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Published online 2 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.878
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Europe's oldest axes discovered
Sophisticated tool-making skills more widespread than previously thought.
Hand axes from southern Spain have been dated to nearly a million years old, suggesting that advanced Stone Age tools were present in Europe far earlier than was previously believed.
Acheulian axes, which date to at least 1.
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This discovery in my opinion could be the final death-blow to the Out of Africa Model of Man, which in my opinion is an unfounded theory that has no bearing. Dr. Upinder Fotadar
This is a very important discovery and would shed light on a lot of things but in no way do I see it as evidence against the "Out of Africa Model".
That is just stretching it too much.
Dr. Fotadar, how exactly is it that you consider these axes in Europe a death-blow to the Out of Africa model?
Indeed, the dating of the axes to nearly 1 million years ago strongly suggests that someone was there a long time before anatomically modern humans are (from other evidence) thought to have left Africa (i.e. within the last 200,000 years). But if a recent origin in Africa is consistent with the tools dating to 300k and 500k years ago in Europe, then so is the finding of these much older axes. Is it not entirely possible that other members of the hominina made those axes?
Dear Bjorn,
While it quite likely (by the way if you note in my letter I used the word could) that these axes may have been made by other members of the hominina, nonetheless, the Out of Africa Model of Man is a rather flimsy theory and in my opinion happens to be bankrupt, and politically motivated. For example, even a lay person knows that if we dug up the whole of our planet and found the earliest fossils of the Homo sapiens or their direct relatives, they are not necessarily the first of their kind. All we can say with certainty that these are the earliest known discovered fossils. Thus to link the whole of humankind to such a fossil is rather dangerous. Dr. Upinder Fotadar
Dear Bjorn,
While it is quite likely (by the way if you note in my letter I used the word could) that these axes may have been made by other members of the hominina, nonetheless, the Out of Africa Model of Man is a rather flimsy theory and in my opinion happens to be bankrupt, and politically motivated. For example, even a lay person knows that if we dug up the whole of our planet and found the earliest fossils of the Homo sapiens or their direct relatives, they are not necessarily the first of their kind. All we can say with certainty that these are the earliest known discovered fossils. Thus to link the whole of humankind to such a fossil is rather dangerous. Dr. Upinder Fotadar
It is too eraly to make any conclusion. More studies are needed in the future. However, it gives a new posibility of the Out of man.
Dr. Fotadar: I am curious as to why, in your opinion, the Out of Africa Theory of Man politically motivated?
Agh! Sorry. Dr. Fotadar: I am curious as to why, in your opinion, the Out of Africa Theory of Man is politically motivated?
I have never understood why palaeontologists keep treating ancient humanoid species as if they were a form of vegetation. i.e. by spreading out from a central point by x kilometres per century almost following a mathematical formula. Surely it is possible that in less than one decade, a vigorous band of marauding stone-agers could have ventured all over most of Europe and left axes all over the place?
I for one find this to be an excellent and interesting find. IMO, the idea that such a useful technology needed 1 Mya to make it out of Africa is ludicrous. However, the gap is still 0.6 Mya and that still is a very long time. So I would hope that even older European hand axes will eventually be found.
As for "Out of Africa": Hand axes dating from 0.9 Mya have little bearing on an event that occurred no earlier than 0.5 Mya, and which involves a people who could create more sophisticated technologies than the hand axes. Our becoming human was a process and not an event, and this discovery is documenting an earlier part of that process.
To Jeff: We may not be vegetation, but in terms of the spead of a species or population the only real difference between plants, animals, and early humans is the rate of spead. Also please be aware that you are much more likely to find hand axes at the site of a settlement instead of at a marauder's campsite.