1.9-million- and 2.4-million-year-old artifacts and stone tool–cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria

Mohamed Sahnouni (1) , Josep M. Parés (2) , Mathieu Duval (3) , Isabel Cáceres (4) , Zoheir Harichane (2) , Jan van Der Made , Salah Abdessadok (3) , Nadia Kandi , Abdelkader Derradji , Mohamed Medig , Kamel Boulaghraif , Sileshi Semaw , Alfredo Perez-Gonzalez

1 CENIEH - Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana
2 CNRPAH - Centre National de Recherches Préhistoriques, Anthropologiques et Historiques
3 HNHP - Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique
4 Universitat Rovira i Virgili

East Africa has provided the earliest known evidence for Oldowan stone artifacts and hominin-induced stone tool cutmarks dated to ~2.6 million years (Ma) ago. The ~1.8-million- year-old stone artifacts from Ain Hanech (Algeria) were considered to represent the oldest archaeological materials in North Africa. Here we report older stone artifacts and cutmarked bones excavated from two nearby deposits at Ain Boucherit estimated to ~1.9 Ma ago, and the older to ~2.4 Ma ago. Hence, the Ain Boucherit evidence shows that ancestral hominins inhabited the Mediterranean fringe in northern Africa much earlier than previously thought. The evidence strongly argues for early dispersal of stone tool manufacture and use from East Africa or a possible multiple-origin scenario of stone technology in both East and North Afri

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Mohamed Sahnouni, Josep M. Parés, Mathieu Duval, Isabel Cáceres, Zoheir Harichane, et al.. 1.9-million- and 2.4-million-year-old artifacts and stone tool–cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 2018, 33 (5), pp.594-604. ⟨10.1126/science.aau0008⟩. ⟨halshs-02169765⟩