Lomekwian

English[edit]

From Lomekwi +‎ -an, after the archaeological site Lomekwi 3 in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya. From no earlier than 2015, the year of publication of the discovery.

Lomekwian (not comparable)

(archaeology) Of or pertaining to the period when certain stone artefacts, found at the archaeological site Lomekwi 3 in Kenya, were manufactured and used, apparently by hominins prior to the emergence of genus Homo.
- 2017, Margaret E. Lewis, “Chapter 2: Carnivore Guilds and the Impact of Hominin Dispersals”, in Nicole Boivin, Rémy Crassard, Michael Petraglia, editors, Human Dispersal and Species Movement: From Prehistory to the Present, Cambridge University Press, page 31:
  Makers of Lomekwian tools show less of an understanding of stone fracture mechanics and a reduced reliance on a free-hand technique than makers of Oldowan tools, the next oldest stone tool industry.
- 2017, Christina De La Rocha, Daniel J. Conley, Silica Stories, Springer, page 31:
  These Lomekwian tools, such as the one illustrated in Fig. 3.1, were an earth-shattering find. They are hundreds of thousands of years older than the previously oldest stone tools found and they absolutely and unquestionably could not have been made by any human being (if your definition of human restricts itself to members of genus Homo, which did not come about until about half a million years later). Finally, these Lomekwian stone tools are of a different style than all previously known stone tools.

Lomekwian

(archaeology) A loosely defined period, approximately 3.3 million years ago, characterised by the manufacture and use of the tools found at Lomekwi 3.