2,600,000 bce

Tools

Hominids in Africa manufacture simple stone implements known as pebble tools, the first known evidence of technology. The stone tool assembly, or toolkit, is called Oldowan after the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, although the oldest known sites are from the Omo Valley in Ethiopia. Homo habilis ("handy man"), a small, bipedal, large-brained (for the time) creature, is so named because it is thought that the first stone tools were produced by this hominid. See also 2,500,000 bce Tools. (See essay.)