Selective use of distant stone resources by the earliest Oldowan toolmakers
The adaptive shift that favored stone tool-assisted behavior in hominins began by 3.3 million years ago. However, evidence from early archaeological sites indicates relatively short-distance stone transport dynamics similar to behaviors observed in nonhuman primates. Here we report selective raw material transport over longer distances than expected at least 2.6 million years ago. Hominins at Nyayanga, Kenya, manufactured Oldowan tools primarily from diverse nonlocal stones, pushing back the date for expanded raw material transport by over half a million years. Nonlocal cobbles were transported up to 13 kilometers for on-site reduction, resulting in assemblage patterns inconsistent with accumulations formed by repeated short-distance transport events. These findings demonstrate that early toolmakers moved stones over substantial distances, possibly in anticipation of food processing needs, representing the earliest archaeologically visible signal for the incorporation of lithic technology into landscape-scale foraging repertoires.
Authors
- Laura C. Bishop (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4216-8667)
- Jonathan S. Reeves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2017-0539)
- Peter Ditchfıeld (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3081-6591)
- James S. Oliver
- Paul S. Breeze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2575-8021)
- Emma M. Finestone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9035-6139)
- David R. Braun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7300-2635)
- Nelson Kiprono Rotich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6157-4660)
- Cristina Lemorini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6998-1615)
- Michael D. Petraglia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2522-5727)
- Isabella Caricola (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7808-3748)
- Rahab N. Kinyanjui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2032-8321)
- Richard Potts (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6008-0100)
- S. Bartilol (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8854-201X)
- Thomas W. Plummer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4804-1285)
- Paul Owich Obondo
Institutions
- Smithsonian Institution (US)
- Queens College, CUNY (US)
- Griffith University (AU)
- The Graduate Center, CUNY (US)
- University of Nairobi (KE)
- Illinois State Museum (US)
- National Museum of Natural History (US)
- University of Nottingham Ningbo China (CN)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- King's College London (GB)
- George Washington University (US)
- Cleveland Museum of Natural History (US)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Instytut Chemii i Techniki Jądrowej (PL)
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (US)
- Oxford Archaeology (GB)
- National Museums of Kenya (KE)
- University of Algarve (PT)
- Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
- University of Haifa (IL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adu5838
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 68.07
Funders
- Smithsonian Institution
- Leakey Foundation
- Leverhulme Trust