by Lammii Guddaa, Ethiopia, January 1997
THEME = ANTHROPOLOGY
On 22 January 1997, scientists from Ethiopia and the United States announced the discovery in Gona, Afar region, of the of the oldest stone tools hitherto known. This is an area of Ethiopia, well known for the discovery of prehistoric human fossils
The Centre for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage of
Ethiopia (CRCCR), said that these tools had probably been made by
ancestral humans (homos) that lived between 2.5 to 2.6 million
years ago along ancient streams. A Paper issued by the Centre,
stated that "the presence of small patches of even earlier
stone tools at Gona, were known since the early 1970s, but their
age was not confirmed until March 1995".
Dr. J.W.K. Harris, co-author of the paper and chairman of
the anthropological department of Rutgers University, New Jersey
said: "Surprisingly, for this earlier date, the tool makers
had a clear understanding of producing sharp edged tools, an
ability which probably gave them a competitive advantage, in
exploiting a wide range of food sources in the ancient savanna
landscape".
Two of the 15 localities (archaeological excavation sites in Gona)
named EG10 and EG12 respectively, were systematically excavated in
1992, and another locality WG7 around Gona in 1994. The Gona
research team consists of ten scientists, geologists,
archaeologists and paleontologists. Members of the team are
planning to continue field work to search for hominid fossils,
animal fossils and plant remains, in order to identify the makers
of the earlier tool. "This is the oldest stone tool ever
found", says Dr.Sileshi Semaw, a member of the team.
Findings indicate, that ever since prehistoric man evolved into a
standing up human ancestor, it took prehistoric man about two
million years to fashion stones into sharp edged tool, by hitting
one on top of the other. This was considered to be a great leap
forward in the development of our human ancestors.
The Afar region of Ethiopia has been considered the most important
archaeological area, for undertaking genuine scientific research
into our human ancestors. In 1972, Donald C.Johanson was
first attracted to the area with his colleague, French geologist
Maurice Taieb. They found several places where fossilized
remains of many kinds of animals could be seen on the surface.
The African News Bulletin - ANB-BIA has reported
previous important finds in Ethiopia, in its issues numbers 258 and
267. Series of researchers have confirmed that human fossils found
in Ethiopia at different times, are by far the oldest of similar
remains found in other parts of the world. "Lucy", the
3.2 million year old partial skeleton, was discovered more than two
decades ago at Hadar (Afar region). 20 years later, an
international team of scientists from the Institute of Human Origin
(USA), Tel Aviv University, Israel and CRCCH (Ethiopia) announced
the discovery at Hadar of another fossil find and dated it as 4.4
million years old. Hadar site is the source of one of the largest
human ancestor fossil collections in the world with nearly 300
specimens of Lucy's species, excavated there since 1973.
END