Scientists believe they have discovered the oldest known stone tool in Turkey. The discovery may reveal that humans passed through this region - linking Asia to Europe - up to 1.2 million years ago, and possibly a new perspective on how early humans dispersed out of Africa and Asia. This would be a much earlier date than previously thought.

Photo: Royal Holloway University of London

The research on this humanly-worked quartzite flake has been published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews: Volume 109, 1 February 2015, Pages 68-75

The earliest securely-dated hominin artefact in Anatolia?
D. Maddy et al
Abstract
Anatolia lies at the gateway from Asia into Europe and has frequently been favoured as a route for Early Pleistocene hominin dispersal. Although early hominins are known to have occupied Turkey, with numerous finds of Lower Palaeolithic artefacts documented, the chronology of their dispersal has little reliable stratigraphical or geochronological constraint, sites are rare, and the region's hominin history remains poorly understood as a result. Here, we present a Palaeolithic artefact, a hard-hammer flake, from fluvial sediments associated with the Early Pleistocene Gediz River of Western Turkey. This previously documented buried river terrace sequence provides a clear stratigraphical context for the find and affords opportunities for independent age estimation using the numerous basaltic lava flows that emanated from nearby volcanic necks and aperiodically encroached onto the contemporary valley floors. New 40Ar/39Ar age estimates from these flows are reported here which, together with palaeomagnetic measurements, allow a tightly-constrained chronology for the artefact-bearing sediments to be established. These results suggest that hominin occupation of the valley occurred within a time period spanning c.1.24Ma to c.1.17Ma, making this the earliest, securely-dated, record of hominin occupation in Anatolia.

Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, together with an international team from the UK, Turkey and the Netherlands, have been working in the Gediz River, Anatolia, Western Turkey. 

Professor Danielle Schreve, from the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, stated that 'This discovery is critical for establishing the timing and route of early human dispersal into Europe. Our research suggests that the flake is the earliest securely-dated artefact from Turkey ever recorded and was dropped on the floodplain by an early hominin well over a million years ago'.

The research was based on high-precision radioisotopic dating and palaeomagnetic measurements from lava flows, which both pre-date and post-date the meander, to establish that early humans were present in the area between approximately 1.24 million and 1.17 million years ago.

'The flake was an incredibly exciting find. I had been studying the sediments in the meander bend and my eye was drawn to a pinkish stone on the surface. When I turned it over for a better look, the features of a humanly-struck artefact were immediately apparent. By working together with geologists and dating specialists, we have been able to put a secure chronology to this find and shed new light on the behaviour of our most distant ancestors'.

Schreve believes that the pinkish sharp stone was probably discarded by an early hominin near the river more than one million years ago. The tool maker was probably Homo erectus, based on the age of the artifact.

Visit our Origins section to read more about Homo erectus and stone tool evidence:

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins/index.php