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A look at ancient tools found in Turkana

Thursday February 24 2022
Kenyathropus platyops

The skull of Kenyathropus platyops, a hominin, found in Turkana. PHOTO | RUPI MANGAT

By RUPI MANGAT

The Lomekwi exhibition at the Nairobi Museum has me excited that I’m in the presence of the world’s oldest-known tools discovered in Turkana in northern Kenya.

Dated at 3.3 million years ago, the simple stone tools at first glance look nothing more than boring rocks.

The huge panels on the walls tell the story of the find: On July 9, 2011 the stone tools were discovered by archaeologists with the West Turkana Archaeological Project (WTAP) who lost their way when following a wrong dry riverbed.

The team then climbed a remote hill to scan the surroundings to find a way back to the main river channel. It motivated the team to fan out, in search of any fossils. A few hours later, Sammy Lokorodi the local Turkana team member, spotted what looked like an ancient stone tool. His discovery pushed back the stone tool technology back by 700,000 years.

An early ancestor, like Australopithecus africanus, that lived between 3.6 million and two million years ago and other Pleistocene hominins, may have been the manufacturers of these stone tools.

The site, known as Lomekwi 3, revealed 20 anvils, cores, flakes, and more tools.

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There are screens that show how the stone tools were made by knapping large, heavy blocks of stone, that is striking them purposely to shape by breaking off pieces.

“The technological inventions and innovations we see in our times are end products of a long journey that began around 3.3 million years ago when members of our early ancestors hit that first stone to produce flakes that they used to cut different things,” said Fredrick Manthi, a palaeontologist heading the prehistory section at the National Museums of Kenya and part of the team. Manthi also found a skull of Homo habilis at Turkana many years ago.

He continues. “Indeed Kenya is not only the home to our earliest ancestors but it is also the cradle of innovation.”

The Lomekwi exhibition at the Nairobi Museum is on until mid-March.

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