Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:46:31.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New insights into hominin lithic activities at FLK North Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

F. Diez-Martin ,
P. Sanchez Yustos ,
M. Domínguez-Rodrigo ,
A.Z.P. Mabulla ,
H.T. Bunn ,
G.M. Ashley ,
R. Barba  and
E. Baquedano
F. Diez-Martin*
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Valladolid, Plaza del Campus s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
P. Sanchez Yustos
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Valladolid, Plaza del Campus s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
M. Domínguez-Rodrigo
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Complutense University, Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain IDEA (Instituto de Evolución en África), Museo de los Orígenes, Plaza de San Andrés 2, 28005 Madrid, Spain
A.Z.P. Mabulla
Affiliation:
Archaeology Unit, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35050, Tanzania
H.T. Bunn
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA
G.M. Ashley
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8066, USA
R. Barba
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Complutense University, Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
E. Baquedano
Affiliation:
Museo Arqueológico Regional, Plaza de las Bernardas s/n, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain IDEA (Instituto de Evolución en África), Museo de los Orígenes, Plaza de San Andrés 2, 28005 Madrid, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. Fax: +34 983 423 197. E-mail address:[email protected] (F. Diez-Martin).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent work at FLK North (FLK N) has unearthed a new archaeological assemblage recovered with precise control of its stratigraphic position. In the present work, the technological study of the new lithic sample is described. The results show the co-occurrence in the same site of different technological behaviors. At FLK N, hominins were involved in both percussion/battering activities and through freehand and bipolar knapping, in core reduction. However, the reconstruction of the operational sequences shows that core reduction was probably a marginal behavior, while percussion/battering activities occurred more regularly throughout the sequence. If hominins were not involved in regular carcass processing, as recent taphonomic studies suggest, then hominins' sporadic and low-impact visits to the site over a long period of time must have been driven by other activities probably linked to the exploitation of alternative resources. Plant processing could have been a plausible explanation for hominin presence at FLK N.

