Early Stone Age

The Olduvai effect: New questions about meat-eating in human origins

Meta-analysis of butchered animal bones from East African sites shows that long-held assumptions about early hunters may be wrong.

Jun 7 •

Why did the ancients make gigantic handaxes?

Looking at new research on the distribution and function of curiously large bifacial tools

Apr 28, 2024 •

Four amazing Stone Age sites with wooden artifacts

From Africa, Asia, and Europe, these sites give us a rare window into the ways that organic technology shaped ancestral lives.

Apr 22, 2024 •

Guide to Paranthropus species

Long known as a group of human relatives with big teeth and jaws, these ancient species lived for at least two million years alongside our ancestors.

Jan 21, 2024 •

All the hominins made tools

A study of associations between stone tool evidence and fossil hominin remains shows that a wide range of species made stone artifacts.

Dec 3, 2023 •

Did Acheulean hominins have long-distance obsidian trade?

I review several papers looking into the occurrence of obsidian artifacts in the Acheulean of eastern Ethiopia.

Dec 23, 2019 •

The earliest stone toolmakers had some technological sophistication

Several studies consider the stone flaking decisions necessary for Oldowan tool manufacture.

Apr 12, 2005 •

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