Middle Awash

The Middle Awash is an archaeological site along the Awash River in Ethiopia's Afar Depression. A number of Pleistocene and late Miocene hominid remains have been found at the site, along with some of the oldest known Olduwan stone artifacts and patches of fire-baked clay, disputed evidence of the use of fire. Chimpanzee and human lineages are thought to have split around this time, somewhere between 5 million and 7 million years ago.