Oldowan - d) grooved and pecked stone, possible baboon head, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, c. 1.8 MYA.

Comment: Intentionally grooved and pecked cobble, FLK North, Level 1, Upper Bed I, c. 1.75-1.76 MYA. Mary Leakey notes resemblance to a baboon head. Perhaps also used as an anvil. Many examples of anvils with shapes resembling monkey (macaque) or baboon-like heads have been found in Northwest Europe, despite fact that baboon fossils have not been found. See Slide O in this gallery. From our current perspective, and perhaps that of Oldowan ancestors, the use of baboon-headed anvils to create tools and palaeoart may appear to be a humorous comment on the evolution of humans and the human mind.

Photo © Leakey, M. (1971). Olduvai Gorge, Vol. 3. Cambridge: At the University Press: pl. 18; see pp. 84, 269.