New evidence is emerging in Kenya of early humans crafting stone tools for nearly 300,000 years during the Pliocene, despite extreme environmental changes like wildfires and droughts that endured during this period.
A new study published in Nature Communications takes a closer look at Kenya’s Turkana Basin as the location of one of the oldest technological traditions known to science. At the country’s Namorotukunan Site, a team of researchers unearthed a trove of Oldowan tools dating to between 2.75 and 2.44 million years ago.
These lithic artifacts, the researchers say, not only point to how our ancestors used multi-purpose tools, but also how they endured throughout extreme environmental changes.
“This site reveals an extraordinary story of cultural continuity,” said lead author David R. Braun, a professor of anthropology at George Washington University and a Max Planck Institute affiliate researcher. “What we’re seeing isn’t a one-off innovation—it’s a long-standing technological tradition, maintained over hundreds of generations.”
Susana Carvalho, director of science at Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park and senior author of the study, said the team’s findings “suggest that tool use may have been a more generalized adaptation among our primate ancestors.”
For around 300,000 years, early toolmakers at Namorotukunan returned to the same location, consistently creating sharp-edged stones. These types of tools helped broaden their diet to include meat, which gave helped our ancestors shift toward a different source of sustenance, as well as a new means of survival in a landscape of extremes that featured both wetlands and dry, fire-swept grasslands.
“Namorotukunan offers a rare lens on a changing world long gone—rivers on the move, fires tearing through, aridity closing in—and the tools, unwavering,” said Dan V. Palcu Rolier, corresponding author and a senior scientist at GeoEcoMar, Utrecht University, and the University of São Paulo. “For ~300,000 years, the same craft endures—perhaps revealing the roots of one of our oldest habits: using technology to steady ourselves against change.”
Over the course of their research, the team used multiple dating techniques to help them rebuild the environment of the ancient humans that dwelt there. Volcanic ash layers, magnetic signals preserved in sediments, chemical signatures of rocks, and microscopic plants were all analyzed to glean a deeper perspective on human adaptation during the period.
“At Namorotukunan, cutmarks link stone tools to meat eating, revealing a broadened diet that endured across changing landscapes,” said Frances Forrest of Fairfield University.
“The plant fossil record tells an incredible story: The landscape shifted from lush wetlands to dry, fire-swept grasslands and semideserts,” said Rahab N. Kinyanjui at the National Museums of Kenya / Max Planck Institute. “As vegetation shifted, the toolmaking remained steady. This is resilience.”
“These finds show that by about 2.75 million years ago, hominins were already good at making sharp stone tools, hinting that the start of the Oldowan technology is older than we thought,” said Niguss Baraki, a researcher at George Washington University.
Fundamentally, the team’s study highlights the importance of technological traditions in human evolution, revealing that even in the face of changing climates and the ultimate survival tests of the ancient world, early humans showed remarkable resilience.
The paper, “Early Oldowan technology thrived during Pliocene environmental change in the Turkana Basin, Kenya,” appeared in Nature Communications on November 4, 2025.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com.