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 Awash valley in the Afar region of Ethiopia, where the objects were found, has yielded many important remains associated with hominids — early humans — within the last 30 years. Hominids may have originated there. 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. Semaw, director of the Gona Project organized from CRAFT (Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology) at Indiana University, is the first Ethiopian to lead a major project to conduct research in African prehistory. 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.

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