Stone tools used two million years ago

EARLY ancestors of modern humans were using stone hand axes and picks in East Africa almost two million years ago, far earlier than previously thought.

The fossil evidence pushes back the earliest known date for advanced stone tool-making techniques by at least 300,000 years. It is thought the hand axes belonged to Homo erectus, a precursor to modern humans.

The spot in West Turkana, Kenya, is the oldest site in the world to show evidence of the complex tools. Dr Dennis Kent from Rutgers University, New Jersey, said making the complex tools involved a great technological leap for our ancestors.

Tools such as hand axes allowed them to hunt prey and butcher large game such as elephants killed by other animals.