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Earliest Stone Tools And Bones Site Discovered
Newswise ^ | 11-3-2003 | Southern Connecicut State University

Posted on 11/04/2003 4:11:26 PM PST by blam

Source: Southern Connecticut State University
Released: Mon 03-Nov-2003, 14:00 ET

Earliest Stone Tools and Bones Site Discovered

An assistant professor of anthropology has discovered the earliest direct evidence of stone tool manufacture and use in a controlled setting, in an excavation in Gona, Ethiopia. His research team dates the tools they found to 2.6 million years old.

Newswise — Michael Rogers, an assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Connecticut State University, has discovered the earliest direct evidence of stone tool manufacture and use in a controlled setting, in an excavation in Gona, Ethiopia. Rogers and his research team date the tools they found to 2.6 million years old. An article reporting their findings was published in the September 2003 issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.

Three years ago, Rogers was in Ethiopia working on a paleoanthropological research project in Gona, in an area that hadn’t been looked at before. He found a few flakes—tools that are pieces of stone chipped off of a larger stone—and began digging with a crew of experienced excavators. What they eventually discovered is a significant development in the field of paleoanthropology: the earliest stone tools and animal bones at the same site, clearly associated with each other, indicating early humans’ use of tools to provide food for themselves.

“This is the earliest site that really documents the two together,” says Rogers, adding, “There’s no question that they are associated with each other. Our ancestors were using the artifacts to process animal parts, which probably shows that humans were expanding their diets to include animals and were no longer largely vegetarians—they were becoming at least partly carnivorous.”

At the time of the discovery, Rogers was part of an international research team, the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project, led by Sileshi Semaw, Ph.D., an Ethiopian anthropologist working at CRAFT Research Center, Indiana University. Gona is in Ethiopia’s Awash Valley, nearly at sea level. This area was already known to have the earliest stone tools, and is adjacent to Hadar, where “Lucy,” probably the most famous hominid fossil yet to be discovered, was found in 1974.

Researchers on the Gona Project have found cutmarked bones before, says Rogers, but not in a controlled setting. The setting where he and his group made their discovery is an excavation area that is four meters wide by one meter deep. Several hundred artifacts were found in this area. “If this was the earliest site in the world, we expected things to be crude, but the tools appear to have been well made,” says Rogers. The tools they found “are incredibly fresh for their age,” he adds. “The condition of the site, for its age, is shocking.”

Rogers says the site is on the bank of a river and at one time was probably covered over when the river flooded and hasn’t been touched since. “This site is in pristine condition,” he says. “We know it hasn’t been moved.” The materials the researchers found are being kept at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.

Rogers and his colleagues found at the site diverse types of stone, indicating that the toolmakers were discriminating about the materials they chose to use. “Our ancestors had to know what kind of rock flakes the best,” says Rogers. “They chose only the rarest kinds of cobbles from the ancient stream bed nearby for their ‘flake-ability.’ They were being very selective.”

Rogers says that the group’s find shows the start of something that hasn’t yet stopped: human beings’ use of technology. “You can trace our technology use way back,” he says. “These stone tools show that our human ancestors were capable of creating something completely new and that they had an insight about what they were creating.”

In his anthropology classes, Rogers shows his students how flaking works, and then has them give it a try. To do it, one holds the core stone in one hand and a smaller stone in the other, and then hits the smaller stone against the core, with the goal of flaking pieces off. It’s not easy to do well, Rogers points out, so the earliest toolmakers must have had some kind of skill. “You have to make a glancing blow, at the right angle and with the right force. It requires good eye-hand coordination. And you have to choose the right kind of stone. All of this was abundantly evident at the site.”

In the field of the earliest archaeology, Rogers says, “everything is in Africa—there is nothing older anywhere else. People say it all the time: Africa is the cradle of humankind.”


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: archaeology; bones; discovered; earliest; economic; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; stone; tools
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To: Piltdown_Woman
What I have noticed is people who claim to be the most opened minded have only an overstuffed locked closet that you can't open with an atom bomb !

No imagination or creativity ... rote brainwashed loons who circulate like trained geniuses in the intelligentsia circuses --- dodo birds headed for the smithsonian !

Some graduate to conservatism unenlightened ... I call them --- rat's nest republicans !

41 posted on 11/05/2003 1:17:36 PM PST by f.Christian (( Alpha - Omega Design - Architecture ... designeduniverse.com --- Science3000 ! ))
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To: f.Christian
Ah, the infamous f.Christian. I might have known this was coming. I should feel offended I didn't get the nutty Primordial soup diagram. I don't even know where to begin. But you do have a unique prose style to say the least.
42 posted on 11/05/2003 1:35:05 PM PST by miloklancy
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To: miloklancy
Yeah ... I'm just playing for now with you all --- I have the big one coming -- for keepers !
43 posted on 11/05/2003 1:37:32 PM PST by f.Christian (( Alpha - Omega Design - Architecture ... designeduniverse.com --- Science3000 ! ))
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To: blam
2.6 million years and they were found only 1 meter deep?

