Stone tool finds could relocate human origins to North Africa
STONE tools used to butcher animals up to 2.4 million years ago have been found in Algeria, raising the prospect that East Africa may not have been the “cradle of mankind” as has long been believed.
The “significant” discovery suggests that modern humans were in North Africa at least 600,000 years earlier than previously thought. It was made by archeologists in Setif, some 200 miles east of Algiers, after 25 years of excavations.
The primitive tools closely resemble those called Oldowan, which until now have been mainly found in East Africa, the earliest examples dating back around 2.6 million years. They were used to skin and cut up animals.
Experts said the latest find, at a site called Ain Boucherit, could mean that hominin fossils and Oldowan artefacts as old as those documented in East Africa may yet be discovered in North Africa.
Prof Chris Stringer, an expert in human origins based at the Natural History Museum, said the discovery was “certainly significant in greatly extending the known range” of such evidence in Africa.
“Many of us are increasingly aware that our fossil evidence from Africa is largely based on the Rift Valley sedimentary basins in East Africa and the limestone cave fillings of South Africa, both of which are vying to represent the ‘Cradle of Humankind’,” he said.
No humans remains were found, meaning it is unknown which species of hominids were at the site, or what cousin of homo sapiens used the tools.