Gona, Ethiopia

Last updated

Gona, Ethiopia
Ethiopia relief location map.jpg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Location of Gona in Ethiopia
Alternative nameGona Research Project area
Location North Wollo,
Amhara Region,
Flag of Ethiopia.svg  Ethiopia
RegionEastern Africa,
Great Rift Valley
Coordinates 12°14′00″N39°14′00″E / 12.233333°N 39.233333°E / 12.233333; 39.233333
TypeArchaeological

Gona is a paleoanthropological research area in Ethiopia's Afar Region. [1] Gona is primarily known for its archaeological sites and discoveries of hominin fossils from the Late Miocene, Early Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. [2] [3] [4] [5] Fossils of Ardipithecus and Homo erectus were discovered there. [3] [4] [5] Two of the most significant finds are an Ardipithecus ramidus postcranial skeleton and an essentially complete Homo erectus pelvis. [6] Historically, Gona had the oldest documented Oldowan artifact assemblages. [2] Archaeologists have since found older examples of the Oldowan at other sites. [7] [8] Still, Gona's Oldowan assemblages have been essential to the archaeological understanding of the Oldowan. [9] [10] [1] Gona's Acheulean archaeological sites have helped us understand the beginnings of the Acheulean Industry. [5] [11]

Contents

History

Paleoanthropological interest in the locality that would eventually become the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area began after a French geologist, Maurice Taieb, undertook a geological reconnaissance survey of the Afar Rift in the late 1960s. [1] This initial research led to an archaeological survey of the area around the Kada Gona River. [1] During the survey, the researchers found artifact-bearing deposits. [1] The first excavation occurred in the West part of the Gona Project area in 1976; this site has since been named WG1. [1] In the early 1980s, the Ethiopian government passed a moratorium on archaeological fieldwork. [1] In 1987, the newly established People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia allowed archaeological fieldwork to resume. [1] This decision permitted Selshi Semaw to conduct his first survey of Gona's archaeological sites. [1] Soon after this initial survey, Semaw initiated the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project. [1]

The first systemic excavations of Gona sites by Semaw and his colleagues took place between 1992 and 1994. [12] Two sites they excavated during this period, East Gona 10 (EG-10) and East Gona 12 (EG-12), yielded a high density of artifacts attributed to the Oldowan stone tool industry. [12] The artifacts from these sites were eventually dated to 2.6 Ma (million years ago) using radiometric dating and magnetostratigraphy. [2]

Only a few years after the initial publication of the East Gona sites, Semaw and colleagues described two new sites in the Ounda Gona South area, Ounda Gona South 6 (OGS-6) and Ounda Gona South 7 (OGS-7) dated to 2.6 Ma. [13] OGS-6 and OGS-7 are important sites for understanding the early Oldowan because the stone tool assemblages were associated with fossilized animal bones with cut marks on their surfaces. [13] Up to this point in the early 2000s, very little archaeological evidence was available to corroborate many archaeologists' theory that hominins used early Oldowan stone tools for processing animal carcasses to obtain meat. [14]

Gona was widely known for many years as the site with the oldest Oldowan artifacts. However, in 2019 the results from an excavation at the Bokol-Dora 1 site in the Ledi-Geraru Research Project area in the Ethiopian Lower Awash Valley were published. [7] The excavation at Bokol-Dora 1 recovered Oldowan artifacts that are between 2.61 and 2.58 Ma. [7] The archaeologists who published on this site suggest that the artifacts are closer to 2.58 Ma. [7] However, there has been some controversy regarding this date. [15] Then, in 2023, a report from an excavation at Nyayanga, Kenya, on the Homa Peninsula found Oldowan artifacts in sediment dated 3.032 to 2.581 Ma. [8] With two assemblages with earlier dates for their Oldowan artifacts, archaeologists do not think the Gona Oldowan assemblages are the oldest documented instance of the Oldowan. Even though the Oldowan artifact assemblages from Gona aren't the oldest, they are still significant because they help researchers understand hominin behavior. [10] [9] [1]

Geography

The Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project is a 500 square kilometres (190 sq mi) area of badlands within the west-central part of Ethiopia's Afar Region. [1] The southernmost boundary of the project area is the Asbole River. [2] The northernmost is the Bati-Mille Road. [2] The Eastern border is the Hadar Research Project area. [2] The Western Ethiopian Escarpment forms the westernmost extent of the project area. [2] There are five major tributaries of the Awash River in the Gona Research Project area from northernmost to southernmost: the Kada Gona, the Ounda Gona, the Dana Aoule, the Busidima River, and the Asbole River. [16] Most of Gona's sites are near these five rivers, so many of the sites in the project area are named based on the tributary they are closest to and the cardinal direction of the site related to the river. [16] For example, sites south of the Ounda Gona are called Ounda Gona South (OGS), followed by the site number.

