A team of international researchers discovered that the stone-tool industry associated with Homo erectus, the first ancestor to have modern human-like bodies, existed in North Africa 1.3 million years ago, hundreds of thousands of years older than previously known.
“This is a chronological rebound,’said Moroccan archaeologist Abdelouahed Ben Ncer, part of the team of archaeologists who spent decades in excavation and research on the tool making site discovered near Casablanca.
The site was used by Homo erectus to systematically shape hand axes, cutting sharply around the edges and using these tools to break denser energy sources like meat and nuts.
The discovery shows that the Acheulean industry appeared in north Africa much closer to when it first originated in south and east Africa about 1.6m and 1.8m ago.The Acheulian stone tool industry in North Africa, previously thought to date back 700 000 years.
This “contributes to enriching the debate on the emergence of the Acheulian in Africa,” said Abderrahim Mohib, the co-director of the Franco-Moroccan prehistory of Casablanca program.
Mohib said the study also substantiated a previous find, showing “the oldest presence in Morocco of humans” were “variants of Homo erectus,” said Mohib.
A team of researchers discovered in 2017 five fossils near Marrakech at Jebel Irhoud, estimated at 300,000 years, deemed largely as groundbreaking when they were designated the oldest fossils of Homo sapiens ever found.
The fossils were much older than those previously found in Omo Kibish in Ethiopia dating back about 195,000 years.
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