44 posted on 11/05/2003 2:11:37 PM PST by oldcomputerguy
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To: f.Christian; All
f.Christian has decided that he'd rather part company than quit insulting everyone on FR he disagrees with.

So, part company we will.

Good bye, f.Christian.
45 posted on 11/05/2003 2:17:41 PM PST by Jim Robinson (Conservative by nature... Republican by spirit... Patriot by heart... AND... ANTI-Liberal by GOD!)
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To: stands2reason
I'm impressed it hasn't been touched in over 2 million years...

That's why people bury treasure. Of course, these sites to make it clear that one man's garbage is another's treasure.

46 posted on 11/05/2003 2:32:27 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch is der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: Lurking Libertarian
Patrick, hope its OK to borrow your ping list.

No problem. I was busy elsewhere most of the day. And it seems I missed a bit of excitement around here.

47 posted on 11/05/2003 2:56:07 PM PST by PatrickHenry
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To: miloklancy
"mideval superstitious religious non-sens"

You miss the point. It isn't religion that drives them, because belief or disbelief has not a heck of a lot to do with salvation of ones soul. Whether we were created by evolution or a sudden act, we still have to deal with the same questions, we still need the Ten Commandments, it is still bad to kill and steal and fornicate.

Unfortunately, what we are really seeing is people so fearful of looking at the world God gave us, that they have to claim everyone else is a sinner. It's quite sad, really. And as an engineer I actually believe there are ample mechanisms for intelligent design.

48 posted on 11/05/2003 3:26:29 PM PST by FastCoyote
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To: Jim Robinson
Bump.
49 posted on 11/05/2003 4:36:54 PM PST by DoctorMichael (Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.)
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To: blam
The tools they found “are incredibly fresh for their age,” he adds. “The condition of the site, for its age, is shocking.”

Maybe they ought to recalculate the age then.

50 posted on 11/05/2003 4:39:31 PM PST by Plutarch
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To: Plutarch
Damn! They have to reprint the textbooks again! Can't evo's get there facts straight before we spend the money on textbooks again?
51 posted on 11/05/2003 4:46:02 PM PST by chuckles
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To: blam
“They chose only the rarest kinds of cobbles from the ancient stream bed nearby for their ‘flake-ability.’

Naw...my ancestors used to joke about things "Made In Gona."

They took the easiest ones, because they were lazy. The stuff always broke...so years later, nobody even bothered scavenging the place (very hard for Muttlys to resist!).

Probably the derivation of the word "GONE."
52 posted on 11/05/2003 4:49:54 PM PST by PoorMuttly ("You cannot be a victim and a hero." - Hon. Clarence Thomas)
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To: FastCoyote
"You miss the point. It isn't religion that drives them, because belief or disbelief has not a heck of a lot to do with salvation of ones soul. Whether we were created by evolution or a sudden act, we still have to deal with the same questions, we still need the Ten Commandments, it is still bad to kill and steal and fornicate."

I agree. I have the 10 commandments on the wall in my bedroom...and, I used to have it displayed on a granite block in my state capitol.

53 posted on 11/05/2003 5:43:46 PM PST by blam
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To: f.Christian
That's a funny chart, but you ought to ease up a bit on the evo stuff, especially on this poster's threads.
54 posted on 11/05/2003 5:51:23 PM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
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To: RightWhale
Oh, I see the poster has departed. Nevermind.
55 posted on 11/05/2003 5:56:14 PM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
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P L A C E M A R K E R
56 posted on 11/05/2003 6:52:46 PM PST by PatrickHenry
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To: f.Christian
Hi Fletch.....

How's life in the fast lane.
57 posted on 11/05/2003 6:56:25 PM PST by bert (Don't Panic!)
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To: chuckles
You are ignorant of Science if you expect it to be static.
58 posted on 11/05/2003 8:51:46 PM PST by stands2reason (REWARD! Tagline missing since 10/21. Pithy, clever. Last seen in Chat. Sentimental value.)
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To: FastCoyote
I respect your believes, but the concept of God means nothing to me. I'm an atheist. All I ask is that you respect my beliefs and don't mingle the very separate worlds of mysticism and modern science. I don't think our society and goverment is too skewed towards Christians, like some atheists and agnostics do. I think it is just right. And I do think there is universal good in the Ten Commandments. I'm not on the side of controlling anyone's religous believes and I think anyone he is non-Christian, has to acknowledge and accept that our country was founded by Christians. But let us find common ground and respect one another instead of this zealous arrogance.
59 posted on 11/06/2003 7:53:21 AM PST by miloklancy
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To: miloklancy
zealous arrogance on FreeRepublic?
Surely you jest?
60 posted on 11/06/2003 7:59:28 AM PST by ASA Vet ("Right-wing Internet wacko")
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