https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/proof-of-a-2000-kilometre-polar-trade-route-in-volcanic-glass-dating-back-at-least-8000-years/?comm_order=best

DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
> https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/proof-of-a-2000-kilometre-polar-trade-route-in-volcanic-glass-dating-back-at-least-8000-years/?comm_order=best
>

Yes, carrying lithics for long sitances is an old behavior.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1571301/
The role of load-carrying in the evolution of modern body proportions

"The best documented cases of Oldowan raw material transport are from
Olduvai Bed I, where distances of 3–12 km have been established
(Leakey, 1971; Hay, 1976). East Turkana also provides instances of the
importation of raw material on to floodplains of the ancient lake, over
distances of up to 20 km (Harris & Herbich, 1978). However, in
Acheulean sites, evidence suggests that transport occurs more often – and
over much greater distances. At Olorgesailie, Isaac (1977) notes occurrences
of quartz brought over 40 km. At Kilombe, similarly, two obsidian bifaces
appear among many hundreds made from local lavas, and the
implication is again that long-distance transport occurred (Gowlett,
1982). At Gadeb, in eastern Ethiopia, dated at about 1.5 Ma, several obsidian
bifaces apparently document a transport distance of over 100 km (Clark,
1980).
Thus, the archaeological record suggests that transport both became more
common and occurred over much greater distances, during the period in
which Homo acquired its modern human-like postcranial skeleton."

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.551.142&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Oldowan behavior and raw material transport: perspectives from the Kanjera
Formation

"These data show that hominins selected raw materials for transport at
frequencies that are significantly different from their availability on
ancient
landscapes. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of the assemblage
represents
transport over relatively long distances (>10 km). Our study further
suggests that
in the early stages of stone tool use hominins used a wide variety of raw
materials
and selected these materials at some distance from their eventual discard
locations."

"The location of these silica rich Nyanzian cherts is restricted to
a few hills at the foot of the Kisii Highlands (Fig. 5), and therefore
the closest primary source outcrop to Kanjera South is approximately
35 km from the archaeological site."