Technological Origins

ENVIRONMENTAL AND BEHAVIORAL CONTEXT OF THE EARLIEST TOOL USERS  

Dr. Emma Finestone has been awarded a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the emergence of tool use in Kenya. The project aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of hominin behavior at the dawn of stone tool technology. Fieldwork is focused on an Early Stone Age locality called Nyayanga, situated on the Homa Peninsula in western Kenya. Nyayanga is among the oldest archaeological localities known in the world, and therefore presents a unique opportunity to investigate the origins of tool technology. The project involves excavating additional sites over a broader area, gathering data for paleoecological analysis and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, refining geochronology and stratigraphy, and surveying neighboring localities.