Paleoanthropology

Hominin fossils from Gona are used by palaeoanthropologists studying human evolution in the Late Miocene, Early Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. [6] [5] [3]

Ardipithecus

Researchers collected several fossil teeth attributed to Ardipithecus kadabba in two different localities: the Escarpment and Asbole Dora. [3] The fossils were dated using their stratigraphic location within the Adu-Asa Formation, which dates to the Miocene. [16] The fossils from the Escarpment are approximately 5.4 million years old, and those from Asbole Dora are around 6.3 million. [3] The age of these teeth situates them within the time frame of the speciation of the chimpanzee and human lineages. [3] When researchers analyzed these teeth, they had features associated with the pattern in later hominin dentition. [3] These observations help reconstruct a crucial time in hominin evolution for which very little evidence is available. [3]

Ardipithecus ramidus fossils have been collected from Early Pliocene sediments at multiple localities in the Gona Western Margin area. [4] [17] These localities are associated with the As Duma fault. [4] The fossils were dated using the established geochronology for the project area, argon-argon dating, and additional non-hominin fossils from the same period. [17] The date range for these fossils is between 4.8 and 4.32 million years ago. [17] Most of the fossils are fragments that are not associated with a single individual. [4] These fossils consist of isolated teeth, parts of the maxilla, mandible, and postcranial bones from the hands, feet, and lower leg. [4] [17] The Gona Western Margin 67 locality is unique because researchers think the fossils found are from a single individual. [17] They believe they are from a single individual because none of the bones have duplicates, and the elements' size and level of preservation are consistent. [17] The majority of the elements of the skeleton collected are from the feet and legs. [17] One of the main questions that paleoanthropologists want to understand is how bipedalism evolved. Ar. ramidus has adaptations for walking on two legs but retains a lot of adaptations for arboreality. [17] The Gona Western Margin 67 individual has helped researchers understand how Ar. ramidus walked on two legs. [17] Particularly how variation in anatomy impacted the way they walked. [17]

Homo erectus

Researchers also have found Homo erectus fossils in the Gona project area. At Busidima North 49 (BSN49), paleoanthropologists found an adult female's lumbar vertebra and an almost complete pelvis. [6] This locality of the Gona project area is part of the Busidima geological formation. [6] Geologists used sediment accumulation for the formation to narrow the range of dates. [6] The fossil is likely from between 1.4 and 0.9 million years ago. [6] This fossil is significant in the paleoanthropological community because there are very few pelvic H. erectus fossils, and this fossil pelvis is essentially complete. [6] There is a specific research question in human evolution known as the obstetric dilemma, where the female pelvis had to develop novel adaptations to accommodate the large size of the neonatal head due to the expansion of the brain during human evolution. [6] Before collecting and describing this fossil, researchers thought that H. erectus did not have modifications in the pelvis to account for the larger brain size of their babies. [6] However, this conclusion was based on estimating the shape of the H. erectus birth canal from the Turkana Boy fossil because that was what was available then. [6] Simpson and colleagues were able to describe specific modifications in the Gona pelvis related to changing the size and shape of the birth canal in modern humans, which proved that H. erectus did have adaptations in the anatomy of their pelvis for giving birth to larger-brained offspring. [6]

Two other H. erectus fossils were parts of the skull found at different archaeological sites. [5] The earlier site, Dana Aoule North 5 (DAN5), is dated between 1.6 and 1.5 Ma. [5] Busidima North 12 (BSN12) is younger. It dates to 1.26 Ma. [5] The DAN5 H. erectus cranium was small and gracile. [5] In contrast, the BSN12 skull was more robust and larger. [5] Initially, researchers suggested that the differences in the two skulls resulted from sexual dimorphism and that the smaller skull was a female. [5] But findings from further investigations did not support this claim. [18] These researchers thought that the size and shape differences of the two fossil skulls were related to the expansion of H. erectus brain size over time and not sexual dimorphism. [18]

Geology

Geological setting

The Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project is within the Afar Triangle, a geological depression created by the East African Rift system. [16] The site is a classic rift basin formed via rifting and volcanism. [16] The As Duma fault is a major geological feature in the project area, which forms the western half of the Awash half-graben. [16] The Adu-asa formation shows the most volcanic activity and volcanic rocks dominate its sediments. [16] The Sangatole and Hadar formations have a decreased level of volcanic activity and an increase in sedimentation rates. [16] The Busidima formation shows a decrease in sedimentation, evidence of a drainage system, and a large river. [16] [19] Sedimentation ended after 0.16 Ma when the Awash River incised the area. [16] The incision of the Awash River created badlands that characterize the project area today. [16]

Geochronology

Gona's geochronology [16]
Geological formationAge (Ma)
Busidima Formation2.7 - < 0.15
Hadar Formation3.9 - 2.9
Sagantole Formation< 5.2 - 3.9
Adu-asa Formation> 6.4 - 5.2

Gona's geological formations span the last 6.4 million years. [16] The dates for the archaeological sites and fossils from Gona rely on the project area's established geochronology and detailed stratigraphy. [16] Geologists used tephrostratigraphy, paleomagnetic dating, and argon-argon dating to construct Gona's geochronology. [16]

Archaeology

Oldowan technological behavior

The Oldowan assemblages from Gona play a significant role in research seeking to understand the technological behavior of Oldowan tool makers. Technological behavior describes actions related to producing and using a particular technology, such as Oldowan artifacts. [20] Stone knapping follows the principles of conchoidal fracture mechanics. [20] Flaking must be approached in a specific way to achieve the desired outcome of the tool maker. [21] The desired result of Oldowan stone tools was to create a sharp cutting edge. [21] The tool maker would have to make a series of technical choices to make a sharp cutting-edge during manufacturing. [22] They needed to select an appropriate raw material with a structure amenable to conchoidal fracture. [22] They would have chosen a particular knapping technique, which in most cases would be hard hammer percussion. [22] They would employ a specific reduction strategy, which is the pattern of how they reduced the core to create flakes. [22] Archaeologists are interested in these choices because looking at the variation in these choices allows researchers to form inferences about why this variation occurs. [22] [23] These inferences inform the goal of this type of archaeological research, which is to understand the relationship between tool use and hominin biological evolution. [20]

