stylistic:style_transfer
Technology

Oldowan toolkits were uncovered at an excavation site on the Homa Peninsula in western Kenya. Stone tools called "oldowan toolkits" are used to pound and shape other rocks or plant materials. These tools are thought to be between 2.6 and 3 million years old. The stone tools were found near Paranthropus teeth.

Bone tools dating between 2.3 and 0.6 mya have been found in abundance in Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Drimolen caves, and are often associated with P. robustus. Though Homo is also known from these caves, their remains are comparatively scarce to Paranthropus, making Homo -attribution unlikely. The tools also cooccur with Homo -associated Oldawan and possibly Acheulian stone tool industries. The bone tools were typically sourced from the shaft of long bones from medium- to large-sized mammals, but tools made sourced from mandibles, ribs and horn cores have also been found. Bone tools have also been found at Oldawan Gorge and directly associated with P. boisei, the youngest dating to 1.34 mya, though a great proportion of other bone tools from here have ambiguous attribution. Stone tools from Kromdraai could possibly be attributed to P. robustus, as no Homo have been found there yet.

The bone tools were not manufactured or purposefully shaped for a task. However, since the bones display no weathering (and were not scavenged randomly), and there is a preference displayed for certain bones, raw materials were likely specifically hand-picked. This could indicate a similar cognitive ability to contemporary Stone Age Homo.

Bone tools may have been used to cut or process vegetation, or dig up tubers or termites, The form of P. robustus incisors appear to be intermediate between H. erectus and modern humans, which could indicate less food processing done by the teeth due to preparation with simple tools.

Burnt bones were also associated with the inhabitants of Swartkrans, which could indicate some of the earliest fire usage. However, these bones were found in Member 3, where Paranthropus remains are rarer than H. erectus, and it is also possible the bones were burned in a wildfire and washed into the cave as it is known the bones were not burned onsite.