Ardi Is #1

Science magazine has declared the work on "Ardi"  "the scientific breakthrough of 2009" (see: New Details on 4.4 Million Year Old Hominid). In an editorial, the editor in chief at Science writes, " This breakthrough “changes the way we think about early human evolution."

Division of Labor — Pre Homo sapiens style

The same magazine reports that Israeli archaeologists, led by Nira Alperson, have explored an 800,000 year old site near the Dead Sea and found evidence that work in a hominid settlement was divided by type. Flint was worked in one location, shell fish cracked open in another, and vegetable remains found in another.

Early Sorghum Working

The same issue reports that evidence of sorghum residue on hundred thousand year old stone tools have been found in a cave in Mozambique. Sorghum is a grain that is still widely consumed in Africa. Seed (grain) eating is usually dated much closer to an 11 thousand year old date. 

None of these stories directly relates to language, but each of them pushes back the date of other features thought peculiarly human, implying that the date for language in some form should probably be pushed back as well.

I might add as a personal note, during my teaching years in an African village I was very familiar with the sight of women pounding grain to break it open, so I feel it is easy for me to imagine a world in which the Mozambique cave dwellers did such work.