Using the manufacturing choices of hominins to try and understand higher-order questions about human evolution requires qualifying the choices as intentional behavior. Archaeologists in this field widely accept that Oldowan hominins selected specific raw materials. [24] Gona's Pliocene archaeological sites provide an example of this selectivity. [10] Oldowan archaeological sites at Gona are all closely associated with the paleo-Awash suggesting that hominins did not range outside of the paleo-Awash floodplain, at least for activities that leave an archaeological signature. [10] When Stout and colleagues compared the river cobbles at archaeological sites to the assemblages from those sites, they found that early Oldowan tool makers preferentially used rocks with properties that made them ideal for flake production. [10] Stout and colleagues used this fact to argue that the hominins at Oldowan were proficient in engaging with technological behavior and the properties in stone that would be necessary to create the desired outcome. [10] Stout and colleagues further suggest that material selectivity was present even in some of the earliest examples of the Oldowan. [10]

Gona assemblages have also featured in several debates regarding the underlying cause of variation in Oldowan assemblages.[ citation needed ]

Variation through time

Pre-Oldowan

The archaeological record from the first documented instances of the Oldowan at around 2.6 million years ago to approximately 2 million years ago (Ma) is very patchy. [1] The lack of early Oldowan sites was especially true in the mid-1990s when Semaw first excavated at Gona. [25] The patchy nature of the record during this period led some archaeologists in the 1990s and early 2000s to suggest distinguishing Oldowan artifacts from before 2.0 Ma and those after 2.0 Ma. [24] These researchers broadly designated sites before 2.0 Ma as pre-Oldowan. [24] The archaeologist Mzalendo Kibunjia was one proponent of this argument. [24] [25] Kibunjia formulated the Omo Industrial Complex to encompass the archaeological sites from this period. [25] A primary feature of this complex is a lower degree of skill in knapping. [25] Semaw disagreed with creating this distinction. When Semaw first described the East Gona (EG) 10 and EG-12 assemblages, he noted that none of the tools or their features fell outside the norm of other Oldowan assemblages from later. [12] [2] He argued that the hominins who made the tools at EG-10 and EG-12 were proficient in flake production and understood the basic principles of fracture mechanics based on the almost 3,000 artifacts collected from the sites. [2] Semaw asserted that this indicated "technological stasis" in the Oldowan. [2] In other words, the technological behavior remains similar, despite some variations. [2] Although more recently, Semaw and his collaborators have moved away from this characterization of the Oldowan. [23] [9] As time has passed, the idea of the pre-Oldowan has mostly fallen out of favor. [24] [23]

Evolution of early lithic technology

The discovery of the Lomekwian and the Bokol Dora 1 assemblage from Ledi-Geraru has opened more questions and debates about the nature of variation in lithic technology during its first occurrences in the archaeological record. In his description of the Bokol Dora 1 (BD1) Oldowan assemblage, Braun suggests that the BD1 artifacts might be slightly less sophisticated than the oldest Gona assemblage. [7] This statement indicates a trend of gradual variation through time. [7] [20] However, knowing if time is the source of the observed differences is challenging because of the multiple confounding factors that could be at work. [20] The discovery of the Lomekwian, dating to 3.3 Ma, has further complicated the discussion and debate surrounding early examples of lithic technology. [26] The significant time gap between the Lomekwi 3 assemblage and the emergence of the Oldowan has left some archaeologists skeptical. [20] However, Flicker and Key have found that statistically, there is currently no support for the idea that the Lomekwian and Oldowan are the results of technological convergence. [27] Flicker and Key's analysis suggests that Oldowan and the Lomekwian should be considered related unless further distinction can be made on the basis of technological attributes. [27] The discourse surrounding these earliest examples of stone tool technology will continue to evolve as more information comes to light in the form of further discoveries.

Cumulative culture debate

The origin of human culture is an area of research in Paleolithic archaeology that holds a lot of importance for understanding human evolution and behavior. [28] [29] [9] [30] Human culture is cumulative. [31] [9] Cultural traditions pass through many generations, and innovation occurs over time. [9] [31] The development of cumulative culture was an essential component of hominin brain expansion. [9] The brains of the hominins who used Oldowan stone tools were a lot smaller than the brains of modern humans. [9] There is debate about the Oldowan Industry's place in human culture's evolution. [9] [30] This debate features some of Gona's Oldowan assemblages as evidence and pulls from research on primate social behavior. [23] [9] [31] [32] [33]

