Overview
- Excavations at Namorotukunan in Kenya’s Turkana Basin date Oldowan artifacts to roughly 2.75–2.44 million years ago.
- Three stratigraphic horizons yielded 1,290 stone tools and animal bones, with butchery marks directly tying the toolkit to meat consumption.
- Ages and environments were established using volcanic ash layers, magnetostratigraphy, geochemistry, and plant microfossils that track drying and frequent fires.
- Toolmakers repeatedly selected fine-grained rocks such as jasper and maintained similar fracture strategies while later Oldowan innovations are absent.
- The site documents unusually long-lived occupation compared with other early Oldowan locales, strengthening evidence for cultural continuity in the region.