Keywords

TechnologyTypologyOperational sequencesBattering activitiesKnapping activitiesLandscape strategiesHominin impactPlant resources
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 376 - 387
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amick, D., and Mauldyn, R.P. Effects of raw material on flake breakage patterns. Lithic Technology 22, (1997). 18–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrefsky, W. Lithics. Macroscopic approaches to analysis. (1998). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ashley, G.M., Barboni, D., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., Bunn, H.T., Mabulla, A.Z.P., Diez-Martin, F., Barba, R., and Baquedano, E. A spring and wooded habitat at FLK Zinj and their relevance to origins of human behavior. Quaternary Research 74, (2010). 304–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baena, J. Tecnología lítica experimental. B.A.R., International Series 721, Oxford. (1998). Google Scholar
Binford, L.R., and Quimby, G.I. Indian sites and chipped stone materials in the Northern Lake Michigan area. Fieldiana Anthropology 36, (1963). 277–307.Google Scholar
Bisson, M.S. Lithic reduction sequences as an aid to the analysis of Later Stone Age quartz assemblages from the Luano Spring, Chingola, Zambia. African Archaeological Review 8, (1990). 103–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boëda, E. Levallois: a volumetric construction, methods, a technique. Dibble, H., and Bar-Yosef, O. The definition and interpretation of Levallois technique. (1995). Prehistory Press, Madison. 41–68.Google Scholar
Bower, J.R.F. Attributes of Oldowan and Lower Acheulean tools: ‘tradition’ and design in the Early Lower Palaeolithic. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 32, (1977). 113–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradbury, A.P., and Carr, P.J. Combining aggregate and individual methods of flake debris analysis: aggregate trend analysis. North American Archaeologist 25, (2004). 65–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brantingham, P.J. Mobility, competition, and Plio-Pleistocene hominid foraging groups. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 5, (1998). 57–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crabtree, D.E. An introduction to flintworking. Occasional Papers of the Idaho Museum of Natural History 28, (1982). Pocatello, Google Scholar
Curtoni, R.P. Experimentando con bipolares: indicadores e implicaciones arqueológicas. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología XXI, (1996). 187–214.Google Scholar
de Beaume, S.A. The invention of technology. Current Anthropology 45, (2004). 139–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Torre, I., and Mora, R. Technological strategies in the Lower Pleistocene at Olduvai Beds I and II. Eraul 112, (2005). University of Liege Press, Brussels.Google Scholar
de la Torre, I., and Mora, R. Unmodified lithic material at Olduvai Bed I: manuports or ecofacts?. Journal of Archaeological Science 32, (2005). 273–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diez-Martín, F., Sánchez Yustos, P., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., Mabulla, A.Z.P., and Barba, R. Where Olduvai hominins making butchering tools or battering tools? Analysis of a recently excavated lithic assemblage from BK (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28, (2009). 274–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diez-Martín, F., Sánchez Yustos, P., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Prendergast, M. E. in press. An experimental study of bipolar and freehand knapping of Naibor Soit quartz from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). American Antiquity.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Barba, R., and Egeland, C.P. Deconstructing Olduvai. (2007). Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Mabulla, A.Z.P., Bunn, H.T., Diez-Martín, F., Barba, R., Domínguez-Solera, S., Sánchez, P., Ashley, G.M., and Baquedano, E. Disentangling hominin and carnivore activities near a spring at FLK North (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania). Quaternary Research 74, (2010). 363–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egeland, C.P. Patterns of early hominid site use at Olduvai Gorge. Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 17, (2008). 9–37.Google Scholar
Goodyear, A.C. Toolkit entropy and bipolar reduction: a study of interassemblage variability among paleo-indian sites in the Northeastern United States. North American Archaeologist 14, (1993). 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goren-Inbar, N., Sharon, G., Melamed, Y., and Kislev, M.E. Nuts, nut cracking and pitted stones at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99, (2002). 2455–2460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Honea, K.H. The bipolar flaking technique in Texas and New Mexico. Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society 36, (1965). 259–267.Google Scholar
Jeske, R.J. Energetic efficiency and lithic technology: an Upper Mississippian example. American Antiquity 57, (1992). 467–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeske, R.J., and Lurie, R. The archaeological visibility of bipolar technology: an example from the Koster site. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 18, (1993). 131–160.Google Scholar
Jones, P.R. Results of experimental work in relation to the stone industries of Olduvai Gorge. Leakey, M. Olduvai Gorge 5. Excavations in Beds III, IV and the Masek Beds, 1968-1979. (1994). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 254–298.Google Scholar
Joulian, F. Comparing chimpanzee and early hominid techniques: some contributions to cultural and cognitive questions. Mellars, P.A., and Gibson, K.R. Modeling the early human mind. (1996). McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge. 173–189.Google Scholar
Kimura, Y. Tool-using strategies by early hominids at Beds I and II, Olduvai Gorge. Journal of Human Evolution 37, (1999). 807–831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobayashi, H. The experimental study of bipolar flakes. Swanson, E. Lithic technology: making and using stone tools. (1975). The Hague, Mouton. 115–127.Google Scholar
Kuitj, I., Prentiss, W.C., and Pokotylo, D.L. Bipolar reduction: an experimental study of debitage variability. Lithic Technology 20, (1995). 100–115.Google Scholar
Leaf, G.R. Variation in the form of bipolar cores. Plains Anthropologist 24, (1979). 39–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leakey, M.D. Preliminary survey of the cultural material form Beds I and II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Bishop, W.W., and Clark, J.D. Background to evolution in Africa. (1967). University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 417–446.Google Scholar
Leakey, M.D. Olduvai Gorge. Excavations in Bed I and II, 1960-63 vol. 3, (1971). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Leakey, M.D. A summary and discussion of the archaeological evidence from Bed I and Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Isaac, G.L., and Mc Cowan, E.R. Human origins. Louis Leakey and the East African evidence. (1976). W.A. Benjamin, Inc, Menlo Park. 431–460.Google Scholar
Ludwig, B.V. A technological reassessment of East African Plio-Pleistocene lithic artifact assemblages. Unpublished Ph.D. (1999). University of Rutgers, New Brunswick.Google Scholar
Mercader, J., Panger, M.A., and Boesch, C. Excavation of a chimpanzee stone tool site in the African rainforest. Science 296, (2002). 1452–1455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mourre, V. Le débitage sur enclume au Paléolithique moyen dans le Sud-ouest de la France. Van Peer, P., Bonjean, D., and Semal, P. Acts of the XIV UISPP Congress, Liège. (2004). 29–38.Google Scholar
Pickering, T.R., and Egeland, C.P. Experimental patterns of hammerstone percussion damage on bones: implications for inferences of carcass processing by humans. Journal of Archaeological Science 33, (2006). 459–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, R. Early hominid activities at Olduvai. (1988). Aldine de Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Potts, R. Why the Oldowan? Plio-Pleistocene tool-making and the transport of resources. Journal of Anthropological Research 47, (1991). 153–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prous, A., and Lima, M.A. A tecnologia de debitagem do quartzo no centro de Minas Gerais: lascamento bipolar. Arquivos do Museu de História Natural da UFMG XI. (1990). 91–114.Google Scholar
Roche, H. Premiers outils taillés d'Afrique. (1980). Société d'Ethnographie, Paris.Google Scholar
Sahnouni, M. Étude comparative des galets taillés polyédriques, subsphériques et sphériques des gisements d'Ain Hanech (Algérie Orientale) et d'Olduvai (Tanzanie). L'Anthropologie 97, (1993). 51–68.Google Scholar
Shott, M.J. Bipolar industries: ethnographic evidence and archaeological implications. North American Archaeologist 10, (1989). 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suillivan, A.P., and Rozen, K.C. Debitage. Analysis and archaeological interpretation. American Antiquity 50, (1985). 755–779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toth, N., (1982). The stone technologies of early hominids at Koobi Fora, Kenya: An experimental approach. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, .Google Scholar
Toth, N. The Oldowan Reassessed: a Close Look at Early Stone Artifacts.. Journal of Archaeological Science 12, (1985). 101–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, R.C., Manega, P.C., Hay, R.L., Drake, R.E., and Curtis, G.H. Laser-fusion 40 Ar/39Ar dating of Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Nature 354, (1991). 145–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willoughby, P.R. Spheroids and battered stones in the African Early and Middle Stone Age. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 17, (1987). B.A.R. International Series 321. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports Google Scholar