Article: Africa's ancient cultural roots. (cultural innovations such as tool-making may have appeared much earlier than 40,000 years ago)(Anthropology)(Brief Article)

Human ancestors in Africa exhibited a flair for complex cultural behaviors, such as sophisticated tool making, symbolic artwork, and the exploitation of far-flung resources, as early as 240,000 years ago, contends Sally McBrearty of the University of Connecticut in Storrs. An African find earlier this year indicated that tool making originated at least 90,000 years ago (SN: 4/29/95, p.260). These finds seriously challenge the traditional view that major cultural innovations first appeared around 40,000 years ago in Europe, McBrearty asserts.

McBrearty and her coworkers have uncovered a handful of long, thin stone blades near Kenya's Lake Baringo. The blades lie in ...

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