Scientists have just made an incredible new discovery in India that could shed further light on mankind’s migration out of Africa. Researchers found stone tools that were dated to between 385,000 years ago in Tamil Nadu, India, which challenges the view that modern humans brought such tools to the continent less than 140,000 years ago.

The tools were found at a site known as Attirampakkam, which is on the banks of a stream of the Kortallaiyar River. A team of researchers were able to find layers of stone tools that had been deposited in the area over time, and appeared to be the location of settlements of early hominins and apes, stretching back 1.7 million years ago.

The findingss are important because it could mean that ancient humans who lived in India were able to develop stone tool-making technology on their own without the help of a migration of more advanced humans from Africa. It could also mean that modern humans migrated out of Africa earlier than had been thought, and it may have happened within tens of thousands of years of them evolving.