<p>I just read this short article from Scientific American: <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/archaeologists-take-wrong-turn-find-world-s-oldest-stone-tools-update/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Archaeologists Take Wrong Turn, Find World's Oldest Stone Tools</a> about Sonia Harmand's discoveries. The last sentence is:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Harmand says the newly discovered tools are different enough from the early Oldowan implements to warrant a new name: the Lomekwian.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Earlier the article says:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The tools from Lomekwi 3 are quite large—larger than the stone tools from the site of Gona in Ethiopia that were previously the oldest on record and larger than the rocks that chimpanzees use to crack open nuts. According to Harmand, preliminary observations suggest that the Lomekwi toolmakers intentionally selected big, heavy blocks of very hard raw material from nearby sources even though smaller blocks were available. They used various knapping techniques to remove the sharp-edged flakes from the cores.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>How does the Lomekwi technique (ca. 3.3 mya) differ from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldowan" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Oldowan</a> (ca. 2.7 mya)? From Wikipedia:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>These early tools were simple, usually made with one or a few flakes chipped off with another stone.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Without any further details, the two techniques sound the same, and the size difference alone doesn't sound like enough to warrant a separate classification. What is so different about Lomekwi to not call it Oldowan?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-19T14:53:53.527Z
this may be helpful it is the original paper about the lomekwian tools https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14464
John
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-19T21:50:26.267Z
Thanks @John. The article is paywalled and only the first page is freely readable. The photos don't provide any clues without being able to read the rest of the article.
CJ Dennis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-04T22:10:14.323Z
Browsing that linked article, the best I can find is "The LOM3 assemblage could
represent a technological stage between a hypothetical poundingoriented stone tool use by an earlier hominin and the flaking-oriented
knapping behaviour of later, Oldowan toolmakers." So pounding vs. flaking?
Lance Pollard
<paleontology>
Why are Lomekwian tools considered different from Oldowan tools?
CJ Dennis
# Why are Lomekwian tools considered different from Oldowan tools?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-08-19)

I just read this short article from Scientific American: [Archaeologists Take Wrong Turn, Find World's Oldest Stone Tools](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/archaeologists-take-wrong-turn-find-world-s-oldest-stone-tools-update/) about Sonia Harmand's discoveries. The last sentence is:

> Harmand says the newly discovered tools are different enough from the early Oldowan implements to warrant a new name: the Lomekwian.

Earlier the article says:

> The tools from Lomekwi 3 are quite large—larger than the stone tools from the site of Gona in Ethiopia that were previously the oldest on record and larger than the rocks that chimpanzees use to crack open nuts. According to Harmand, preliminary observations suggest that the Lomekwi toolmakers intentionally selected big, heavy blocks of very hard raw material from nearby sources even though smaller blocks were available. They used various knapping techniques to remove the sharp-edged flakes from the cores.

How does the Lomekwi technique (ca. 3.3 mya) differ from [Oldowan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldowan) (ca. 2.7 mya)? From Wikipedia:

> These early tools were simple, usually made with one or a few flakes chipped off with another stone.

Without any further details, the two techniques sound the same, and the size difference alone doesn't sound like enough to warrant a separate classification. What is so different about Lomekwi to not call it Oldowan?

**Tags:** paleontology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: this may be helpful it is the original paper about the lomekwian tools https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14464  
> **username_0**: Thanks @username_1. The article is paywalled and only the first page is freely readable. The photos don't provide any clues without being able to read the rest of the article.  
> **username_2**: Browsing that linked article, the best I can find is "The LOM3 assemblage could represent a technological stage between a hypothetical poundingoriented stone tool use by an earlier hominin and the flaking-oriented knapping behaviour of later, Oldowan toolmakers." So pounding vs. flaking?  

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## 0 answers