Researchers who hold the view that the Oldowan is not cumulative culture view emphasize the continuity of Oldowan technological behavior across time. [30] If the Oldowan were cumulative culture, one would expect to see some change over time. [28] Therefore, there are better explanations for variation in Oldowan assemblages. [28] [29] They argue that because there is a lack of innovation, the type of social learning at work does not allow the transmission of novel solutions. [30] Only behaviors that a hominin can independently invent are transmissible. [31] [30] They are transmissible because they exist within what Tennie and colleagues call "the zone of latent solutions." [31] Tennie and his collaborators developed this concept after studying primate social behavior. [32] [31] [33] Latent solutions are part of an individual's behavioral repertoire because they find their basis in interactions between biology and the environment. [29] Given the right circumstances, any individual can reasonably re-invent these actions. [31] Social learning mechanisms allow the hominins to transmit the behavior. [30] Still, the behavior is not novel, so it does not require things that an individual doesn't know how to do independently. [30] Variation is more likely the result of re-invention, not cumulative culture. [29] [30]

Other archaeologists believe that the Oldowan played a part in developing cumulative culture. Stout and his colleagues see cultural evolution as a slow and gradual process. [9] They suggested the following scenario for how cumulative culture would have come about. In their view, knapping is difficult, even for modern humans. [9] [34] Knapping has a set of rules, but there is a lot of flexibility in how those are applied. [9] It takes a long time to get good at knapping, it requires a lot of practice and usually some form of imitation or teaching in modern human contexts. [34] For Oldowan toolmakers, who had limited cognitive ability and motor-perceptual skills compared to modern humans, getting good at knapping was likely close to or at their limit for engaging in this cognitively demanding task. [9] But it was vital for them to get good at knapping because stone tools gave them access to resources they wouldn't have had access to otherwise. [9] Because accessing those resources was essential, but tool-making was difficult, hominins probably supported each other in acquiring the skill. [9] The social support needed to learn how to knap stone created an environment with selective pressure on cognitive, motor, and perceptual adaptions, making social learning easier. [9] These adaptations would have also increased their capabilities. [9] As their ability increased, they would have become more behaviorally flexible and more innovative. [9] Eventually, this would lead to modern human culture. [9]

Stout and his colleagues developed this possible scenario by looking at technological variation in Oldowan assemblages from different Gona sites and trying to determine what might have caused the differences. [23] [9] When they looked at the various assemblages, they saw that the only thing that changed from site to site was the reduction strategy. [23] [9] Each site used a specific pattern for most of the cores Stout and his team looked at. [23] [9] But there were a lot of questions about why that could be. It could be related to biology; maybe different species used different patterns. [23] Or it could be environmental, where one way works better in specific environments. [9] Through a series of statistical tests, they found that both strategies were equally challenging to maintain. [23] Therefore, it was unlikely that cognitive differences between groups were the reason for seeing the different patterns. [23] They also did some experiments where they made replicas of the assemblages to know if they had differential benefits. [9] They found that they didn't. [9] Stout and his colleagues argue that this proves Oldowan toolmakers copied specific methods from their group members. [9]

Emergence of the Acheulean

The Gona project area’s Acheulean sites have contributed to the discussion of the emergence of the Acheulean. Two sites, DAN5 and OGS-12, are dated to 1.6-1.5 Ma. [35] [11] They are only slightly younger than the earliest documented occurrences of the Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia, and Kokiselei, Kenya, which date to ~1.75 Ma. [36] [35] Semaw and his collaborators note the similarities between the DAN5 Acheulean large cutting tools and those from Kokiselei and Konso. [35] Although Semaw also notes differences between the assemblages from Konso and those from Gona. [35] The primary difference he highlights is that the large cutting tools are made from river cobbles at Gona, while at Konso, tool-makers used large flake blanks. [36] [11] [35] Semaw suggests that the difference in raw material resulted in other variations between the assemblages—notably in how the tool makers worked the artifacts. [35] DAN5 Acheulean artifacts are bifacial, while those at the Konso site are predominately unifacial. [35] [36]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Ardipithecus</i> Extinct genus of hominins

Ardipithecus is a genus of an extinct hominine that lived during the Late Miocene and Early Pliocene epochs in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia. Originally described as one of the earliest ancestors of humans after they diverged from the chimpanzees, the relation of this genus to human ancestors and whether it is a hominin is now a matter of debate. Two fossil species are described in the literature: A. ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago during the early Pliocene, and A. kadabba, dated to approximately 5.6 million years ago. Initial behavioral analysis indicated that Ardipithecus could be very similar to chimpanzees, however more recent analysis based on canine size and lack of canine sexual dimorphism indicates that Ardipithecus was characterised by reduced aggression, and that they more closely resemble bonobos.

<i>Homo habilis</i> Archaic human species from 2.1 to 1.5 mya

Homo habilis is an extinct species of monkey from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.31 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago (mya). Upon species description in 1964, H. habilis was highly contested, with many researchers recommending it be synonymised with Australopithecus africanus, the only other early hominin known at the time, but H. habilis received more recognition as time went on and more relevant discoveries were made. By the 1980s, H. habilis was proposed to have been a human ancestor, directly evolving into Homo erectus which directly led to modern humans. This viewpoint is now debated. Several specimens with insecure species identification were assigned to H. habilis, leading to arguments for splitting, namely into "H. rudolfensis" and "H. gautengensis" of which only the former has received wide support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone Age</span> Prehistoric period during which stone was widely used by humans to make tools and weapons

The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with the advent of metalworking. Though some simple metalworking of malleable metals, particularly the use of gold and copper for purposes of ornamentation, was known in the Stone Age, it is the melting and smelting of copper that marks the end of the Stone Age. In Western Asia, this occurred by about 3,000 BC, when bronze became widespread. The term Bronze Age is used to describe the period that followed the Stone Age, as well as to describe cultures that had developed techniques and technologies for working copper alloys into tools, supplanting stone in many uses.

