Oldest Cave Dwellers - Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa

A research team led by Professor Michael Chazan (director of the University of Toronto's Archaeology Centre) have identified a number of very small stone tools found at the bottom level of the cave show that human ancestors were in the cave around 2 million years ago.

Geological evidence indicates that these stone tools were deposited in the cave and not washed into the site from the outside.

The Wonderwerk Cave is located in Northern Cape Province, South Africa between Danielskuil and Kuruman.

• Approx age:2,000,000 BC
• Hominid: Homo habilis
• Found: 2008
• Location: Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

Oldest Human Footprint - Homo erectus in Kenya

Footprints discovered by Jack Harris, Brian Richmond, and David Braun in 2007 at the Homo erectus site of Ileret  are "the oldest undisputed evidence of hominins (probably Homo erectus) walking in an efficient style like we do."  

The footprints were found in Koobi Fora, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana, in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people in Kenya.

Scientists led by Dr Matthew Bennett, from the University of Bournemouth in Poole, scanned the prints and compared them with those of modern humans and the Laetoli prints.

• Approx age:1,500,000 BC
• Hominid: Homo erectus or Homo ergaster
• Found: 2007
• Location: Koobi Fora, Kenya

Oldest complete Human skeleton in UK - Cheddar Man

• Approx age:7,150 BC
• Found: 1903
• Location: Cheddar Gorge

Oldest known Neolithic settlement - Çatalhöyük

• Approx age:7,000 and 5,000 BC
• Found: 1958
• Location: Central Turkey

Oldest Stone Buildings - Megalithic Temples of Malta

• Approx age: 3500–2500 BC
• Location: Malta & Gozo

Oldest Human Tools - Australopithecus afarensis in Ethiopia

Bones found in Ethiopia and dating to around 3.4 million years ago, show cuts from stone tools, indicating that the bones were forcibly broken to remove marrow.

The bones indicate that Lucy's species, Australopithecus afarensis, used stone tools to help consume meat, as it was the only hominid species known from the Dikika region at that time .

• Approx age:3,400,000 BC
• Hominid: Australopithecus afarensis
• Found: 2009
• Location: Dikika, Ethiopia

Oldest Wooden Artefacts/Weapons - Spears from Schöningen in Germany

Four wooden spears found by Hartmut Thieme of the Institut für Denkmalpflege in Hannover are the oldest human-made wooden artifacts (and weapons) ever found. The 2m spears were found in soil whose acids had been neutralised by a high concentration of chalk near the coal pit.

Three of the spears were probably made for throwing, as their weight and tapered points are at the front of the spear to allow a straight flight, similar to the design of a modern javelin. The last spear is shorter with points at both ends and is thought to be a thrusting spear.

They were found along with stone tools and the butchered remains of about 20 horses (one of the horse remains found still had a spear sticking out of its pelvis).

• Approx age:400,000 BCE
• Found 1995
• Location: Coal Mine in Schöningen, Germany

Oldest Water Containers - Ostrich Egg Shells in South Africa

More than 270 Ostrich eggshell fragments (with a maximum size of 20–30mm) from at least 25 separate eggs, were found by Pierre-Jean Texier and his team from University of Bordeaux during research at the Diepkloof Rock Shelter in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Patterns were etched into the side of the eggs and included a hatched band like a railway track, parallel lines, intersecting lines and cross-hatching. Many of the eggs are thought to have been used as water containers during prehistory, a tradition that continues with todays hunter-gatherers in the Kalahari, who collect ostrich eggs, for food, as beads, or water containers. They puncture a small hole in the top of the egg, empty their contents and fill them with an average of 1 ltr of water.

• Approx age:60,000 BC
• Location: Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa

Oldest Bone Needles - Kostenki site in Russia

The oldest dated bone and ivory sowing needles with eyelets were found at a group of more than 20 sites along the Don River near the villages of Kostenki and Borshevo (250 miles south of Moscow). Most of the stone used for artefact construction was imported from between 60 miles and 100 miles away

The main display room in the Kostenki Museum shows a dig partially excavated, with the remains of mammoths strewn across the floor.

• Approx age:30,000 - 40,000BC
• Location: Kostenki, Russia

Oldest Surgical Procedure - Trepanning

Trepanning (also known as trephination or trephining) is a surgical procedure in which a hole is drilled into the human skull to remove a piece of bone.

Radiocarbon dating of the Dnieper Rapids cemeteries near Kiev in Ukraine, show that succesful trepanation was performed on one skeleton (no. 6285-9). The skull (originally reported in Russian by I.I. Gokhman in 1966) has a depression on its left side with a raised border of bone and "stepping" in the centre showing healing during life. The complete closure suggests the survival of the patient, a man who was over 50 years old at his death.

Other known examples of early trepanning were found at a neolithic burial site of Ensisheim in France.

• Approx age 7,300 - 6,220 BC
• Location: Dnieper Rapids cemeteries, Ukraine

Oldest known settlement map (or Leopard spots??) - Çatalhöyük

• Approx age:6,200 BC
• Found: 1958 -1964
• Location: Central Turkey

Oldest known shoe - Armenia

• Approx age:3,500 BC
• Found: 2008
• Location: Armenia

Oldest Art - Auditorium Cave at Bhimbetka

The oldest known art dating from at least 290,000BCE is the series of Cupules discovered in two ancient quartzite caves in India: Auditorium Cave, Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh. The cave is a 25m long horizontal cave and in the centre stands an enormous boulder called Chief's Rock (2.5m high and 3.4m wide).

In 1990, nine cupules with evidence of a red pigment were found on Chief's Rock and in 1991a further cupule was found with meandering line next to it. These were covered by deposits from the Acheulian and later periods, so allowing dating. However later research by other dating methods (micro-erosion analysis) suggested that these cupules were made 700,000 years ago.

• Approx age: 290,000 -700,00BC
• Found: 1990
• Location: Auditorium Cave, India

Oldest Art Kit - Abalone Shells and Ochre

In 2008 Archaeologists discovered two sets of art kits a cave in South Africa. The team of researchers, led by Professor Christopher Henshilwood from the universities of Bergen and Witwatersrand, believe that the orche was used for forms of artwork. The two tool kits thought to be 100,000 years old, includes abalone shells, ochre, bone, charcoal, grindstones and hammerstones. The ochre – made from soft rock with red or yellow pigments - was probably ground into a fine powder by the use of quartzite cobbles, before being mixed and heated with crushed stones or bones in the abalone shells. Microscopic inspection of the abalone surfaces reveals a "high water mark" on the shells' inner wall, as evidence that an unknown liquid, probably urine, blood, animal fats or water was used for paint mixing.

• Approx age:100,000 BC
• Material: abalone shells
• Found: 2008
• Location: South Africa

First Musical Instrument - Bone Flute

• Approx age:35,000 - 40,000 BC
• Material: Wing or radius bone of a griffon vulture
• Found: 2009
• Location: Hohle Fels Cave (Southern Germany)

Oldest Human ceramic scuplture - Venus of Dolni Vestonice

• Approx age:26,000 BC
• Material: A mixture of animal bonemeal and clay
• Found: 1925
• Location: Czech Republic