New Article On Gona 2.5 MYA Tool Site

 http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20031117/kitchen.html

 Nov. 21, 2003 — Stone tools dating to 2.6-2.5 million years ago, along
 with associated broken animal bones, have been found in Gona, Ethiopia,
 at a place that served as the earliest known controlled setting for food
 preparation, according to an article released by Southern Connecticut
 State University and confirmed by the Gona Palaeoanthropological Research
 Project.
 ...
 The stone tools consist of broken cobbles deliberately modified for making
 simple knife-like flakes used for cutting up animal carcasses and possibly
 for sharpening digging sticks to dig up underground food items, such as
 tubers, Sileshi Semaw told Discovery News. ...

 Researchers could link only one of the bones to a specific animal species.
 It is an anklebone from an equid, a mammal belonging to a family that
 includes horses, asses, zebras, and extinct related animals.

 At this very early date in hominid history, there is no evidence for
 structures. The food preparation site at Gona would have been outdoors next to
 a water source.

 "The site appears to be near a river bank and it seems to have been favored by
 our ancestors because of the abundant stone raw material available as sources
 for making the stone tools, and the nearby ancient streams for fresh drinking
 water, and trees for shade and probably refuge from predators," Semaw said. 

 Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo, a visiting professor at Harvard University, has worked
 at the Gona site. He told Discovery News, " ... in a forthcoming work, we will
 report that in several of these early sites we have gathered a substantial amount
 of cut-marked bones. These cut marks were created by the use of the stone tools
 to butcher animal carcasses, therefore that is a clear functional link between
 the stone tools and the bones."

 Because there is no record of early humans using tools to butcher animals before
 this date, the kitchen site indicates an important shift in diet.

 "It reveals that meat and animal protein began to become an important part of
 human diets at that precise moment," Dominguez-Rodrigo said. "It is interesting
 to note that all the hominid species would become extinct not much more time
 after that, and that only those humans involved in meat eating survived."

 Dominguez-Rodrigo added, "Intelligence expressed in the form of a big brain needed
 more energy, and the most efficient way of obtaining it in a savanna is through the
 consumption of animal protein." 
 ...

Some interesting comments from the researchers.