Stone tool uncovered in Turkey pintpoints when humans left Asia for Europe
Artefact uncovered in western Turkey
CBC News Posted: Dec 23, 2014 1:56 PM ET, Last Updated: Dec 23, 2014 1:56 PM ET, Source - CBC Canada
The quartzite flake, found in Western Turkey, has placed humans in the area between 1.24 million and 1.17 million years ago. (University of Royal Holloway London)
The discovery of a very old stone tool in Turkey has helped scientists to consider when early humans passed through the gateway from Asia to Europe.
The tool, a quartzite flake, was uncovered in the ancient deposits of the Gediz river in western Turkey and has been dated to approximately 1.2 million years old, according to the research published in Quaternary Science Reviews.
“The flake was an incredibly exciting find," said Danielle Schreve, lead researcher from the department of geography at the University of Royal Holloway in London, England.
"I had been studying the sediments in the meander bend and my eye was drawn to a pinkish stone on the surface. When I turned it over for a better look, the features of a humanly struck artifact were immediately apparent.”
Researchers then used radioisotopic dating and other measurements from lava flows from the vicinity of the find to properly date the artifact.
The results placed humans in the area between 1.24 million and 1.17 million years ago.
The little stone piece provides crucial new insight into when and how early humans dispersed out of Africa and Asia.
“This discovery is critical for establishing the timing and route of early human dispersal into Europe,” points out Schreve in a statement released by the university.
“Our research suggests that the flake is the earliest securely dated artifact from Turkey ever recorded and was dropped on the floodplain by an early hominin well over a million years ago."
Sites from the Paleolithic period in Turkey are rare. Even when some fossils were recovered in 2007 in the region, scientists were unable to properly date them.
Scientists have had little to go on in terms of pinpointing the timeframe when humans left Asia for Europe.
Source - http://www.cbc.ca/news/technol...for-europe-1.2882600