Regarding Levallois technology circa 325k years ago (using flakes from stones to create handy tools), it’s commonly believed that the technology originated in Africa and spread as humans migrated. Not so, say researchers from Royal Holloway and the University of London: Based on new evidence found in Armenia, it appears that localized groups were developing similar technologies concurrently. The findings help reshape the way we think about early human technology and migration.

“The discovery of thousands of stone artifacts preserved at this unique site provides a major new insight into how Stone Age tools developed during a period of profound human behavioural and biological change”, said Dr Simon Blockley from the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway. “The people who lived there 325,000 years ago were much more innovative than previously thought, using a combination of two different technologies to make tools that were extremely important for the mobile hunter-gatherers of the time.”

By analyzing the volcanic material preserving the Armenian site, researchers were able to date the tools found to between 325k and 335k years ago – about the time the Levallois technology was believed to have originated in Africa. Instead, the people of the area appear to have developed it themselves out of biface, a more primitive technology. This would indicate that localized groups of early humans were generally more innovative than they were previously given credit.

“Our findings challenge the theory held by many archaeologists that Levallois technology was invented in Africa and spread to Eurasia as the human population expanded. Due to our ability to accurately date the site in Armenia, we now have the first clear evidence that this significant development in human innovation occurred independently within different populations.”

Levallois differs significantly from biface. With biface, stones were chipped and flaked from two sides to create large tools such as axes and spear heads. With Levallois, the flakes are not discarded as waste, but created purposefully to be used as smaller, easier to carry tools like hand knives.