New Yields from the Oldoway Bone Beds, Tanganyika Territory

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

“…It was suggested that both the DOA and DOB were produced by H. habilis with the latter taken as evidence of inter-species technological mimicry or appropriation (Leakey, 1971(Leakey, , 1975). This was a marked departure from Louis Leakey's previous view of cultural evolution at Olduvai, which was argued to be a gradual evolution from simple Chellean material to more advanced Acheulean handaxes, produced by a single hominin species (Leakey et al, 1931;Leakey, 1951Leakey, , 1954.…”

The origins of the Acheulean: past and present perspectives on a major transition in human evolution

“…For example, Goodwin [21,22] and Later Stone Age, but refused to use the terms Chellean or Acheulean, and proposed instead a local sequence which started with the Stellenbosch industry. In East Africa, the succession of discoveries would also force accommodation of new cultures unknown in Europe; thus, Leakey [23] reported a pebble industry in the lowermost deposits of Olduvai Gorge. While a discussion of the historical roots of the Oldowan is beyond the scope of this paper (see review in [24]), it is relevant here to stress that Louis Leakey presented for the first time a credible (i.e.…”

The origins of stone tool technology in Africa: a historical perspective

“…In his first visit to the gorge in 1931, Louis Leakey discovered in the lower part of the sequence stone tools that seemed to exist before the emergence of handaxes and the Chellean. The first news of this novel industry was published in Nature on 26 December of that year [12], although the term Oldowan was still not employed (table 1). A little later, a conference was organized in Cambridge by the Royal Anthropological Institute to discuss Leakey's [25] discoveries.…”

“…A rolled pebble or a nodule of chert, or a rough lump of almost any kind of rock is trimmed very roughly along one edge or side, so as to produce a jagged cutting edge' [22, p. 144], and a formal definition would follow, asserting that 'The Oldowan culture comprises a series of artefacts which are made either from water-worn pebbles or from lumps of rock. The piece of material to be made into a tool was then trimmed very roughly by striking off flakes in two directions so that the line of 1999 sophisticated reduction sequences reported at Lokalalei 2C [13] 1997 earliest stone tools dated at 2.5 Ma in Gona [14] 1973 first archaeological discoveries in Hadar [15] 1971 publication of excavations in Olduvai Beds I and II [16] 1969 first lithics discovered in Omo [17,18] 1961 radiometric dating of the Oldowan at Olduvai [19] 1960 discovery of Homo habilis, considered the first Oldowan toolmaker [20] 1959 discovery of Zinjanthropus boisei associated with Oldowan tools [21] 1934 formal description of the Oldowan [22,23] 1931 Louis Leakey reports 'pre-Chellean' artefacts in Olduvai [12] 1913 Hans Reck reports fossiliferous beds in Olduvai [24] intersection of these flake scars gave a jagged cutting edge along one side of the pebble or lump of rock' [23, p. 40]. The Oldowan was not automatically accepted by all researchers as evidence of the earliest human culture in Africa.…”