The Ancients The First Tools
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Apr 23, 2026 
Dr Emma Finestone, Associate Curator of Human Origins and early stone tool specialist, walks through the dawn of stone technology. She contrasts Lomekwian and Oldowan tool types and techniques. She explains how sites are dated, how geochemistry traces stone sources, and why material choice and landscape shaped early tool use. She considers who might have made the first tools and how tool use became a lasting cultural practice.
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What Stone Tool Assemblages Look Like
- Assemblages commonly contain many detached flakes and angular fragments; cores and hammerstones are less frequent but can still be a substantial percentage.
- At Nyong'a cores made up over 20% of the assemblage with abundant flakes and fragments.
Oldowan Tools Were For Food And Woodwork
- Use-wear and cut-mark evidence show Oldowan tools primarily processed plants and also butchered animals and accessed marrow.
- At Emma's site there are cut-marked hippo and many antelope bones, while over 50% of use-wear indicates plant processing and woodworking.
Experiments Confirm Flakes Work But Dull Quickly
- Experimental archaeology shows Oldowan flakes efficiently deflesh carcasses but dull, so hominins discarded flakes and made multiple replacements.
- Practical use required several flakes per butchery event and favored durable stone to keep edges longer.