the previous assumption of a gradual change as a result of slowly expanding grasslands in Africa and replaces it with a vision of groups of early humans who had to quickly adapt to their changing environment. Further, the findings also suggest that such changes led to a lifestyle wherein they always needed to be on the move resulted in the development of smaller and lighter tools.
Acheulean To Middle Stone Age
Such a change in tools and tool-making marks the beginning of the Middle Stone Age from the Acheulean, and it was previously believed to have begun about 280,000 years ago. However, evidence shows that while most hominids in Africa kept the old tools that they were using, those in East Africa were already making the transition. As the oldest evidence of the Middle Stone Age among hominid tools, this suggests that the transition may have occurred between 305,000 and 320,000 years ago.
A third study details the dating of the sites based on argon and uranium dating methods.
