Oldowan sites, tools, hominids

Named for site of Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania. Earliest formally recognized cultural tradition of the Lower Paleolithic. Recent finds if accepted suggest that Homo rudolfensis, and perhaps Homo habilis, carrying Oldowan Mode I tool technology, spread out of Africa into the Middle East, Asia, and perhaps Europe.

Early and key sites:
Ounda Gona, Ethiopia, 2.6 million years ago (MYA) - core-flake tools
.....and cutmarked bones (equid, bovid); highly selective raw material use
Kada Gona, Ethiopia, 2.52-2.60 MYA - core-flake tools
Bouri, Ethopia, 2.5 MYA - cutmarked animal bones, Australopithecus garhi
Omo, Shungura, Ethiopia
.....Member D, 2.4-2.5 MYA - Homo sp. indet.
.....Member E, 2.3-2.4 MYA - core-flake tools and Homo sp. indet.
?Yiron, Israel, 2.4 MYA - tools?
Lokalalei 1, 2C, West Turkana, Kenya, 2.34 MYA - core-flake tools
Kada Hadar, Ethiopia, 2.2-2.33 MYA - core-flake tools and H. sp. indet.
Uraha, Malawi, 2.1-2.5 MYA - UR 501 Homo rudolfensis
Senge 5, Zaire, 2.0-2.3 MYA - core-flake tools, bipolar reduction
Renzidong, China, 2.0-2.5 MYA - core-flake tools
Dmanisi, Georgia, 2.0/1.8-1.6 MYA - Homo habilis-like, core-flake industry
Xiaochangliang, China, 1.9-2.0 or more MYA - core-flake tools
Riwat and Pabbi Hills, Pakistan, >1.9 or 2.5 MYA - pebble core, flake, chopping
,,,,, tools
Longgupo, China, 1.96 MYA(?) - 2 flake tools; Homo sp. indet.
Koobi Fora, East Turkana, Kenya
.....Upper Burgi KBS, 1.88-1.9 MYA - ER 1470 Homo rudolfensis,
..........ER 1812, 2598, 3228 Homo ergaster, core-flake tools
.....Karari, around 1.5 MYA - developed core-flake industry,
..........controlled use of fire, FxJj 20 Main, flakes show microwear
..........polish suggesting cutting soft animal tissue, soft plant material
..........and scraping and sawing wood (Keeley and Toth 1981)
Erq-el-Ahmar, Israel, 1.78-1.96 MYA - pebble tools
Olduvai, Tanzania,
.....Bed I, 1.75-2.0 MYA - OH 7 H. habilis, Oldowan tools
.....Lower Bed II, 1.6-1.75 MYA - OH 13 H. habilis, Developed
..........Oldowan A tools
Sterkfontein, South Africa, Member 5 1.7-2.0 MYA - core-flake tools
.....with residues of plant remains and animal remains (Loy 1998);
.....horncores used to excavate termite mounds; Homo habilis-like skull
.....with stone tool cutmarks indicates earliest evidence of 'post-mortem
.....manipulation of hominid carcasses'
Ain Hanech and El-Kherba, Algeria - c. 1.8 MYA - Oldowan tools
Peninj, West Natron, Tanzania, 1.4-1.7 MYA - Oldowan tools,
.....worked bifacial hierarchical centripetal strategy' with 'template
.....image'to obtain pre-determined flakes
Ubeidiya, Israel, lower layers, 1,1-1.4 MYA - core-flake (Developed Oldowan)
Swartkrans, South Africa, Members 1-3 1.0-1.8 MYA - Australopithecus
.....robustus in all three Members, Homo erectus in Members 1 and 2;
.....intentional grinding to sharpen horncores for termite foraging in all
.....three Members;
Orce Ravine, Spain
.....Barranco León BL5, 1.07-1.78 MYA - core-flake, homo sp. indet.
.....Venta Micena bed, 1.07-1.78 MYA - core-flake tools,
..........Homo sp. indet.
.....Fuente Nueva FN3, 1.07-1.78 MYA - core-flake tools

Paleontology: Homo habilis and the more recently discovered Homo rudolfensis appear in the fossil record at about the same time as the earliest Oldowan tools. Most paleoanthropologists consider that they were the innovators of Mode I technology. Associations of stone tools with earlier or contemporaneous Australopithecines are not yet evident.

Tool Characteristics:

Mode I Pre-Oldowan. Earliest known hominid tool sites, such as Gona, Omo, Hadar, Lokalalei, Senge, which are dated from around 2.5 MYA (million years ago) to 2 MYA, appear to represent an early phase of Oldowan technology. The Oldowan industry may be called the 'core-flake' industry since it comprises cores and flakes or the "pebble tool" industry since the cores are often waterworn pebbles. The 'Pre-Oldowan' industry seems characterized by a skillful use of bipolar knapping technique in which a stone is placed on an anvil stone and struck with a hammerstone to detach 'flakes' from the 'core'. The flakes were used as cutting tools. The Pre-Oldowan may itself have been preceded by a still earlier phase in which pebbles were simply shattered to yield debris with sharp cutting edges, although there is no convincing evidence yet for such a stage.
Mode I Classic Oldowan. This industry is defined on the basis of artifact assemblages from Bed I and Lower Bed II, Olduvai Gorge (c. 1.9-1.6 MYA, i.e., million years ago). It is characterized by use of a hammerstone to detach 'flakes' from a pebble or cobble 'core'. The bipolar tradition continues, with addition of direct percussion of stone as it is held in the hand. Flaked material consists primarily of cores (sometimes called 'core-tools'), flakes and other 'utilized material'. Cores are classified as choppers, discoids, polyhedrons, scrapers, spheroids and subspheroids, burins. Utilized material includes battered hammerstones and anvils; utilized, unmodified, and waste ('débitage') flakes; and manuports, that is, unmodified cobbles and other rocks that have been brought to the site by early humans.
Mode I Developed Oldowan. This industry at Olduvai (c. 1.6 MYA) includes the addition of protobifaces, which may be an indigenous development or influenced by contemporary Acheulian industries. A comparable development occurs at Koobi Fora, the Karari industry (c. 1.5 MYA). Some Oldowan-type artifacts, such as choppers, may occur in stone-tool assemblages up to the present time.

Economic Subsistence Mode: Oldowan hominids primarily gathered fruits and vegetables and scavenged, medium and large size game. Possibly, like chimpanzees, Oldowan hominids occasionally killed small game to supplement their diet.

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