Is there a Developed Oldowan A at Olduvai Gorge? A diachronic analysis of the Oldowan in Bed I and Lower-Middle Bed II at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Proffitt, Tomos

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.01.006

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…The relative increased prevalence of retouch on chert tools (e.g. at HWK EE retouched chert artefacts make up 12.9% of the total chert assemblage compared with 0.5% of the quartzite assemblage [17]) can similarly be associated with the exploitation of a superior raw material over extended durations or multiple tool-use events [14, 16,21]. Basalt would have represented a comparatively poor choice for expedient cutting tools; particularly those used for cutting activities involving highly extensible or flexible materials [31].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raw material optimization and stone tool engineering in the Early Stone Age of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Key

Proffitt

Torre

2020

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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For more than 1.8 million years hominins at Olduvai Gorge were faced with a choice: whether to use lavas, quartzite or chert to produce stone tools. All are available locally and all are suitable for stone tool production. Using controlled cutting tests and fracture mechanics theory we examine raw material selection decisions throughout Olduvai's Early Stone Age. We quantify the force, work and material deformation required by each stone type when cutting, before using these data to compare edge sharpness and durability. Significant differences are identified, confirming performance to depend on raw material choice. When combined with artefact data, we demonstrate that Early Stone Age hominins optimized raw material choices based on functional performance characteristics. Doing so flexibly: choosing raw materials dependent on their sharpness and durability, alongside a tool's loading potential and anticipated use-life. In this way, we demonstrate that early lithic artefacts at Olduvai Gorge were engineered to be functionally optimized cutting tools.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raw material optimization and stone tool engineering in the Early Stone Age of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Key

Proffitt

Torre

2020

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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“…Chert Hay 1976 Geolocality Hay 1976;Kimura 1997;Kyara 1999;Leakey 1971;O'Neil and Hay 1973;Proffitt 2018;Stiles 1991Stiles , 1998Stiles et al 1974…”

Section: Geolocality 78bmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithic Raw Material Characterisation at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Favreau¹,

Mercader²

2019

Preprint

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Olduvai Gorge is located within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Tanzania along the western margin of the East African Rift System. Olduvai’s sedimentary record exhibits a complex sequence of inter-stratified lithic technologies including Oldowan, Acheulean, Middle Stone Age, and Later Stone Age assemblages. While diachronic technological change is perceptible, one aspect that remained largely unchanged through time was the totality of locally available rock types. This study constitutes Olduvai Gorge’s first systematic survey and characterisation of source lithologies using thin section petrography. The primary objectives of this thesis were to establish the range of available lithic raw materials, petrographically characterise these, and determine if there were unique inter-outcrop petrographic signatures to determine if it is feasible to source lithic artifacts at the mineralogical level. Geological samples were collected in primary and secondary positions within the greater Olduvai Gorge region. A total of seventy-four thin sections of sixty-two geological samples from nineteen sources were analysed. By way of comparative analyses, it is shown that four quartzitic outcrops have unique mineral compositions, four meta-granite varieties are unique to individual outcrops, Engelosin phonolite samples are texturally and mineralogically unique, and magmatic samples recovered in secondary position may be sourced to their volcanic centre. The results of this thesis demonstrate it is feasible to differentiate between source material by way of optical mineralogy which implies that sourcing lithic artifacts from Olduvai is possible. Altogether, these revelatory insights will allow future researchers to glean new understandings of hominin raw material transport, as well as ecological and social behaviour within the Olduvai paleobasin.

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“…It is characterized by core-and-flake technology typical of the Oldowan with simple flaking techniques and minimal reduction of cores, which are abundant in the collection compared with the number of flakes and debitage. Retouched flake frequencies and battered tools are higher than those reported for Olduvai Bed I and Lower Bed II assemblages (Leakey, 1971;Proffitt, this volume;de la Torre and Mora, 2005), yet flaking schemes are poorly organized and rarely affect more than one area of a core.…”

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confidence: 68%

A hidden treasure of the Lower Pleistocene at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania: The Leakey HWK EE assemblage

Pante

Torre

2018

Journal of Human Evolution

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HWK EE is a little-known archaeological site from the top of Lower Bed II and the basal part of Middle Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The site was originally excavated in the early 1970s by Mary Leakey, but the excavations and resulting lithic and fossil assemblages were never described. Here we report for the first time on the lithic and fossil assemblages that were recovered by Mary Leakey from the site. The lithic assemblage is one of the largest of any Oldowan site and is characterized by a core-and-flake technology with simple flaking techniques and minimal reduction of cores. Retouched flake frequencies and battered tools are higher than those reported for Olduvai Bed I and Lower Bed II assemblages, but flaking schemes are poorly organized. The fossil assemblage is well-preserved, taxonomically-rich, but dominated by bovids, and includes abundant feeding traces of both hominins and carnivores. Hominins are inferred to have broken the majority of limb bones at the site for access to marrow, while both carnivores and hominins likely had access to at least some flesh. HWK EE may represent one of the last Homo habilis sites at Olduvai Gorge, and is important to understanding the behavioral and cultural mechanisms that led to the emergence of the Acheulean and Homo erectus in the region.

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Is there a Developed Oldowan A at Olduvai Gorge? A diachronic analysis of the Oldowan in Bed I and Lower-Middle Bed II at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Cited by 33 publications

References 77 publications

Raw material optimization and stone tool engineering in the Early Stone Age of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Raw material optimization and stone tool engineering in the Early Stone Age of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Lithic Raw Material Characterisation at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

A hidden treasure of the Lower Pleistocene at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania: The Leakey HWK EE assemblage

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