Striking one stone against another to produce a sharp edge — it looks ordinary now, but done 2.6 million years ago it was a cognitive leap, combining deliberate planning, knowledge of material, and physical skill in a single act. Simple choppers, scrapers, and sharp flakes from sites at Gona and Ledi-Geraru in Ethiopia and Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania are the signature of the Oldowan industry. It takes its name from Olduvai, where Mary Leakey documented these tools systematically in the 1930s.

Who made the Oldowan? The classic answer was Homo habilis; but in 2015 much rougher tools dating to 3.3 million years ago were found at Lomekwi in Kenya — long before the genus Homo. This suggests tool-making was not exclusive to Homo, and that an Australopithecus-like ancestor was also doing it. The point remains contested.

The critical thing is how the tools were used: sharp edges cut meat, break bone, and strip tough plant roots. Pulling meat from predator kills and cracking bone for marrow added calorie-dense protein to the hominin diet. Most anthropologists view this energy stream as a precondition for the expansion of the brain; a large brain cannot be sustained without meat and marrow.

Oldowan technology persisted with little change for roughly a million years. Then, around 1.7 million years ago with Homo erectus, the more systematic, symmetrical Acheulean handaxe would emerge — opening a new stage in tool-making. The simplicity of the Oldowan is deceptive: it is the foundation stone of the entire pyramid of human technology.