Overview
- Published today in Nature Communications, the research identifies Namorotukunan in the Turkana Basin as one of the earliest and longest-lasting Oldowan sites, dated to roughly 2.75–2.44 million years ago.
- Across three horizons at about 2.75, 2.60, and 2.44 million years, researchers recovered more than 1,200 nearly identical artifacts that indicate sustained, learned toolmaking.
- Argon–argon dating of volcanic ash and paleomagnetic analysis, including the Gauss–Matuyama reversal, anchor the assemblages at the Pliocene–early Pleistocene boundary.
- Multi-proxy environmental data show a shift from wetlands to open, arid grasslands with frequent fires, yet the Oldowan toolkit remained consistent through these transitions.
- Cutmarks link the tools to meat processing, and deliberate selection of fine-grained stones such as chalcedony and jasper points to skilled raw-material choice and knowledge transmission.