Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS

Algeria fossils cast doubt on East Africa as sole origin of stone tools

The discovery pushes back the evidence of hominins in Algeria by 600,000 years, and suggests tool use arose in different parts of Africa independently.
  1. Aisling Irwin

    1. Aisling Irwin is a freelance journalist in Oxfordshire, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The oldest known widespread stone-tool technology, called the Oldowan, is thought to have arisen in East Africa some 2.6 million years ago and then spread across the continent.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07570-z

References

  1. Sahnouni, M. et al. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau0008 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Harmand, S. et al. Nature 521, 310–315 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links