A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric cultures that have become extinct. Archaeologists often study such prehistoric societies, and refer to the study of stone tools as lithic analysis. Ethnoarchaeology has been a valuable research field in order to further the understanding and cultural implications of stone tool use and manufacture.

<i>Homo ergaster</i> Extinct species or subspecies of archaic human

Homo ergaster is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether H. ergaster constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into H. erectus is an ongoing and unresolved dispute within palaeoanthropology. Proponents of synonymisation typically designate H. ergaster as "African Homo erectus" or "Homo erectus ergaster". The name Homo ergaster roughly translates to "working man", a reference to the more advanced tools used by the species in comparison to those of their ancestors. The fossil range of H. ergaster mainly covers the period of 1.7 to 1.4 million years ago, though a broader time range is possible. Though fossils are known from across East and Southern Africa, most H. ergaster fossils have been found along the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya. There are later African fossils, some younger than 1 million years ago, that indicate long-term anatomical continuity, though it is unclear if they can be formally regarded as H. ergaster specimens. As a chronospecies, H. ergaster may have persisted to as late as 600,000 years ago, when new lineages of Homo arose in Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olduvai Gorge</span> National Historic Site of Tanzania

The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km long, and is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the Olbalbal ward located in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region, about 45 kilometres from Laetoli, another important archaeological locality of early human occupation. The British/Kenyan paleoanthropologist-archeologist team of Mary and Louis Leakey established excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge that achieved great advances in human knowledge and are world-renowned. The site is registered as one of the National Historic Sites of Tanzania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acheulean</span> Archaeological culture associated with Homo erectus

Acheulean, from the French acheuléen after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with Homo erectus and derived species such as Homo heidelbergensis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oldowan</span> Archaeological culture

The Oldowan was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry (style) in prehistory. These early tools were simple, usually made with one or a few flakes chipped off with another stone. Oldowan tools were used during the Lower Paleolithic period, 2.9 million years ago up until at least 1.7 million years ago (Ma), by ancient Hominins across much of Africa. This technological industry was followed by the more sophisticated Acheulean industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industry (archaeology)</span> Typological classification of stone tools

In the archaeology of the Stone Age, an industry or technocomplex is a typological classification of stone tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Paleolithic</span> Earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the Oldowan and Acheulean lithics industries.

<i>Australopithecus garhi</i> Extinct hominid from the Afar Region of Ethiopia 2.6–2.5 million years ago

Australopithecus garhi is a species of australopithecine from the Bouri Formation in the Afar Region of Ethiopia 2.6–2.5 million years ago (mya) during the Early Pleistocene. The first remains were described in 1999 based on several skeletal elements uncovered in the three years preceding. A. garhi was originally considered to have been a direct ancestor to Homo and the human line, but is now thought to have been an offshoot. Like other australopithecines, A. garhi had a brain volume of 450 cc (27 cu in); a jaw which jutted out (prognathism); relatively large molars and premolars; adaptations for both walking on two legs (bipedalism) and grasping while climbing (arboreality); and it is possible that, though unclear if, males were larger than females. One individual, presumed female based on size, may have been 140 cm tall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gawis cranium</span> Hominin fossil

The Gawis cranium is a portion of a fossil hominin skull discovered on February 16, 2006 near the drainage of Gawis, a tributary of the Awash River in the Afar Depression, Ethiopia. Despite the presence of volcanic ash layers that are key to dating, the cranium is only generally dated between 200,000 and 500,000 years ago due to taphonomic issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Awash</span> UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ethiopia

The Middle Awash is a paleoanthropological research area in the northwest corner of Gabi Rasu in the Afar Region along the Awash River in Ethiopia's Afar Depression. It is a unique natural laboratory for the study of human origins and evolution and a number of fossils of the earliest hominins, particularly of the Australopithecines, as well as some of the oldest known Olduwan stone artifacts, have been found at the site—all of late Miocene, the Pliocene, and the very early Pleistocene times, that is, about 5.6 million years ago (mya) to 2.5 mya. It is broadly thought that the divergence of the lines of the earliest humans (hominins) and of chimpanzees (hominids) was completed near the beginning of that time range, or sometime between seven and five mya. However, the larger community of scientists provide several estimates for periods of divergence that imply a greater range for this event, see CHLCA: human-chimpanzee split.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bouri Formation</span>

The Bouri Formation is a sequence of sedimentary deposits that is the source of australopithecine and Homo fossils, artifacts, and bones of large mammals with cut marks from butchery with tools by early hominins. It is located in the Middle Awash Valley, in Ethiopia, East Africa, and is a part of the Afar Depression that has provided rich human fossil sites such as Gona and Hadar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drimolen</span> Cave near Johannesburg with prehistoric human remains

The Drimolen Palaeocave System consists of a series of terminal Pliocene to early Pleistocene hominin-bearing palaeocave fills located around 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of Johannesburg, South Africa, and about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of Sterkfontein in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Cradle of Humankind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early expansions of hominins out of Africa</span> First hominin expansion into Eurasia (2.1–0.1 Ma)

