Stone tools are tools made of stone. The oldest stone tools were created by non-human hominids before the genus Homo evolved. Once human species evolved, all of them (including Homo habilis and Homo erectus) used stone tools. Since stone tools were the first ever used by mankind, the Stone Age was named after them.
The oldest tools ever found come from the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. The paleoenvironment in that area was wooded.[1]
The tools are around 3.3 million years old, according to scientists who dated them based on volcanic ash and minerals around the tools. They are 700,000 years older than any tools found before.[2]
Non-human hominids used stone tools before the genus Homo evolved. Members of species like Australopithecus afarensis or Kenyanthropus platyops may have made the Lake Turkana tools.
The research team has proposed the term "Lomekwian" for these tools, and says they mark the start of archaeology.