Selective use of distant stone resources by the earliest Oldowan toolmakers
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The adaptive shift that favored stone tool-assisted behavior in hominins began by 3.3 million years ago. However, evidence from early archaeological sites indicates relatively short-distance stone transport dynamics similar to behaviors observed in nonhuman primates. Here we report selective raw material transport over longer distances than expected at least 2.6 million years ago. Hominins at Nyayanga, Kenya, manufactured Oldowan tools primarily from diverse nonlocal stones, pushing back the date for expanded raw material transport by over half a million years. Nonlocal cobbles were transported up to 13 kilometers for on-site reduction, resulting in assemblage patterns inconsistent with accumulations formed by repeated short-distance transport events. These findings demonstrate that early toolmakers moved stones over substantial distances, possibly in anticipation of food processing needs, representing the earliest archaeologically visible signal for the incorporation of lithic technology into landscape-scale foraging repertoires.
Source: Science Advances
Authors: Emma M. Finestone, Thomas W. Plummer, Peter W. Ditchfield, Jonathan S. Reeves, David R. Braun, Simion K. Bartilol, Nelson Kiprono Rotich, Laura C. Bishop, James S. Oliver, Rahab N. Kinyanjui, Michael D. Petraglia, Paul S. Breeze, Cristina Lemorini, Isabella Caricola, Paul Owich Obondo, Richard Potts
Institutions: Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Queens College, CUNY, The Graduate Center, CUNY, National Museum of Natural History, New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, University of Oxford, George Washington University, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour, University of Algarve, University of Nairobi, Instytut Chemii i Techniki Jądrowej, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Illinois State Museum, National Museums of Kenya, Griffith University, The University of Queensland, King's College London, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Haifa
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
OpenAlex ID: W4413258025