Co-director Nicholas Toth makes stone tools near Victoria Falls, Zambia

The bonobo Kanzi makes simple stone tools in one of the Institute's long-term research projects

The Stone Age Institute is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of technology, adaptation and evolution in human prehistory.

Humankind's ability to modify our world through tools and technology has been the most important adaptive strategy shaping humankind, both physiologically and culturally.

Understanding this technological trajectory is fundamental to understanding the modern human condition.

Institute researchers study human technological origins and development at field sites in Algeria, Ethiopia, South Africa and New Guinea and in lab work with modern apes and humans using up-to-date kinematic and brain imaging techniques.