Several expansions of populations of archaic humans out of Africa and throughout Eurasia took place in the course of the Lower Paleolithic, and into the beginning Middle Paleolithic, between about 2.1 million and 0.2 million years ago (Ma). These expansions are collectively known as Out of Africa I, in contrast to the expansion of Homo sapiens (anatomically modern humans) into Eurasia, which may have begun shortly after 0.2 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lomekwi</span> Kenyan archaeological site dated to 3.3 million years ago

Lomekwi is the name of an archaeological site in Kenya where ancient stone tools have been discovered, dating back approximately 3.3 million years ago, making them the oldest tools ever found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaic humans in Southeast Asia</span>

The region of Southeast Asia is considered a possible place for the evidence of archaic human remains that could be found due to the pathway between Australia and mainland Southeast Asia, where the migration of multiple early humans has occurred out of Africa. One of many pieces of evidence is of the early human found in central Java of Indonesia in the late 19th century by Eugene Dubois, and later in 1937 at Sangiran site by G.H.R. van Koenigswald. These skull and fossil materials are Homo erectus, named Pithecanthropus erectus by Dubois and Meganthropus palaeojavanicus by van Koenigswald. They were dated to c. 1.88 and 1.66 Ma, as suggested by Swisher et al. by analysis of volcanic rocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Toth</span> American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist

Nicholas Patrick Toth is an American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist. He is a Professor in the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University and is a founder and co-director of the Stone Age Institute. Toth's archaeological and experimental research has focused on the stone tool technology of Early Stone Age hominins who produced Oldowan and Acheulean artifacts which have been discovered across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He is best known for his experimental work, with Kathy Schick, including their work with the bonobo Kanzi who they taught to make and use simple stone tools similar to those made by our Early Stone Age ancestors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathy Schick</span> American-born archaeologist

