The Moroccan team welcomes the Stone Age tool site dating back 1.3 million years Morocco

Archaeologists Morocco have reported finding the oldest Stone Age hand ax manufacturing site in North Africa, dating back 1.3 million years, an international team has announced.

The discovery pushes hundreds of thousands of years back to the start date in the north Africa the Acheulian stone tool industry associated with the human ancestor Standing maninvestigators told reporters in Rabat on Wednesday.

The discovery was made during excavations at a quarry on the outskirts of Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco.

This will help enrich the debate on the occurrence of acheuli in Africa, said Abderrahim Mohib, prehistoric director of the Casablanca program in France and Morocco.

Previously, the presence of the Acheulia stone tool industry in Morocco was estimated to be 700,000 years ago. The discoveries at the Thomas Quarry I site, made famous in 1969 when human half-salmon were found in the cave, mean that the Acheulian there is almost twice as old.

The 17-person team behind the discovery consisted of Moroccan, French, and Italian scientists, and their findings are based on a study of stone tools taken from the site.

Moroccan archaeologist Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer called the news chronological. He said the beginning of Acheulian in Morocco is now close to the start date of southern and eastern Africa 1.6 m and 1.8 m years ago.

Earlier people had come to terms with the more primitive little tools known as Oldowa, after their East African-style place. Research in the Casablanca region has been done for decades and has supplied one of Africa’s richest Acheul formations, Mohib said. It is very important because we are talking about prehistoric time, a complex period with little information.

Mohib said the investigation would also allow to prove the oldest presence in Morocco of people who were variants Standing man.

In 2017, five fossils were discovered 100 km west of Marrakesh Jebel Irhoud , estimated to be 300,000 years old, overturned the science of evolution when they were appointed homo sapiens.

Moroccan fossils were much older than some with similar facial features excavated from Omo Kibishi in Ethiopia, about 195,000 years ago.