Production and use of percussive stone tools in the Early Stone Age: Experimental approach to the lithic record of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 367-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Policarpo Sánchez Yustos ◽  
Fernando Diez-Martín ◽  
Isabel M. Díaz ◽  
Javier Duque ◽  
Cristina Fraile ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (162) ◽  
pp. 20190377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Key ◽  
Tomos Proffitt ◽  
Ignacio de la Torre
Keyword(s):  
Functional Performance ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Cutting Tools ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Material Optimization ◽  
Early Stone Age

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.

scholarly journals Group-specific archaeological signatures of stone tool use in wild macaques

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia V Luncz ◽  
Mike Gill ◽  
Tomos Proffitt ◽  
Magdalena S Svensson ◽  
Lars Kulik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Macaca Fascicularis ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Old World Monkeys ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Ecological Diversity ◽  
Early Stone Age

Stone tools in the prehistoric record are the most abundant source of evidence for understanding early hominin technological and cultural variation. The field of primate archaeology is well placed to improve our scientific knowledge by using the tool behaviours of living primates as models to test hypotheses related to the adoption of tools by early stone-age hominins. Previously we have shown that diversity in stone tool behaviour between neighbouring groups of long-tailed macaques (Macaca-fascicularis) could be explained by ecological and environmental circumstances (Luncz et al., 2017b). Here however, we report archaeological evidence, which shows that the selection and reuse of tools cannot entirely be explained by ecological diversity. These results suggest that tool-use may develop differently within species of old-world monkeys, and that the evidence of material culture can differ within the same timeframe at local geographic scales and in spite of shared environmental and ecological settings.

Olduvai Gorge and Human Origins

Antiquity ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 36 (141) ◽  
pp. 41-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Napier ◽  
J. S. Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Small Animals ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
East African ◽  
Stone Artifacts ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
Early Stone Age ◽  
Fossil Bones ◽  
Hunting Ground

Nearly two years have passed since Dr L.S.B. Leakey announced the first of a series of remarkable discoveries at Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika. The great importance of this region as a palaeontological hunting ground has been appreciated since 1911 when, by chance, a German entomologist picked up a number of fossil bones which had been eroded on to the surface of the slopes of this East African Pleistocene canyon. Since 1931 Dr Leakey has made repeated visits to the Gorge where steadily he has been building up the evidence of an early stone-age cultural sequence.In July, 1959, Dr and Mrs Leakey discovered a hominid skull which was lying partly exposed on the slopes, 22 ft. below the upper limit of Bed I, the lowest stratum of the Pleistocene sequence at Olduvai. Excavation of the site revealed that the skull was fragmented but almost complete and was lying on a living floor containing tools of a recognized culture (Oldowan) as well as waste flakes and unworked stones, all foreign to the site; in addition there were a number of broken and splintered bones of small animals which had apparently constituted part of the diet of the incumbents. Subsequently, a tibia and fibula were recovered from the same living floor. Dr Leakey named the skull Zinjanthropus boisei (PLATE x (a)). During 1960, excavations were started at a slightly lower level of Bed I and in December, 1960, Dr Leakey reported the discovery of a number of adult and juvenile bones of the hand and foot, two clavicles and some skull (parietal) fragments. This was rapidly followed by the important discovery of a juvenile mandible from the same level (PLATE XI). A number of stone artifacts of an Oldowan culture have also come to light from the juvenile site.

scholarly journals Nut Cracking Tools Used by Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Their Comparison with Early Stone Age Percussive Artefacts from Olduvai Gorge

PLoS ONE ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. e0166788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Arroyo ◽  
Satoshi Hirata ◽  
Tetsuro Matsuzawa ◽  
Ignacio de la Torre
Keyword(s):  
Pan Troglodytes ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age ◽  
Nut Cracking

scholarly journals Quantifying 3D Micro‐Surface Changes on Experimental Stones Used to Break Bones and Their Implications for the Analysis of Early Stone Age Pounding Tools

Archaeometry ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Benito‐Calvo ◽  
A. Arroyo ◽  
L. Sánchez‐Romero ◽  
M. Pante ◽  
I. Torre
Keyword(s):  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age ◽  
Surface Changes
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