Kathy Diane Schick is an American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist. She is professor emeritus in the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University and is a founder and co-director of the Stone Age Institute. Schick is most well known for her experimental work in taphonomy as well as her experimental work, with Nicholas Toth, on the stone tool technology of Early Stone Age hominins, including their work with the bonobo Kanzi who they taught to make and use simple stone tools similar to those made by our Early Stone Age ancestors.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Semaw, Sileshi (2006). "The Oldest Stone Artifacts from Gona (2.6-2.5 Ma), Afar, Ethiopia: Implications for understanding the earliest stages of stone knapping". In Schick, Kathy Diane; Toth, Nicholas Patrick (eds.). The Oldowan : case studies into the earliest Stone Age. Gosport, IN: Stone Age Institute. pp. 43–75. ISBN   978-0-9792276-0-8. OCLC   144645362.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Semaw, Sileshi (2000). "The World's Oldest Stone Artefacts from Gona, Ethiopia: Their Implications for Understanding Stone Technology and Patterns of Human Evolution Between 2·6–1·5 Million Years Ago". Journal of Archaeological Science. 27 (12): 1197–1214. Bibcode:2000JArSc..27.1197S. doi:10.1006/jasc.1999.0592.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Simpson, Scott W.; Kleinsasser, Lynnette; Quade, Jay; Levin, Naomi E.; McIntosh, William C.; Dunbar, Nelia; Semaw, Sileshi; Rogers, Michael J. (1 April 2015). "Late Miocene hominin teeth from the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area, Afar, Ethiopia". Journal of Human Evolution. 81: 68–82. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.07.004. ISSN   0047-2484. PMID   25795338.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Semaw, Sileshi; Simpson, Scott W.; Quade, Jay; Renne, Paul R.; Butler, Robert F.; McIntosh, William C.; Levin, Naomi; Dominguez-Rodrigo, Manuel; Rogers, Michael J. (20 January 2005). "Early Pliocene hominids from Gona, Ethiopia". Nature. 433 (7023): 301–305. Bibcode:2005Natur.433..301S. doi:10.1038/nature03177. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   15662421. S2CID   4431031.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Semaw, Sileshi; Rogers, Michael J.; Simpson, Scott W.; Levin, Naomi E.; Quade, Jay; Dunbar, Nelia; McIntosh, William C.; Cáceres, Isabel; Stinchcomb, Gary E.; Holloway, Ralph L.; Brown, Francis H. (6 March 2020). "Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia". Science Advances. 6 (10): eaaw4694. Bibcode:2020SciA....6.4694S. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw4694 . ISSN   2375-2548. PMC   7056306 . PMID   32181331.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Simpson, Scott W.; Quade, Jay; Levin, Naomi E.; Butler, Robert; Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume; Everett, Melanie; Semaw, Sileshi (14 November 2008). "A Female Homo erectus Pelvis from Gona, Ethiopia". Science. 322 (5904): 1089–1092. Bibcode:2008Sci...322.1089S. doi:10.1126/science.1163592. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   19008443. S2CID   22191315.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Braun, David R.; Aldeias, Vera; Archer, Will; Arrowsmith, J Ramon; Baraki, Niguss; Campisano, Christopher J.; Deino, Alan L.; DiMaggio, Erin N.; Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume; Engda, Blade; Feary, David A.; Garello, Dominique I.; Kerfelew, Zenash; McPherron, Shannon P.; Patterson, David B. (11 June 2019). "Earliest known Oldowan artifacts at >2.58 Ma from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia, highlight early technological diversity". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (24): 11712–11717. Bibcode:2019PNAS..11611712B. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1820177116 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   6575601 . PMID   31160451.
  8. 1 2 Plummer, Thomas W.; Oliver, James S.; Finestone, Emma M.; Ditchfield, Peter W.; Bishop, Laura C.; Blumenthal, Scott A.; Lemorinin, Cristina; et al. (2023). "Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies of the earliest Oldowan hominins and Paranthropus". Science. 379 (6632): 561–566. Bibcode:2023Sci...379..561P. doi:10.1126/science.abo7452. PMID   36758076. S2CID   256697931.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Stout, Dietrich; Rogers, Michael J.; Jaeggi, Adrian V.; Semaw, Sileshi (2019). "Archaeology and the Origins of Human Cumulative Culture: A Case Study from the Earliest Oldowan at Gona, Ethiopia". Current Anthropology. 60 (3): 309–340. doi:10.1086/703173. ISSN   0011-3204. S2CID   155813323.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Stout, Dietrich; Quade, Jay; Semaw, Sileshi; Rogers, Michael J.; Levin, Naomi E. (2005). "Raw material selectivity of the earliest stone toolmakers at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia". Journal of Human Evolution. 48 (4): 365–380. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.10.006. PMID   15788183.
  11. 1 2 3 Semaw, Sileshi; Rogers, Michael J.; Cáceres, Isabel; Stout, Dietrich; Leiss, Amanda (2018). "The Early Acheulean ~1.6-1.2 Ma from Gona, Ethiopia: Issues related to the Emergence of the Acheulean in Africa". In Gallotti, Rosalia; Mussi, Margherita (eds.). The emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa and beyond : contributions in honor of Jean Chavaillon. Rosalia Gallotti, M. Mussi, Jean Chavaillon. Cham, Switzerland. pp. 115–128. ISBN   978-3-319-75985-2. OCLC   1048896120.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. 1 2 3 Semaw, S.; Renne, P.; Harris, J. W. K.; Feibel, C. S.; Bernor, R. L.; Fesseha, N.; Mowbray, K. (1997). "2.5-million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia". Nature. 385 (6614): 333–336. Bibcode:1997Natur.385..333S. doi:10.1038/385333a0. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   9002516. S2CID   4331652.
  13. 1 2 Semaw, Sileshi; Rogers, Michael J; Quade, Jay; Renne, Paul R; Butler, Robert F; Dominguez-Rodrigo, Manuel; Stout, Dietrich; Hart, William S; Pickering, Travis; Simpson, Scott W (2003). "2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia". Journal of Human Evolution. 45 (2): 169–177. doi:10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00093-9. PMID   14529651.
  14. Dominguez-Rodrigo, M; Pickering, T; Semaw, S; Rogers, M (2005). "Cutmarked bones from Pliocene archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia: implications for the function of the world's oldest stone tools". Journal of Human Evolution. 48 (2): 109–121. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.09.004. ISSN   0047-2484. PMID   15701526.
