Topic
Oldowan
About: Oldowan is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 367 publications have been published within this topic receiving 18561 citations.
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TL;DR: The discovery of Lomekwi 3 is reported, a 3.3-million-year-old archaeological site where in situ stone artefacts occur in spatiotemporal association with Pliocene hominin fossils in a wooded palaeoenvironment and the name ‘Lomekwian’ is proposed, which predates the Oldowan by 700,000 years and marks a new beginning to the known archaeological record.
Abstract: Human evolutionary scholars have long supposed that the earliest stone tools were made by the genus Homo and that this technological development was directly linked to climate change and the spread of savannah grasslands. New fieldwork in West Turkana, Kenya, has identified evidence of much earlier hominin technological behaviour. We report the discovery of Lomekwi 3, a 3.3-million-year-old archaeological site where in situ stone artefacts occur in spatiotemporal association with Pliocene hominin fossils in a wooded palaeoenvironment. The Lomekwi 3 knappers, with a developing understanding of stone's fracture properties, combined core reduction with battering activities. Given the implications of the Lomekwi 3 assemblage for models aiming to converge environmental change, hominin evolution and technological origins, we propose for it the name 'Lomekwian', which predates the Oldowan by 700,000 years and marks a new beginning to the known archaeological record.
631 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the 1.75-million-year-old faunal assemblage from the FLK Zinjanthropus site at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania was examined and skeletal-part frequencies were used to evaluate hominid access to and differential transport of carcass portions of differing nutritional value.
Abstract: Human origins research by archaeologists has expanded the evidence of the diet and subsistence activities of ancient hominids. We examine an important component of that evidence, the 1.75-million-year-old faunal assemblage from the FLK Zinjanthropus site at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Skeletal-part frequencies are used to evaluate hominid access to and differential transport of carcass portions of differing nutritional value. Cut-mark frequencies and locations are used to evaluate butchery patterns including skinning, disarticulation, and defleshing of carcasses. In contrast to other recently published assessments of the FLK Zinjanthropus data, we conclude that (1) ancient hominids had full access to meaty carcasses of many small and large animals prior to any substantial loss of meat or marrow bones through other predator or scavenger feeding; (2) ancient hominids were butchering animal carcasses by an efficient and systematic technique that involved skinning, disarticulation, and defleshing; and (3) the FL...
590 citations
TL;DR: The artefacts show surprisingly sophisticated control of stone fracture mechanics, equivalent to much younger Oldowan assemblages of Early Pleistocene age, which indicates an unexpectedly long period of technological stasis in the Oldowan.
Abstract: The Oldowan Stone tool industry was named for 1.8-million-year-old (Myr) artefacts found near the bottom of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Subsequent archaeological research in the Omo (Ethiopia) and Turkana (Kenya) also yielded stone tools dated to 2.3 Myr. Palaeoanthropological investigations in the Hadar region of the Awash Valley of Ethiopia1, revealed Oldowan assemblages in the adjacent Gona River drainage2. We conducted field work in the Gona study area of Ethiopia between 1992 and 1994 which resulted in additional archaeological discoveries as well as radio-isotopic age control and a magnetic polarity stratigraphy of the Gona sequence. These occurrences are now securely dated between 2.6–2.5 Myr. The stone tools are thus the oldest known artefacts from anywhere in the world. The artefacts show surprisingly sophisticated control of stone fracture mechanics, equivalent to much younger Oldowan assemblages of Early Pleistocene age. This indicates an unexpectedly long period of technological stasis in the Oldowan.
561 citations
TL;DR: The combined evidence suggests that behavioral changes associated with lithic technology and enhanced carnivory may have been coincident with the emergence of the Homo clade from Australopithecus afarensis in eastern Africa.
Abstract: The Hata Member of the Bouri Formation is defined for Pliocene sedimentary outcrops in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia The Hata Member is dated to 25 million years ago and has produced a new species of Australopithecus and hominid postcranial remains not currently assigned to species Spatially associated zooarchaeological remains show that hominids acquired meat and marrow by 25 million years ago and that they are the near contemporary of Oldowan artifacts at nearby Gona The combined evidence suggests that behavioral changes associated with lithic technology and enhanced carnivory may have been coincident with the emergence of the Homo clade from Australopithecus afarensis in eastern Africa
428 citations
TL;DR: Early Stone Age assemblages called "Oldowan" and early "Developed Oldowan" are discussed, based on the results of a long-term study of Plio-Pleistocene sites at Koobi Fora, Kenya and an extensive experimental research program of replicating and using early stone artifact forms.
407 citations