Inventions & Discoveries · Tools and materials

Stone tools

Stone tools are implements shaped from stone by knapping or grinding; the oldest known, from Lomekwi near Lake Turkana in Kenya, are dated to 3.3 million years ago, about a million years before the genus Homo. The earliest known Oldowan tools, from Nyayanga in Kenya, date to about 2.9 million years ago, and the Acheulean industry, best known for its hand axes, appears in the West Turkana area by 1.7 million years ago. Polished stone axes were important for clearing woods and forests in the Neolithic and were traded over long distances.

Stone tools
Image: Nationalmuseumofiran · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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First known
3.3 million years ago
Where
Lomekwi, near Lake Turkana, Kenya

NoteWho made the oldest tools is not known: Australopithecus afarensis, Kenyanthropus platyops or a species not yet identified.

Led toControl of firec. 1 million years agoBow and arrowc. 80,000 years agoAgriculturec. 10,000 BCETrepanationc. 6500 BCE

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Mentioned in 7 profiles

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See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Stone tools. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/stone-tools
MLA
“Stone tools.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/stone-tools. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Stone tools.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/stone-tools.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Stone tools’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/stone-tools (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