Ancient tools rewrite Greece’s timeline

Stone tools dated about 700,000 years ago found in Megalopolis, southern Greece.

DEEP in an open coal mine in southern Greece, researchers have discovered the antiquities-rich country’s oldest archaeological site, which dates to 700,000 years ago and is associated with modern humans’ hominin ancestors.

The find announced earlier this month would drag the dawn of Greek archaeology back by as much as a quarter of a million years, although older hominin sites have been discovered elsewhere in Europe. The oldest, in Spain, dates back to more than a million years.