2.75-million-year-old stone tools may
mark a turning point in human evolution
We may be seeing when our ancestors first defied a hostile world—same tools, same place, for ~300,000 years despite climate chaos
WASHINGTON (Nov. 4, 2025)--Imagine early humans meticulously crafting stone tools for nearly 300,000 years, all while contending with recurring wildfires, droughts, and dramatic environmental shifts. A recent study, published in Nature Communications, brought to light remarkable evidence of enduring technological tradition from Kenya’s Turkana Basin.
An international multi-center research team has uncovered at the Namorotukunan Site one of the oldest and longest intervals of early Oldowan stone tools yet discovered, dating from approximately 2.75 to 2.44 million years ago. These artifacts—essentially the earliest multi-purpose Swiss Army knives crafted by hominins—demonstrate that our ancestors not only survived but thrived throughout one of the most environmentally volatile periods in Earth’s history.
“This site reveals an extraordinary story of cultural continuity,” said lead author David R. Braun, a professor of anthropology at the George Washington University. He is also affiliated with the Max Planck Institute. “What we’re seeing isn’t a one-off innovation—it’s a long-standing technological tradition.”
“Our findings suggest that tool use may have been a more generalized adaptation among our primate ancestors,” adds Susana Carvalho, director of science at the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and senior author of the study.
“Namorotukunan offers a rare lens on a changing world long gone—rivers on the move, fires tearing through, aridity closing in—and the tools, unwavering. For ~300,000 years, the same craft endures—perhaps revealing the roots of one of our oldest habits: using technology to steady ourselves against change,” said Dan V. Palcu Rolier, corresponding author and a senior scientist at GeoEcoMar, Utrecht University and the University of São Paulo.
Key Findings
Tech Mastery Over Hundreds of Millennia: Early hominins engineered sharp-edged stone tools with extraordinary consistency, showing advanced skill and knowledge passed down across countless generations—a steady legacy.
Cutting-Edge Science with Ancient Rocks: Using volcanic ash dating, magnetic signals frozen in ancient sediments, chemical signatures of rocks, and microscopic plant remains, researchers pieced together an epic climatic saga that provides context for understanding the role of technology in human evolution.
Thriving in the Face of Climate Chaos: These toolmakers lived through radical environmental upheavals. Their adaptable technology helped unlock new diets, including meat, turning hardship into a survival advantage.
What The Experts Say
On the ground, the craft is remarkably consistent: “These finds show that by about 2.75 million years ago, hominins were already good at making sharp stone tools, hinting that the start of the Oldowan technology is older than we thought,” said Niguss Baraki at the George Washington University.
The butchery signal is clear as well:“At Namorotukunan, cutmarks link stone tools to meat eating, revealing a broadened diet that endured across changing landscapes,” said Frances Forrest at Fairfield University.
“The plant fossil record tells an incredible story: The landscape shifted from lush wetlands to dry, fire-swept grasslands and semideserts,” said Rahab N. Kinyanjui at the National Museums of Kenya / Max Planck Institute. “As vegetation shifted, the toolmaking remained steady. This is resilience.”
The paper, “Early Oldowan technology thrived during Pliocene environmental change in the Turkana Basin, Kenya,” was published Nov. 4 in Nature Communications.
ABOUT THE STUDY: This research was led by an international team of archaeologists, geologists, and paleoanthropologists from institutions in Kenya, Ethiopia, the United States, Brazil, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Fieldwork was carried out under the guidance of the National Museums of Kenya and with the support of the Daasanach and Ileret communities.
FUNDING AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This research was carried out with permission from the National Museums of Kenya and Kenya’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, and in partnership with the Koobi Fora Field School. Funding was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation the Leakey Foundation, the Palaeontological Scientific Trust, the Dutch Research Council, the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research.
Journal
Nature Communications
Article Title
Early Oldowan technology thrived during Pliocene environmental change in the Turkana Basin, Kenya
Article Publication Date
4-Nov-2025
2.75-million-year-old stone tools show hominin response to a hostile climate
Tools recovered from three sedimentary layers in Kenya show continuous tool use spanning from 2.75 to 2.44 million years ago in the face of environmental changes.
