Kenya's "Swiss Knifes" Finally Have A Birthday by Alex Nunez

In the shoreline sediments of Lake Turkana in Kenya, French scientists found hand axes in the 1990's. Sadly, it was not until today that the technology was advanced enough for American and French scientist to be able to determine the date that the Stone Age Swiss knifes were made. Scientists now know that the tools' age are 1.76 million years old, older than any other previous discoveries of the Achelulian tools which were found in places like Etheopia.

Now the question is why did homo erectus not take this wonder tool with it when it migrated out of Africa? Some scientists think that the reason why the tools stayed in Africa is because the group that migrated out of Africa did not use the tools. The strange thing is that they were known to carry their tools for up to 100 km, why did they not carry their tools with them. Also, the stones had very specific designs and were planned, why leave them behind if they had so much work put into them. Now how did they find out the age of the stones?
The way that scientist were able to determine the age of the artifacts was by finding out the age of the soil it was found in. The way they did that was by using a technique called paleomagnetism. This technique tells scientist whether the magnetic bits in the soil are pointing toward the Arctic or toward Antarctica. Now, I know what you're thinking, how does that have to do with when the stones were carved. Well, in the last 10 million years, the poles have switched about 4 to 5 times. Now if they find out where the poles where at the time then they can estimate the time that the stones were carved.


Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14754314

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/really-really-old-tech-and-the-new-tech-used-to-study-it/244413/