Researchers discovered the oldest-known stone tool in Turkey, suggesting humans migrated from Asia to Europe earlier than previously believed.
To make their findings, researchers used high-precision equipment to date material found in the river Gediz, which determined the earliest days in which humans occupied the region, the University of Royal Holloway London reported.
"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," said Professor Danielle Schreve, from the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway.
The team took high-precision radioisotopic dating and palaeomagnetic measurements to assess lava flows that pre-date the river meander, as well as those that came after the river was formed. The findings show humans were present in the Turkish region between approximately 1.24 million and 1.17 million years ago.
"The flake was an incredibly exciting find," Professor Schreve said. "I had been studying the sediments in the meander bend and my eye was drawn to a pinkish stone on the surface. When I turned it over for a better look, the features of a humanly-struck artifact were immediately apparent."
The findings are significant because, in the past, the oldest-believed hominin fossils in western Turkey were not accurately dated.
"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," Schreve concluded.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
