Scientists found the oldest stone tool in the river of Gediz, western Turkey, which could tell the migration story of humans from Asia to Europe.
Researchers at the Royal Holloway, University of London, the UK, Turkey and the Netherlands, worked together to determine the date of the stone. Using high-precision equipment, they ruled that it is approximately 1.2 million years old.
"This discovery is critical for establishing the timing and route of early human dispersal into Europe. Our research suggests that the flake is the earliest securely-dated artifact from Turkey ever recorded and was dropped on the floodplain by an early hominin well over a million years ago," Danielle Schreve, study author and professor from the department of geography at the Royal Holloway, said in a press release.
The date of the stone tool implies that the early humans settled in the area sometime between 1.2 and 1.7 million years ago. It is not the first time that scientists found an ancient stone tool, but the age of previous stone tools was uncertain.
"By working together with geologists and dating specialists, we have been able to put a secure chronology to this find and shed new light on the behavior of our most distant ancestors," she said.
Stone tools are the oldest evidence of ancient human culture, lifestyle and intelligence. The oldest stone tool ever found is actually 2.6 million years old, and is located at the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, according to LiveScience. The stone tool was made before the ancient hominins learned to make more sophisticated tools such as axes, scrapers and flaked tools.
Further details of the discovery can be read in the February 2015 issue of the Quaternary Science Reviews.
