2.4-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools, Cutmarked Bones Found in Algeria

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has uncovered 2.4-million-year-old stone artifacts and cutmarked bones at the archaeological site of Ain Boucherit in Algeria. The discovery, reported in the journal Science, suggests that humans’ ancestors inhabited the Mediterranean fringe in North Africa much earlier than previously thought. The Ain Boucherit evidence also argues for early spread of stone tool manufacture and use from East Africa, or a possible multiple origin scenario of stone technology in both East and North Africa.

A stone tool from Ain Boucherit, Algeria. Image credit: Sahnouni et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aau0008.

A stone tool from Ain Boucherit, Algeria. Image credit: Sahnouni et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aau0008.

East Africa is widely considered to be the birthplace of stone tool use by our ancient hominin ancestors — the earliest examples of which (Oldowan stone tools) date as far back as about 2.6 million years ago.

Similar examples of stone tool manufacture and use have been identified in Ain Hanech and El Kherba, Algeria, dating to nearly 1.8 million years old and generally considered to be the oldest archaeological materials in North Africa.

The research team, led by Dr. Mohamed Sahnouni, an archaeologist at Indiana University, CENIEH (Spain) and CNRPAH (Algeria), explored the nearby deposits at Ain Boucherit, located in the High Plateaus of eastern Algeria, and reports evidence of Oldowan stone tools and butchered bones from two distinct deposits estimated to be about 1.9 and 2.4 million years old, respectively.

The assemblages contained stone tool manufacturing lithic debris similar to that recovered from the earliest sites in East Africa.

Additionally, fossil bones, many showing the hallmark V-shaped gouges and microscopic chipping that suggest butchery and marrow extraction by stone, were also found.

“The Ain Boucherit stone tools were manufactured of locally available limestone and flint and include faces worked into choppers, polyhedra and subspheroids, as well as sharp-edged cutting tools used to process animal carcasses,” the researchers said.

“These artifacts are typical of the Oldowan stone technology known from 2.6-1.9 million-year-old sites in East Africa, although those from Ain Boucherit show subtle variations.”

“The lithic industry of Ain Boucherit, which is technologically similar to that of Gona and Olduvai, shows that our ancestors ventured into all corners of Africa, not just East Africa,” Dr. Sahnouni said.

“The evidence from Algeria changes the earlier view that East Africa was the Cradle of Humankind. Actually, the whole of Africa was the Cradle of Humankind.”

At this moment, the most important question is who made the Ain Boucherit stone tools.

“Hominins contemporary with Lucy (3.2 million years old) probably roamed the Sahara, and their descendants might have been responsible for leaving these archaeological puzzles now discovered in Algeria, that are near contemporaries of those of East Africa,” Dr. Sahnouni said.

“Future research will focus on searching for human fossils in the nearby Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene deposits, looking for the tool-makers and even older stone tools.”

_____

Mohamed Sahnouni et al. 1.9-million- and 2.4-million-year-old artifacts and stone tool–cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria. Science, published online November 29, 2018; doi: 10.1126/science.aau0008

About Skype

Check Also

, Prehistoric New Guineans, #Bizwhiznetwork.com Innovation ΛI

Prehistoric New Guineans

As early as 18,000 years ago, early foragers in the montane rainforests of New Guinea …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Bizwhiznetwork Consultation