Stone Age tools not just from Africa, archaeologists in Armenia find

Innovative Stone Age tools may have been developed by people in Eurasia and - contrary to widely held views - not just invented in Africa, a new study has found.

Research published in the journal Science shows evidence that refined stone weapons were developed in Armenia about 325,000 years ago.

This challenges the theory held by many archaeologists that such technology came from Africa, then spread to Eurasia as the human population expanded.

Experts studied thousands of stone artefacts from the Nor Geghi village archaeological site in Armenia.

"The discovery of thousands of stone artefacts 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," researcher Simon Blockley, from the Royal Holloway geography department of the University of London, said.

Research honed in on a type of technology known as Levallois, where stone flakes were used to make items like pointed hunting weapons. The technology was an improvement over a more primitive type of stone shaping called biface.