The Original DIYAugust 13, 2015
The world’s oldest technology has been recently discovered in Kenya. Don’t just read about it: become the Ultimate Citizen Archaeologist on a private site tour of the world’s most important archaeological dig.
Finally, the answer to man’s oldest question.
Where did I leave that hammer?
The world’s oldest tools have been discovered in the midst of the region known as the Cradle of Civilization, by the arid shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya. The rudimentary worked rocks — man’s first invention and a vital link in our evolution – have proven to be some 700,000 years older than previously thought.
Within a layer of sediment dating to 3.3 million years in a dry riverbed and adjacent hill, the discovery was made by Dr Sonia Harmand, research associate professor at Stony Brook University in New York, and Dr Jason Lewis, co-leader of the project. Their discovery changes the timeline of early human technology, signaling what is being called a new beginning to the known archaeological record.
The area known as Lomekwi 3 is an archaeological gold mine: From this same site, in 1999 a team of fossil hunters working with Meave and Louise Leakey unearthed a 3.5-million-year-old skull believed to belong to a new branch of early human named Kenyanthropus platyops. Our ancestors Kenyanthropus — or possibly australopithecines — were making these stone tools as early as 3.3 million years ago.
Until now, the earliest known stone tools were known as Oldowan, named for the first examples discovered more than 80 years ago by celebrated paleoanthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, about 600 miles from the Lake Turkana, Kenya site. The “latest” tools have earned their own moniker, Lomekwian, for the archaeological site Lomekwi 3.
At Lake Turkana today, the Leakey Family legacy lives on. The Leakey Family established and built the Turkana Basin Institute (TBI), where the field research stations form part of a continuous presence of intensive fieldwork, data collection and specimen study by many scientists. Meave and Louise Leakey’s (daughter and granddaughter of Louis and Mary) continue to run their own research expeditions from these field centres, making new and important discoveries with their team.
“This vast region,” according to Louise Leakey, “is undoubtedly the best field laboratory for studying our past.”
In the spirit of continuing discoveries, Louise Leakey will soon launch a platform that will allow citizen scientists participate in the search. It is called fossilfinder.org. And a further peak into the laboratories at Turkana Basin Institute can be found at Louise’s site, AfricanFossils.org.
And of course, nothing beats getting up close and personal with a visit to the archeological site that’s rocking the world.
“Micato’s unique connection with Louise Leakey allows for us to plan an excursion to the Turkana Basin area that is unlike any other,” explains Liz Wheeler, CEO of Micato Safaris in East Africa. “On the Northern Frontier Expedition, Micato guests see the dig sites and spend time with the knowledgeable team there, learning about human history in the place where it all began.”
“How many people have the chance to live the life of a modern-day Indiana Jones in the most exciting setting possible?”
Learn more about visiting the site of the Leakey Excavations at Turkana Basin. Contact our team of Safari Experts at 1-800-642-2861.