Editing Stone Age (section)

===Beginning of the Stone Age===
[[File:Arrowhead.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Obsidian]] [[projectile point]]]]

The oldest indirect evidence found of stone tool use is fossilised animal bones with tool marks; these are 3.4&nbsp;million years old and were found in the Lower Awash Valley in Ethiopia.<ref name="nhm.ac.uk"/> Archaeological discoveries in Kenya in 2015, identifying what may be the oldest evidence of hominin use of tools known to date, have indicated that ''[[Kenyanthropus]] platyops'' (a 3.2 to 3.5-million-year-old [[Pliocene]] hominin fossil discovered in Lake Turkana, Kenya, in 1999) may have been the earliest tool-users known.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32804177|title=Oldest tools pre-date first humans|first=Rebecca|last=Morelle|author-link=Rebecca Morelle|date=20 May 2015|work=BBC News}}</ref>

The oldest stone tools were excavated from the site of [[Lomekwi]] 3 in West [[Turkana County|Turkana]], northwestern Kenya, and date to 3.3&nbsp;million years old.<ref name="Harmand 2015">{{cite journal|last1=Harmand|first1=Sonia|title=3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya|journal=Nature|date=21 May 2015|volume=521|issue=7552|pages=310–315|doi=10.1038/nature14464|display-authors=etal|pmid=25993961|bibcode=2015Natur.521..310H|s2cid=1207285}}</ref> Prior to the discovery of these "Lomekwian" tools, the oldest known stone tools had been found at several sites at [[Gona, Ethiopia]], on sediments of the paleo-[[Awash River]], which serve to date them. All the tools come from the Busidama Formation, which lies above a [[disconformity]], or missing layer, which would have been from 2.9 to 2.7&nbsp;[[mya (unit)|mya]]. The oldest sites discovered to contain tools are dated to 2.6–2.55&nbsp;mya.<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|Semaw|2009|pp=162–163}}</ref> One of the most striking circumstances about these sites is that they are from the Late [[Pliocene]], where prior to their discovery tools were thought to have evolved only in the [[Pleistocene]]. Excavators at the locality point out that:<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|Semaw|2009|p=155}}</ref>

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;the earliest stone tool makers were skilled [[flintknappers]]&nbsp;... The possible reasons behind this seeming abrupt transition from the absence of stone tools to the presence thereof include&nbsp;... gaps in the geological record.}}

The species that made the Pliocene tools remains unknown. Fragments of ''[[Australopithecus garhi]]'', ''[[Australopithecus aethiopicus]]'',<ref>As to whether ''aethiopicus'' is the genus ''[[Australopithecus]]'' or the genus ''[[Paranthropus]]'', broken out to include the more robust forms, anthropological opinion is divided and both usages occur in the professional sources.</ref> and ''Homo'', possibly ''[[Homo habilis]]'', have been found in sites near the age of the Gona tools.<ref>{{harvnb|Rogers|Semaw|2009|p=164}}</ref>

In July 2018, scientists reported the discovery in [[China]] of the known oldest stone tools outside Africa, estimated at 2.12&nbsp;million years old.<ref name="NYT-20180711cz">{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/science/hominins-tools-china.html |date=11 July 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=13 July 2018 }}</ref>