The Middle Stone Age in the Tanzanian Rift Valley: DGS, a new site in the Olduvai Gorge

Abstract

Adaptation and exploitation of the environment by human groups in terms of its surroundings is one of the circumstances that make human beings particularly unique. Middle Stone Age (MSA) research in East Africa has received special attention over the past years. Dorothy Garrod Site (DGS), discovered during a fieldwork survey in 2017, demonstrate the enormous potential of Olduvai Gorge (northern Tanzania) for the study of the MSA period. DGS shed new lights on an almost unknown area at least for the MSA with a known stratigraphic context. This communication reports on a new MSA site, located on the north bank of the Olduvai river and embedded within the Ndutu Formation, specifically in a cemented tuffaceous silt level. DGS is characterized by only one archaeological level that has yielded a functional association between faunal remains and lithic industry. DGS shows a human occupation where lithic and fauna display evidence of human manipulation (knapping, percussion and burning remains), contributing enormously to understanding the settlement patterns and the interaction of modern humans with the environment. From a technological point of view, the site is characterized by discoid methods and the near absence of other technological methods and lithic points. All raw materials used have a local origin, either of primary or secondary access. This pattern seems to correspond to the open-air deposits studied in the area. In contrast, the exogenous raw material - obsidian from southern Kenya- is well known from sheltered deposits to the north and south of the Olduvai Gorge which was a passing point for the obsidian circulation.