Human Evolution

ABSTRACT  The first recorded discovery of Oldowan stone tools was in 1923 at Xiaochangliang in northern China. In the century since, numerous Oldowan tools sites have been discovered. Most are in East Africa; are often associated with Homo habilis fossils; and the toolmaker is believed to have been habilis. However, Oldowan sites exist that lack any fossils: from Iberia to northern Algeria to India to China. Recently in 2024, Oldowan tools were discovered at Korolevo in southwest Ukraine dated 1.42 million years ago. That find was significant as it is the first and oldest indication of hominin entrance into Europe from the East. The scientists could not identify the toolmaker because no fossils were present, but they suggested that Homo erectus was the maker on account of the date. We analyze six ancient Oldowan sites that lack fossils using a spatiotemporal mathematical model (Skellam 1951) and conclude otherwise. We conclude that the Korolevo Mode 1 tools were made by H. habilis. We further conclude that the Oldowan tools discovered at five other ancient Oldowan sites that are lacking fossils are explained by habilis dispersing from a common origin. Our geospatial-temporal results give strong circumstantial evidence that Oldowan stone tools are the work of H. habilis, quite independently of traditional method of morphometric comparisons of knapping techniques. In an unexpected result, we identified the origin of the founding population for the toolmaker as in the middle Euphrates River, c. 4.5 mya, a date that is roughly 2-million years older than the oldest habilis fossil (Ledi-Geraru LD 350-1) dated 2.8 mya, Afar, Ethiopia. This calculated origin contradicts the Out of Africa theory that places H. habilis origins in East Africa and hypothesizes that genus Homo
descended from Australopithecus, circa 3 mya.