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A team of scientists led by Mohamed Sahnouni, archaeologist at the National Center for the Investigation of the Evolution of the Population (CENIEH), has just published an article in the journal Science which breaks with the paradigm that the cradle of humanity is in East Africa, relying on the archaeological remains found on sites in the region of Ain Hanech (Algeria), the oldest known to date in the North of Africa.
East Africa has long been regarded as the origin of early hominins and lithic technology, because until now, very little was known about the first occupation and hominin activity in the north of the continent. Two decades of field and laboratory research led by Dr. Sahnouni have shown that ancestral hominins made stone tools in North Africa almost contemporaneous with the oldest known stone tools in East Africa dating from 2.6 million years.
These are stone artifacts and animal bones bearing cutting traces by stone tools, with a timeline estimated at 2.4 and 1.9 million years, respectively, found at two levels on the sites of Ain Boucherit (in the Ain Hanech study area), dated using paleomagnetism, electron spin resonance (ESR) and biochronology of large mammals excavated with archaeological materials .
The paleontologist Jan van der Made, of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, used animal fossils such as pigs, horses and elephants, from very ancient sites, to corroborate the ages provided by paleomagnetism. , obtained by the geochronologist of CENIEH. Josep Parés and ESR, found by Mathieu Duval, Griffith University.
Oldowan Technology
Ain Boucherit artifacts were made from locally available limestone and flint and include chopped faces, polyhedra and sub-spheroids, as well as sharp-edged cutting tools used to treat animal carcbades. These artifacts are typical of Oldowan stone technology, known from sites dating back from 2.6 to 1.9 million years ago in East Africa, although those of Ain Boucherit present subtle variations.
"The lithic industry of Ain Boucherit, which is technologically similar to that of Gona and Olduvai, shows that our ancestors ventured into every corner of Africa, not just East Africa. The evidence provided by Algeria is changing the earlier view that East Africa was the cradle of humankind. In fact, all of Africa was the cradle of humanity, "said Sahnouni, project leader Ain Hanech.
No simple scavengers
Ain Boucherit is one of the few archaeological sites in Africa to provide evidence of the presence of bones with cutting and percussion marks in situ with stone tools, which shows unequivocally that these ancestral hominines have exploited meat and marrow of animals of all sizes and parts of the skeleton, which involved skinning, evisceration and deflation of the upper and middle extremities.
Isabel Cáceres, taphonomist at the IPHES, said that "the effective use of sharp tools at Ain Boucherit suggests that our ancestors were not mere scavengers. At present, it is not clear where they hunted, but the evidence clearly shows that they were able to compete with the carnivores and that they had first access to animal carcbades. "
Toolmakers
At this moment, the most important question is who made the stone tools discovered in Algeria. The remains of Hominin have still not been found in North Africa, which is contemporary with early stone artefacts. In fact, no hominins have yet been documented in direct badociation with the earliest known stone tools from East Africa.
Nevertheless, a recent discovery in Ethiopia has shown the presence of ancient Homo dating back 2.8 million years, probably the best candidate also for materials from East Africa and the United States. North.
Scientists have long thought that hominins and their material culture originated in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa. Surprisingly, the oldest known hominin, dated 7.0 million years ago, and the 3.3 million years Australopithecus bahrelghazali, were discovered in Chad, in the Sahara, 3 000 km from the Rift valleys in eastern Africa.
Sileshi Semaw, a scientist at CENIEH and co-author of this article, explains that Lucy's contemporary hominins (3.2 million years old) have probably wandered over the Sahara, and that their descendants might be responsible for leaving these archeological puzzles now. discoveries in Algeria, close to contemporary with those of East Africa.
"Future research will focus on finding human fossils in the nearby Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene deposits, looking for older stone tools and tools," Sahnouni concludes.
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