Technology & Medicine › Prehistory
Stone tools
c. 3.3 million years ago (Lomekwi, Kenya)· Invention or discovery· Tools, energy & materials
Mostly agreedGood evidence; some details, dates or numbers uncertain.
Sharp flakes and choppers struck from stone: humanity's first known technology, used for more than 3 million years.
See it on the Technology & Medicine map →How it works
The oldest known stone tools, from Lomekwi 3 near Lake Turkana in Kenya, are about 3.3 million years old, older than our genus, Homo. Toolmakers struck one stone with another to knock off sharp flakes for cutting meat and plants. The Oldowan style, from about 2.6 million years ago, spread across Africa. Methods grew more planned over time, producing hand axes, long blades and tiny arrow points. Stone remained the main cutting material until metals arrived about 5,000 years ago.
Why it mattered
Tools let early humans butcher carcasses and reach new foods, which likely helped feed bigger brains. Every later technology descends from this habit of shaping materials.
How we know
The Lomekwi 3 finds, published by Sonia Harmand's team in 2015; Oldowan sites at Gona, Ethiopia; animal bones with cut marks; and modern experiments that recreate the flaking.
Still unknown or debated
Who made the Lomekwi tools is unknown, perhaps Kenyanthropus or an australopith, and some researchers question how the finds were dated.
Inside this (4)
Connections (5)
▸Stone tools evolved into the Acheulean hand axeWell documented
The connection
Simple Oldowan flakes and choppers came first. About 1.76 million years ago, toolmakers in East Africa began shaping larger stones on both faces into symmetrical hand axes. The new method required planning several steps ahead, a clear advance built on nearly a million years of basic flaking.
When and how
East Africa, at Kokiselei in Kenya and Konso in Ethiopia, about 1.76 million years ago, most likely by early Homo erectus.
How we know
Layered sites such as Olduvai Gorge show Oldowan tools first, then hand axes appearing alongside them, dated by volcanic ash.
Debates and open questions
Whether the change was gradual or a fairly sudden leap, and whether it came with a new species, is debated.
▸Stone tools supplied the tiny points for the Bow and arrowMostly agreed
The connection
A bow needs light arrows with sharp tips. By about 64,000 years ago, toolmakers in southern Africa were making tiny, carefully shaped stone pieces, called microliths, and gluing them to shafts with plant gum. Shrinking stone tools to this scale made effective arrowheads possible; the bow itself was wood and sinew.
When and how
Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, about 64,000 years ago; later at many sites across Africa and Eurasia.
How sure are we?
Microscopic impact fractures and glue residues on Sibudu points match those on test arrows shot from bows.
Debates and open questions
The same points could have tipped spear-thrower darts, so whether they prove the bow existed is debated.
▸Stone tools made possible Clothing and the eyed needleMostly agreed
The connection
Stone scrapers cleaned hides, stone blades cut them to shape, and stone awls punched holes for lacing. Bone needles themselves were cut and ground with stone tools, and a sharp flint drilled the eye. Without stone tools, there would have been no tailored clothing.
When and how
Hide-scraping tools across Africa and Eurasia over hundreds of thousands of years; eyed needles by about 45,000 years ago in Siberia.
How sure are we?
Microscopic wear on stone scrapers matches hide working, and grooves on bone needles show stone cutting and drilling.
Debates and open questions
Since hides rarely survive, when people began sewing rather than simply draping skins is uncertain.
▸Stone tools shaped the first craft for Boats and seafaringMostly agreed
The connection
The first boats were made with stone tools. Ground stone axes and adzes felled trees and hollowed logs into dugout canoes, often helped by controlled burning. Earlier sea crossings, such as to Australia, likely used rafts of logs or bamboo cut with stone blades and lashed together.
When and how
Island Southeast Asia and Australia by about 65,000 to 50,000 years ago; the Pesse canoe, Netherlands, about 8000 BC.
How sure are we?
The Pesse canoe and other early dugouts bear tool marks; the rafts used to reach Australia are inferred, not found.
Debates and open questions
What the first seagoing craft looked like is unknown; bamboo rafts are a reasonable guess, tested in modern experimental voyages.
▸Stone tools were the instruments of Trepanation (skull surgery)Mostly agreed
The connection
Prehistoric surgeons opened skulls with sharp flint or obsidian blades, scraping or cutting grooves until a piece of bone came free. Obsidian, a volcanic glass, takes an edge finer than a modern steel scalpel. Such sharp stone edges made a delicate operation survivable.
When and how
Europe and the Near East by about 7000 BC; later Peru, where obsidian blades were used for centuries.
How sure are we?
Cut marks on trepanned skulls match stone blades, and experiments with flint on skulls reproduce the same grooves and scraping patterns.
Debates and open questions
Which tools were used at which sites is usually inferred from marks, since instruments are rarely found with the skulls.