Editing Human evolution (section)

=== Stone tools ===
{{Main|Stone tool}}
Stone tools are first attested around 2.6&nbsp;million years ago, when hominins in Eastern Africa used so-called core [[Oldowan|tools]], [[Chopper (archaeology)|choppers]] made out of round cores that had been split by simple strikes.<ref name="Plummer">{{cite journal |last=Plummer |first=Thomas |date=2004 |title=Flaked stones and old bones: Biological and cultural evolution at the dawn of technology |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=125 |issue=Supplement 39: Yearbook of Physical Anthropology |pages=118–164 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20157 |issn=0002-9483 |pmid=15605391 |doi-access=free}}</ref> This marks the beginning of the [[Paleolithic]], or Old [[Stone Age]]; its end is taken to be the end of the last [[Last glacial period|Ice Age]], around 10,000 years ago. The Paleolithic is subdivided into the [[Lower Paleolithic]] (Early Stone Age), ending around 350,000–300,000 years ago, the [[Middle Paleolithic]] (Middle Stone Age), until 50,000–30,000 years ago, and the [[Upper Paleolithic]], (Late Stone Age), 50,000–10,000 years ago.

Archaeologists working in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya have discovered the oldest known stone tools in the world. Dated to around 3.3&nbsp;million years ago, the implements are some 700,000 years older than stone tools from Ethiopia that previously held this distinction.<ref name="Harmand 310–315" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Wong |first=Kate |date=April 15, 2015 |title=Archaeologists Take Wrong Turn, Find World's Oldest Stone Tools |url= http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2015/04/15/archaeologists-take-wrong-turn-find-worlds-oldest-stone-tools/ |journal=Scientific American |type=Blog |issn=0036-8733 |access-date=May 3, 2015 |archive-date=May 8, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150508034444/http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2015/04/15/archaeologists-take-wrong-turn-find-worlds-oldest-stone-tools/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Balter |first=Michael |date=April 14, 2015 |title=World's oldest stone tools discovered in Kenya |url= https://www.science.org/content/article/world-s-oldest-stone-tools-discovered-kenya |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |type=News |doi=10.1126/science.aab2487 |issn=0036-8075 |access-date=May 3, 2015 |archive-date=October 20, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211020055503/https://www.science.org/content/article/world-s-oldest-stone-tools-discovered-kenya |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Drake |first=Nadia |author-link=Nadia Drake |date=April 16, 2015 |title=Oldest Stone Tools Discovered in Kenya |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150416-oil-fish-hearts-spill-tuna-gulf-bp-deepwater-exxon-alaska/150416-oldest-stone-tools-archaeology-kenya-human-origins-evolution/ |work=National Geographic News |location=Washington, DC |publisher=[[National Geographic Society]] |access-date=May 3, 2015 |archive-date=April 23, 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150423222706/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150416-oil-fish-hearts-spill-tuna-gulf-bp-deepwater-exxon-alaska/150416-oldest-stone-tools-archaeology-kenya-human-origins-evolution/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The period from 700,000 to 300,000 years ago is also known as the [[Acheulean]], when ''H.&nbsp;ergaster'' (or ''erectus'') made large stone [[hand axe]]s out of [[flint]] and [[quartzite]], at first quite rough (Early Acheulian), later "[[retouch (lithics)|retouched]]" by additional, more-subtle strikes at the sides of the [[Lithic flake|flakes]]. After 350,000 BP the more refined so-called [[Levallois technique]] was developed, a series of consecutive strikes, by which scrapers, slicers ("racloirs"), needles, and flattened needles were made.<ref name="Plummer" /> Finally, after about 50,000 BP, ever more refined and specialized flint tools were made by the Neanderthals and the immigrant [[Cro-Magnon]]s (knives, blades, skimmers). Bone tools were also made by ''H. sapiens'' in Africa by 90,000–70,000 years ago<ref name="Henshilwood etal 2002">{{cite journal |last1=Henshilwood |first1=C. S. |last2=d'Errico |first2=F. |last3=Yates |first3=R. |last4=Jacobs |first4=Z. |last5=Tribolo |first5=C. |last6=Duller |first6=G. A. T. |last7=Mercier |first7=N. |last8=Sealy |first8=J. C. |last9=Valladas |first9=H. |last10=Watts |first10=I. |last11=Wintle |first11=A. G. |author-link=Christopher Henshilwood |display-authors=3 |date=2002 |title=Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=295 |issue=5558 |pages=1278–1280 |doi=10.1126/science.1067575 |pmid=11786608 |s2cid=31169551 |bibcode=2002Sci...295.1278H}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=A middle stone age worked bone industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire |date=April 28, 1995 |last1=Yellen |first1=J. E. |last2=Brooks |first2=A. S. |last3=Cornelissen |first3=E. |last4=Mehlman |first4=M. J. |last5=Stewart |first5=K. |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=268 |pages=553–556 |issue=5210 |doi=10.1126/science.7725100 |pmid=7725100 |bibcode=1995Sci...268..553Y}}</ref> and are also known from early ''H. sapiens'' sites in Eurasia by about 50,000 years ago.