Exciting stone tool find in Kenya   BBC - September 1, 2011
The world's earliest sophisticated stone tools have been found near Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya. The teardrop-shaped hand-axes date to about 1.76 million years ago, and would have been used for a range of tasks from chopping wood to cutting up meat. They would have been so useful in fact that scientists describe them as the "Swiss army knife" of the Stone Age.

Ancient Toolmakers Plied Craft Near Niagara Falls   Live Science - June 16, 2011
An ancient campsite where people were manufacturing tools has been discovered near the Niagara Falls. This find, combined with other archaeological discoveries in the area over the past few decades, suggests that such campsites lined the Niagara River as far back as 4,000 years ago. So far, the team has unearthed more than 20,000 artifacts, mostly bits of rock broken off when people were creating stone tools, on the southeastern tip of Grand Island New York, about 12 miles (20 km) upstream from Niagara Falls. The earliest artifacts at the site date back at least 4,000 years, opening a window on a time when people were living a nomadic lifestyle based on hunting, fishing and gathering plants. =

Stone tools 'demand new American story'   BBC - March 25, 2011
The long-held theory of how humans first populated the Americas may have been well and truly broken. Archaeologists have unearthed thousands of stone tools that predate the technology widely assumed to have been carried by the first settlers. The discoveries in Texas are seen as compelling evidence that the so-called Clovis culture does not represent America's original immigrants. Details of the 15,500-year-old finds are reported in Science magazine.

Island tool finds show early settlers' diversity   BBC - March 4, 2011
Caches of tools and animal remains from around 12,000 years ago, found on islands off the California coast, have given remarkable insight into the lives of the first Americans. The finds show fine tool technology and a rich maritime economy existed there. The tools vary markedly from mainland cultures of the era such as the Clovis.

Cretan tools point to 130,000-year-old sea travel   PhysOrg - January 3, 2011
Greece's culture ministry says archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world's earliest sea voyages by humans.A ministry statement says archaeologists from Greece and the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old in shelters on the island's south coast.

Lucy the Butcher? Tool Use Pushed Back 800,000 Years   National Geographic - August 12, 2010
Early human ancestors may have been using tools about 800,000 years earlier than thought, according to a new study based on newfound bone evidence - prehistoric leftovers linked to the famed "Lucy" fossil's species. The discovery suggests, to at least one scientist, that tool use may extend as far back as five million years ago, to the last common ancestor of chimps and humans.

Tool-making and meat-eating began 3.5 million years ago   BBC - August 11, 2010

Researchers have found evidence that hominins - early human ancestors - used stone tools to cleave meat from animal bones more than 3.2 million years ago. That pushes back the earliest known tool use and meat-eating in such hominins by more than 800,000 years.

Discovery Pushes Human Tool Use Back 800,000 Years   Live Science - August 11, 2010
The timeline of early human evolution needs another revision with the discovery that human ancestors used tools 800,000 years earlier than previously realized. The finding in Ethiopia, a pair of mammalian fossil bones marred by tool marks, pushes tool use back into the age of Australopithecus afarensis, an early human ancestor that lived in east Africa 3 million to 4 million years ago. Archaeologists previously believed that early human ancestors, or hominins, started using tools 2.5 million years ago. That's when evidence shows one of the first Homo species, Homo habilis, began butchering meat with sharpened stones. (Our species, Homo sapiens, didn't show up until about 200,000 years ago.) But the new find is approximately 3.39 million years old, older than the famous Australopithecus fossil "Lucy," who lived near the find site 3.2 million years ago.

Ancient artifacts revealed as northern ice patches melt   PhysOrg - April 26, 2010
High in the Mackenzie Mountains, scientists are finding a treasure trove of ancient hunting tools being revealed as warming temperatures melt patches of ice that have been in place for thousands of years.

Giant stone-age axes found in African lake basin   PhysOrg - September 10, 2009

Four giant stone hand axes were recovered from the the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert.

Hand axes in Europe nearly a million years old: study   PhysOrg - September 3, 2009
Early humans used two-sided stone axes in Europe up to 900,000 years ago, far earlier than previously thought, according to a study released Wednesday.

Prehistoric tools discovered at Isles of Shoals   PhysOrg - August 27, 2009
Summer students in Cornell's new Archaeology Field School at Shoals Marine Laboratory, Cornell's marine field station, have discovered the first prehistoric archaeological site in the Isles of Shoals, six miles off the Maine and New Hampshire coast.

Ancient Weapons Point to First Use of Fire for Tools?   National Geographic - August 14, 2009

Early toolmakers were 'engineers'   BBC - August 14, 2009

Ancient Bone Tool Sheds Light On Prehistoric Midwest Science Daily - October 23, 2008

Stone Age Hand Axes Found at Bottom of North Sea National Geographic - March 17, 2008

Stone "Tools" Found; May Be Among America's Oldest National Geographic - February 15, 2007

Front garden yields ancient tools BBC - June 20, 2006
It comes in the form of giant flint handaxes that have been unearthed at a site at Cuxton in Kent.

Iron Age tool marks move to steel BBC - May 2004

A tiny Iron Age tool found in Holland is one of the oldest objects unearthed in Europe made from the alloy steel.

9,000-year-old artifacts uncovered January 2003 - BBC

More than 8,000 pieces of flint, including small microlith blades and bigger tools used for hunting and fishing.