  15. Sahle, Yonatan; Gossa, Tegenu (8 October 2019). "More data needed for claims about the earliest Oldowan artifacts". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (41): 20259–20260. Bibcode:2019PNAS..11620259S. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911658116 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   6789553 . PMID   31530728.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Quade, Jay; Levin, Naomi E; Simpson, Scott W.; Bulter, Rober; McIntosh, William C.; Semaw, Sileshi; et al. (2008). "The geology of Gona, Afar, Ethiopia". In Quade, Jay; Wynn, Jonathan G. (eds.). The Geology of Early Humans in the Horn of Africa: Geological Society of America Special Paper 446. Geological Society of America. pp. 1–31. ISBN   978-0-8137-2446-1.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Simpson, Scott W.; Levin, Naomi E.; Quade, Jay; Rogers, Michael J.; Semaw, Sileshi (April 2019). "Ardipithecus ramidus postcrania from the Gona Project area, Afar Regional State, Ethiopia". Journal of Human Evolution. 129: 1–45. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.12.005 . ISSN   0047-2484. PMID   30904038. S2CID   85500710.
  18. 1 2 Baab, Karen L.; Rogers, Michael; Bruner, Emiliano; Semaw, Sileshi (2022). "Reconstruction and analysis of the DAN5/P1 and BSN12/P1 Gona Early Pleistocene Homo fossils". Journal of Human Evolution. 162: 103102. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2021.103102 . PMID   34891069. S2CID   245109585.
  19. Quade, J.; Levin, N.; Semaw, S.; Stout, D.; Renne, P.; Rogers, M.; Simpson, S. (1 November 2004). "Paleoenvironments of the earliest stone toolmakers, Gona, Ethiopia". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 116 (11–12): 1529–1544. Bibcode:2004GSAB..116.1529Q. doi:10.1130/B25358.1. ISSN   0016-7606.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 de la Torre, Ignacio (11 June 2019). "Searching for the emergence of stone tool making in eastern Africa". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (24): 11567–11569. Bibcode:2019PNAS..11611567D. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1906926116 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   6575166 . PMID   31164417.
  21. 1 2 Toth, Nicholas (1 March 1985). "The oldowan reassessed: A close look at early stone artifacts". Journal of Archaeological Science. 12 (2): 101–120. Bibcode:1985JArSc..12..101T. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(85)90056-1. ISSN   0305-4403.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Braun, David R. (2012). "What does Oldowan technology represent in terms of hominin behavior?". In Dominguez-Rodrigo, Manuel (ed.). Stone Tools and Fossil Bones. Cambridge University Press. pp. 222–244. ISBN   978-1-139-14932-7.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Stout, Dietrich; Semaw, Sileshi; Rogers, Michael J.; Cauche, Dominique (2010). "Technological variation in the earliest Oldowan from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia". Journal of Human Evolution. 58 (6): 474–491. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.02.005. PMID   20430417.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 Plummer, Thomas (2005). "Discord after Discard: Reconstructing Aspects of Oldowan Hominin Behavior". In Stahl, Ann Bower (ed.). African Archaeology: a Critical Introduction. Blackwell. pp. 55–92.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Kibunjia, Mzalendo (1994). "Pliocene Archaeological Occurrences in the Lake Turkana Basin". Journal of Human Evolution. 27 (1–3): 159–171. doi:10.1006/jhev.1994.1040.
  26. Harmand, Sonia; Lewis, Jason E.; Feibel, Craig S.; Lepre, Christopher J.; Prat, Sandrine; Lenoble, Arnaud; Boës, Xavier; Quinn, Rhonda L.; Brenet, Michel; Arroyo, Adrian; Taylor, Nicholas; Clément, Sophie; Daver, Guillaume; Brugal, Jean-Philip; Leakey, Louise (May 2015). "3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya". Nature. 521 (7552): 310–315. Bibcode:2015Natur.521..310H. doi:10.1038/nature14464. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   25993961. S2CID   1207285.
  27. 1 2 Flicker, Dylan; Key, Alastair (April 2023). "Statistical assessment of the temporal and cultural relationship between the Lomekwian and Oldowan". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 48: 103834. Bibcode:2023JArSR..48j3834F. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103834 . S2CID   256293351.
  28. 1 2 3 Tennie, Claudio; Premo, L. S.; Braun, David R.; McPherron, Shannon P. (October 2017). "Early Stone Tools and Cultural Transmission: Resetting the Null Hypothesis". Current Anthropology. 58 (5): 652–672. doi:10.1086/693846. ISSN   0011-3204. S2CID   148701377.
  29. 1 2 3 4 Tennie, Claudio; Braun, David R.; Premo, L. S.; McPherron, Shannon P. (2016), Haidle, Miriam N.; Conard, Nicholas J.; Bolus, Michael (eds.), "The Island Test for Cumulative Culture in the Paleolithic", The Nature of Culture, Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 121–133, doi:10.1007/978-94-017-7426-0_11, ISBN   978-94-017-7424-6 , retrieved 27 April 2023
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tennie, Claudio (23 February 2023), Tehrani, Jamshid J.; Kendal, Jeremy; Kendal, Rachel (eds.), "The Earliest Tools and Cultures of Hominins", The Oxford Handbook of Cultural Evolution (1 ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. C33P1–C33N40, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198869252.013.33, ISBN   978-0-19-886925-2 , retrieved 27 April 2023
  31. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tennie, Claudio; Call, Josep; Tomasello, Michael (27 August 2009). "Ratcheting up the ratchet: on the evolution of cumulative culture". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1528): 2405–2415. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0052. ISSN   0962-8436. PMC   2865079 . PMID   19620111.
  32. 1 2 Tennie, Claudio; Call, Josep; Tomasello, Michael (8 August 2012). "Untrained Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) Fail to Imitate Novel Actions". PLOS ONE. 7 (8): e41548. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...741548T. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041548 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   3414512 . PMID   22905102.
  33. 1 2 Tennie, Claudio; Hedwig, Daniela; Call, Josep; Tomasello, Michael (2008). "An experimental study of nettle feeding in captive gorillas". American Journal of Primatology. 70 (6): 584–593. doi:10.1002/ajp.20532. PMID   18330896. S2CID   16166264.
  34. 1 2 Stout, Dietrich; Khreisheh, Nada (2015). "Skill Learning and Human Brain Evolution: An Experimental Approach". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 25 (4): 867–875. doi:10.1017/S0959774315000359. ISSN   0959-7743. S2CID   140088681.
  35. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Semaw, Sileshi; Rogers, Michael J.; Simpson, Scott W.; Levin, Naomi E.; Quade, Jay; Dunbar, Nelia; McIntosh, William C.; Cáceres, Isabel; Stinchcomb, Gary E.; Holloway, Ralph L.; Brown, Francis H.; Butler, Robert F.; Stout, Dietrich; Everett, Melanie (6 March 2020). "Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia". Science Advances. 6 (10): eaaw4694. Bibcode:2020SciA....6.4694S. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw4694. ISSN   2375-2548. PMC   7056306 . PMID   32181331.
  36. 1 2 3 Beyene, Yonas; Katoh, Shigehiro; WoldeGabriel, Giday; Hart, William K.; Uto, Kozo; Sudo, Masafumi; Kondo, Megumi; Hyodo, Masayuki; Renne, Paul R.; Suwa, Gen; Asfaw, Berhane (29 January 2013). "The characteristics and chronology of the earliest Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110 (5): 1584–1591. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1221285110 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   3562807 . PMID   23359714.