Stone tools in Kenya offer new clues to the origin of modern humans

A China-Kenya joint paleontological and archeological team has discovered several stone tools made during the Old Stone Age dating back to hundreds of thousands of years in Kenya, offering new clues to the origin of modern humans.

The stone tools, excavated near Lake Bogoria in Baringo County, feature the Levallois technique, a refined stone-tool-making technique developed more than 200,000 years ago, indicating they may have been made by modern humans at the very early stage. Research will be done to determine the exact period when the stone tools were produced.

Paleontological evidence has shown Africa to be the origin of humans, with human fossils dating back 6 million years having been discovered in Kenya. However, the exact location of the origin of early modern humans, which is anatomically consistent with the range of phenotypes seen in contemporary humans, is still highly debated.