University of Arkansas
image:
Amelia Villaseñor, assistant professor of anthropology
view moreCredit: University Relations
Someone born near the start of the 20th century could have witnessed the dawn of commercial flight, the creation of nuclear weapons, the moon landing and even the early growth of the internet. Technology did not always progress so fast, however, especially not for hominins, our distant human ancestors. In fact, despite major environmental change, a tool technology roughly equivalent to a Swiss army knife was associated with hominin occupation for more than 300 thousand years.
New findings out of Kenya by an international team of researchers, including Amelia Villaseñor, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas, reveal profound consistency in the use of stone tool technology over time. Stone tools recovered from three distinct layers of the Turkana Basin, representing three time periods, show a tradition of continuous tool use spanning roughly 300,000 years, from 2.75 to 2.44 million years ago. This dates the tools to close to the beginnings of Oldowan technology, the earliest widespread stone-tool tradition made by striking flakes off a stone core to create sharp cutting edges.
The tools were recovered from a site on the northeast side of Lake Turkana called Namorotukunan, which preserves three discrete layers dated to about 2.75, 2.60, and 2.44 million years ago. These layers each preserve different snapshots of environmental conditions from humid floodplains to arid riverine settings. This is the earliest Oldowan record yet reported from the Koobi Fora Formation and among the oldest worldwide.
David R. Braun, at professor of anthropology at George Washington University and the Max Planck Institute, who led the study, said the site “reveals an extraordinary story of cultural continuity.”
Villaseñor describes herself as a paleoecologist. She studies paleoenvironments by looking at non-hominin fossils, such as animals or plants, to gain insight into the environments in which fossils lived. For this study, Villaseñor analyzed pedogenic carbonates. These small nodules provide signals from ancient plant roots found in the soil from which stable isotope signals can be identified.
“Put simply, these signals tell us whether there were grasses or whether there were trees,” she explained.
More importantly, this research can also tell us whether the environment changed over time. In fact, field and lab work from Villaseñor and her colleagues confirmed that hominin tool use weathered major climate swings over the 300,000-year period of the study. Plant microfossils, plant chemistry and traces of natural fires, along with chemical and magnetic properties of the ancient river muds and sands, show habitats shifted from palm-dotted wetlands to drier, open grasslands and semideserts, yet the toolmaking persisted.
“I try to relate changes in the environment to changes in behavior,” Villaseñor said. “In Ethiopia, the oldest stone tools were recovered during an arid period. The fact that these early stone tools in Kenya are found in sites that preserve everything from micro charcoals — potentially representing fire — to droughts, and other signs of aridity is fascinating. It connects tool use and environmental change across eastern Africa in a really interesting way. Hominins likely utilized stone tools to access new resources to survive.”
The study shows that toolmakers preferred a raw material called chalcedony, a rare and tough, fine-grained stone, pointing to deliberate material choice and practiced skill. Cut-marked bones, especially those dated to around 2.58 million years ago, link the flaked stones directly to butchery, marking an early shift toward animal foods.
“Namorotukunan offers a rare lens on a changing world long gone — rivers on the move, fires tearing through, aridity closing in — and the tools, unwavering,” said Dan V. Palcu Rolier, a geoscientist with the University of São Paulo and GeoEcoMar who was a co-author on the paper. “For approximately 300,000 years, the same craft endures — a declaration of independence that may mark when technology first put our ancestors at the helm of their evolution.
As the landscape dried, rivers may have become predictable lifelines, providing water, raw materials and feeding opportunities. Early hominins kept returning to these ancient rivers, accessed food using Oldowan technology, and left behind the more than 1,200 artifacts found today.
Ultimately, Namorotukunan reveals an enduring tradition, not a moment: human ancestors made the same types of tools for hundreds of thousands of years.
“This study, linking a simple tool kit to human ingenuity, reminds us that our ancestors have successfully confronted and survived environmental challenges,” Villaseñor suggested. “We can survive whatever the future throws at us; we may just need to look into the ancient past.”
Journal
Nature Communications
Method of Research
Imaging analysis
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Early Oldowan technology thrived during Pliocene environmental change in the Turkana Basin, Kenya
Article Publication Date
4-Nov-2025
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