Early Humans Were Carrying Stones Long Distances 2.6 Million Years Ago!
Archaeologists working in southwestern Kenya have uncovered striking new evidence that early human relatives were deliberately transporting stones over long distances around 2.6 million years ago, hundreds of thousands of years earlier than scientists previously thought.
The findings, published in Science Advances, show that the makers of Oldowan tools weren’t just skilled at crafting sharp flakes and pounding tools, they were also intentionally gathering raw materials from as far as 13 kilometres away and carrying them to food-rich areas for use.
The breakthrough comes from Nyayanga, a site on the Homa Peninsula, which juts into Lake Victoria. Excavations there over the past decade have uncovered hundreds of stone tools alongside butchered hippopotamus remains. Researchers believe these discoveries mark an important step forward in how early hominins planned and interacted with their environment.
Photo Credit: E.M Finestone, J.S. Oliver, Homa Peninsula Paleoanthropology Project
Rick Potts, senior author of the study and director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, explained:
“People often focus on the tools themselves, but the real innovation of the Oldowan may actually be the transport of resources from one place to another. The knowledge and intent to bring stone material to rich food sources were apparently an integral part of toolmaking behaviour at the outset of the Oldowan.”
The Oldowan tradition is recognised as the earliest sustained tool-making culture. By striking stone cores with hammerstones, hominins created sharp flakes for cutting meat, scraping wood, and pounding plants. But the local stone at Nyayanga was too soft for effective tool-making. Instead, toolmakers carried harder materials, such as rhyolite and quartzite, over considerable distances to craft reliable tools.
This behaviour shows more than practical skill. It points to early evidence of forward planning, mental mapping, and the ability to delay gratification, traits once thought to have emerged much later in human evolution.
While chimpanzees and other animals have been observed moving stones short distances, the Nyayanga finds represent the earliest archaeological evidence of systematic long-distance transport. Until now, the oldest confirmed example came from Kanjera South, another Homa Peninsula site, dating to two million years ago. The new discovery pushes that timeline back by at least half a million years.
The exact identity of the Nyayanga toolmakers remains uncertain. Excavations revealed two teeth belonging to Paranthropus, a robust hominin known for its powerful jaws and tough diet. However, the tools also align with what is known about early Homo species.
Emma Finestone, lead author of the study and associate curator of human origins at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, noted:
“Unless you find a hominin fossil actually holding a tool, you won’t be able to say definitively which species was making which stone tool assemblages. But I think that the research at Nyayanga suggests there was a greater diversity of hominins making early stone tools than previously thought.”
The Oldowan toolkit was versatile, used for everything from processing plants and meat to working with wood. According to Professor Thomas Plummer, co-director of the Homa Peninsula Paleoanthropology Project, this range of uses shows that even at this early stage, stone tools boosted the adaptability of the hominins who made them.
The broader lesson is one of continuity. As Finestone summed up:
“Humans have always relied on tools to solve adaptive challenges. By understanding how this relationship began, we can better see our connection to it today—especially as we face new challenges in a world shaped by technology.”