East Africa is famously the birthplace of humankind and the location where our ancient hominin ancestors first invented sophisticated stone tools. This suggests that human ancestors spread to the region much earlier than previously thought or that the stone tool technology was simultaneously invented by earlier hominin species living outside east Africa. However, it is not known for sure which hominin species first created Oldowan tools – potentially Australopithecus or Homo habilis. The stone tools are very similar to those of early Oldowan sites in East Africa. But we have only ever found early Oldowan tools in the east African rift valley before, more than 4,000km away.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 29, 2018 19:18 UTC