The evolution of stone tool technology at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania): Contributions from the Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project

Abstract

Since 2006, The Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) is conducting intensive research in a number of classical and newly discovered sites throughout the sequence of Olduvai Gorge, in Tanzania. Over these fifteen years of intense fieldwork, efforts have mostly focused on the Oldowan and Acheulean evidence located in Bed I and Bed II, but also intended on more recent and less known resources of the archaeological record, such us those located in the Ndutu beds. In this work we present a synthetic and comprehensive view of the most significant scientific contributions produced by our team in the fields of lithic technology and paleo-economic studies, including: the remarkable enlargement of our knowledge on the technological behaviors undertaken during the Oldowan, as recorded in the various sites recently discovered within the Zinj paleosol (Bed I); the characterization of the oldest Acheulean in the Olduvai basin (and one of the earliest evidence of this techno-complex in East Africa) after the discovery by our team of the exceptional site of FLK West (Lower Bed II); new insights into the enduring debate of the techno-functional meaning of the Developed Oldowan/Acheulean interface through the re-excavation of various classical sites located in Middle and Upper Bed II, such as SHK, TK and BK, and the confirmation of the Acheulean ascription of their lithic assemblages; the discovery of a number of MSA sites, such as VCS and DGS, that confirm the significance of the MSA record in the Olduvai basin and nearby.