A look at the oldest stone tools ever discovered, dating back 3.3M years

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Archaeologists discover ring that's over 1,000 years old during dig

Archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen recently found an over 1,000-year-old ring during a volunteer dig near Burghead, Scotland. The university believes the Pictish ring means the "painted ones."

The oldest stone tools discovered were found in a 3.3-million-year-old archaeological site in West Turkana, Kenya, according to findings published in 2015 in the journal, "Nature." The authors called the find "a new beginning to the known archaeological record," as these stone tools predate those of the Oldowan toolkit by 700,000 years. 

Archaeological excavations of a site called Lomekwi 3 began in 2011, when the first ancient artifacts were found. 

In 2012, archaeological work continued. Even more finds were uncovered at this time, including stone tools and fossils, according to the study. There were a total of 149 artifacts excavated from the location. 

Researchers say the oldest stone tools were made before the earliest humans in the Homo genus. (Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

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Among the stone tools discovered were sharp flakes of stone, according to the research. Dating of the volcanic ash and minerals around the area helped to give the stone tools an age of 3.3 million years. 

These stone artifacts predate the genus Homo, but who exactly was responsible for their creation is unknown, though there are numerous theories.  

"There was a hominin called Kenyanthropus platyops, which has been found very close to where the Lomekwi 3 tools are being excavated. And that hominin was around at the time the tools were being made," Dr. Nick Taylor, from the National Centre of Scientific Research in France and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands said, per the BBC. 

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"More widely, in the East African region there is another hominin, Australopithecus afarensis, which is famously known from the fossil Lucy, which is another candidate," Taylor also said, per the source. 

This find begged many questions for researchers about the sophistication of these ancient species. 

A sculptor's rendering of Australopithecus afarensis, known from the fossil Lucy, is pictured above. The species is one that researchers have posed as the mysterious creator of the tools. (Dave Einsel/Getty Images)

"It suggests that species like Australopithecus might have been intelligent enough to make stone tools - that they had the cognitive and manipulative abilities to carry tasks like this out," said Dr. Ignacio de la Torre of University College London's Institute of Archaeology, per BBC. 

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These 3.3-million-year-old stone tools are not the latest to be found in Kenya. In fact, a study published in February 2023 in the journal "Science" highlighted more stone tools that were found in Kenya, that were also among some of the world's oldest. 

Those particular tools date back 2.9 million years, with the intent of cutting up hippos for meat, the researchers reported in the study. 

While these stone tools may not date back quite as far as the 3.3-million-year-old tools, the newer find fits more in line with the Oldowan tools that have appeared throughout Africa and other places throughout the world, Shannon McPherron, an archaeologist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who The Associated Press noted was not involved with the study, told the outlet. 

There have been several significant archaeological finds coming out of Kenya, particularly with the stone tools that have been found over the years. Pictured above are ones that were found in the Eastern Rift Valley, Kenya. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

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These tools were made by holding a rock in one hand and then hitting it with another stone, causing sharp flakes to chip off, Kathy Schick of the Stone Age Institute in Indiana, who the Associated Press noted wasn’t involved in the research, told the outlet. 

These particular tools were found at the Nyayanga site, during excavations that commenced in 2015.