Scientists in Morocco unearth Stone Age hand-axe site dating back 1.3 million years

The find pushes back by hundreds of thousands of years the start date in North Africa of the Acheulian stone tool industry associated with a key human ancestor, Homo erectus, researchers on the team told journalists in Rabat. It was made during excavations at a quarry on the outskirts of the country's economic capital Casablanca.

This "major discovery ... contributes to enriching the debate on the emergence of the Acheulian in Africa," said Abderrahim Mohib, co-director of the Franco-Moroccan "Prehistory of Casablanca" programme. Before the find, the presence in Morocco of the Acheulian stone tool industry was thought to date back 700,000 years.

Mohib said the study made it possible to attest to "the oldest presence in Morocco of humans" who were "variants of Homo erectus".

In 2017, the discovery of five fossils at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco, estimated at 300,000 years old, overturned evolutionary science when they were designated Homo sapiens. The Moroccan fossils were much older than some with similar facial characteristics excavated from Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, dating back around 195,000 years

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20210728-scientists-in-morocco-unearth-stone-age-hand-axe-dating-back-1-3-million-years

These Stone-Age tools belong to the same archaeological period as a hand axe,
which was unearthed in Morocco in July 2021, and dates back 1.3 million years.
© Musée de Toulouse, Creative Commons