History › Human origins › First hominins: apes that walk upright
First stone tools
c. 3.3 million years ago (Lomekwi, Kenya)· Invention or discovery· Life & early humans
Mostly agreedGood evidence; some details, dates or numbers uncertain.
Hominins in East Africa began striking sharp flakes from stones at least 3.3 million years ago, before our genus Homo existed.
See it on the History map →What happened
The oldest known tools, from Lomekwi 3 near Lake Turkana in Kenya, are heavy cores and flakes about 3.3 million years old, published in 2015. From about 2.6 million years ago the simple 'Oldowan' kit of sharp flakes spread widely, used to cut meat and smash bones for marrow. By about 1.76 million years ago Homo erectus was shaping teardrop-shaped hand axes, a design that lasted over a million years.
Why it matters
Tools let a small-toothed, weak primate eat meat and marrow, and began the human habit of solving problems with technology rather than with our bodies.
How we know
Stone artifacts excavated in dated volcanic-ash layers, plus animal bones with cut marks. Stone survives where wood and bone tools rot, so the record is lopsided.
Still debated
Who made the Lomekwi tools is unknown; candidates include Australopithecus and Kenyanthropus. Some researchers also question whether the tools are really that old.
Connections (2)
▸First hominins: apes that walk upright made First stone toolsMostly agreed
The connection
Early upright-walking hominins, their hands no longer needed for walking, began knocking sharp flakes off stones. The oldest known tools, about 3.3 million years old, predate our genus Homo, so a pre-human species, perhaps an australopith, made them. Toolmaking did not make us human; it started before us.
When and how
Lomekwi 3, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya; found in 2011 by a team led by Sonia Harmand and Jason Lewis, published in 2015.
How sure are we?
The tools lie in dated sediment layers, but no hominin bones were found with them, so the maker is inferred, not observed.
Debates and open questions
Which species made the first tools, and whether even older evidence exists, such as disputed 3.4-million-year-old cut-marked bones from Dikika, Ethiopia.
▸First stone tools began the toolmaking that led to Bronze AgeMostly agreed
The connection
For over 3 million years humans and their ancestors made tools from stone, bone and wood, steadily refining them. Bronze Age metalworking built on that long tradition of shaping hard materials, plus later discoveries: pottery kilns and, from about 5000 BC, copper smelting, which supplied the high heat and know-how needed to alloy metals.
When and how
From Lomekwi, Kenya, about 3.3 million years ago, to the Near East, where copper smelting began about 5000 BC and bronze about 3300 BC.
How sure are we?
The archaeological sequence of tool types; this is a long-term trend, not a single cause-and-effect link.
Debates and open questions
Stone tools stayed in everyday use well into the Bronze Age, and how metal knowledge spread between regions is still being traced.