Editing Stone Age (section)

==Historical significance==
[[File:Awashrivermap.png|thumb|left|Modern [[Awash River]], Ethiopia, descendant of the Palaeo-Awash, source of the sediments in which the oldest Stone Age tools have been found]]
{{Human timeline}}

The Stone Age is contemporaneous with the evolution of the genus ''[[Homo]]'', with the possible exception of the early Stone Age, when species prior to ''Homo'' may have manufactured tools.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ko|first1=Kwang Hyun|title=Origins of human intelligence: The chain of tool-making and brain evolution|journal=Anthropological Notebooks|date=2016|volume=22|issue=1|pages=5–22|url=http://www.drustvo-antropologov.si/AN/PDF/2016_1/Anthropological_Notebooks_XXII_1_Ko.pdf}}</ref> According to the age and location of the current evidence, the cradle of the genus is the [[East African Rift]] System, especially toward the north in [[Ethiopia]], where it is bordered by [[grasslands]]. The closest relative among the other living [[primate]]s, the genus ''[[Pan (genus)|Pan]]'', represents a branch that continued on in the deep forest, where the primates evolved. The rift served as a conduit for movement into [[southern Africa]] and also north down the [[Nile]] into North Africa and through the continuation of the rift in the [[Levant]] to the vast grasslands of Asia.

Starting from about 4&nbsp;million years ago ([[mya (unit)|mya]]) a single [[biome]] established itself from South Africa through the rift, North Africa, and across Asia to modern China.  This has been called "transcontinental 'savannahstan{{'"}} recently.<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=106}}</ref> Starting in the grasslands of the rift, ''[[Homo erectus]]'', the predecessor of modern humans, found an [[ecological niche]] as a tool-maker and developed a dependence on it, becoming a "tool-equipped [[savanna]] dweller".<ref>{{harvnb|Barham|Mitchell|2008|p=147}}</ref>