Oldowan

**Oldowan** (or **Mode I**) tools were a style of stone tools that were widely used during the early Lower Paleolithic period, the first part of the Stone Age. Oldowan tool artifacts are the earliest evidence we have of human tool-making.

Ancient hominids made and used Oldowan tools from about 2.9 million years ago to about 1.4 million years ago. Towards the end of this era, hominids began to make more sophisticated tools, which archaeologists call Acheulean. This new industry eventually replaced the Oldowan tool culture.

## Discovery

The archaeologist Louis Leakey was the first to discover Oldowan tool artifacts. He found them in the 1930s in Tanzania. Oldowan tools are named after Olduvai Gorge, the archaeological site where Leakey made his discovery.

## Age

The oldest known Oldowan tools are dated to around 2.9 million years ago. They were found at Nyayanga on the Homa Peninsula in Kenya, near _Paranthropus_ teeth and two butchered hippo skeletons. Archaeologists have also found early Oldowan tools in Gona, Ethiopia (near the Awash River) which are dated to about 2.6 million years ago.

Oldowan tools found in Dmanisi, Georgia prove that early species of _Homo_ (early humans) lived in Europe by 1.8 million years ago.

The newest Oldowan tools ever found were about 1.4 million years old.

## Description

The Oldowan toolkit included three types of stone tools. These were hammerstones, cores and flakes. Early humans used hammerstones to create flakes from core stones. By pounding a core stone with a hammerstone at a certain angle, they split off sharp flakes that could be used to cut, chop, or scrape.

## Creation

Archaeologists do not know for sure which species actually invented Oldowan tools. They may have been invented by australopithecines or _Homo habilis_. These tools were most commonly used by early species of _Homo__,_ such as _H. habilis, H. erectus,_ and _H. ergaster_. They may have also been used by _Homo rudolfensis_, _Paranthropus boisei_, and/or _Paranthropus robustus_.

Scientists think that early _Homo erectus_ inherited Oldowan technology, then refined it into the Acheulean industry beginning about 1.7 million years ago. Archaeologists have found both Oldowan and Acheulian artifacts with _H. erectus_ crania at two sites in Gona, Ethiopia. This suggests that _H. erectus_ used both styles of tools for a period of time.

## Importance

Oldowan tools seem very simple today, but they were very important in early human history. They gave early humans an evolutionary advantage: they helped them survive as successful species for long periods of time. They allowed humans to access new kinds of food, like bone marrow, and make things out of wood.

According to scholar Rick Potts:> With these tools you can crush better than an elephant’s molar can and cut better than a lion’s canine [tooth] can. Oldowan technology was like suddenly evolving a brand-new set of teeth outside your body, and it opened up a new variety of foods on the African savannah to our ancestors.

## Related pages

- Stone Age
- Human evolution
- Stone tool
- Acheulean

## See also

- Early Stone Age Tools (with photos) from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History