Stone Age

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Oldowan Industry

The Oldowan industry was named by British Kenyan anthropologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey for early archaeological sites found at Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania. It is also sometimes referred to as the chopper-core or pebble-tool industry. Simple stone artifacts made from small stones or blocks of stone characterize the Oldowan industry. Mary Leakey classified Oldowan artifacts as either heavy-duty tools or light-duty tools. In this classification, heavy-duty tools include core types such as choppers, discoids, polyhedrons, and heavy-duty scrapers. Many of these cores may have been produced to generate sharp-edged flakes, but some could have been used for chopping or scraping activities as well. Light-duty tools include retouched forms such as smaller scrapers, awls (sharp, pointed tools for punching holes in animal hides or wood), and burins (chisel-like flint tools used for engraving and cutting). Oldowan techniques of manufacture included hard-hammer percussion, or detaching flakes from cores with a stone hammer; the anvil technique, striking a core on a stationary anvil to detach flakes; and bipolar technique, detaching flakes by placing the core between an anvil and the hammerstone.

Early humans probably also made tools from a wide range of materials other than stone. For example, they probably used wood for simple digging sticks, spears, clubs, or probes, and they probably used shell, hide, bark, or horn to fashion containers. Unfortunately, organic materials such as these do not normally survive from earlier Stone Age times, so archaeologists can only speculate about whether such tools were used.

Two of the oldest Oldowan sites are in Ethiopia: Gona (occupied 2.5 million years ago) and Omo (2.3 million years ago). Other well-studied Oldowan sites include Lokalalei (2.3 million years ago) and Koobi Fora (1.9 million to 1.4 million years ago), in Kenya; Olduvai Gorge (1.9 million to 1.2 million years ago), in Tanzania; Ain Hanech (perhaps 1.7 million years ago), in Algeria; and the cave deposits at Sterkfontein and Swartkrans (estimated to be from 2.0 million to 1.5 million years ago), in South Africa.

Hominids that were contemporary with Oldowan sites include two major lineages. One is the robust australopithecines (so called because their cheek teeth were larger than those of other australopithecines). These robust australopithecines—such as Australopithecus aethiopicus and Australopithecus boisei in East Africa, and Australopithecus robustus in South Africa—were bipedal and had small brains, large jaws, and large molars. The other lineage is made up of bipedal, larger-brained, and smaller-toothed early members of the genus Homo, such as Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, and early Homo erectus. The oldest fossils of Homo erectus (sometimes called Homo ergaster) found in Africa date back to about 1.85 million years ago. This species is characterized by an even larger brain and smaller teeth than earlier hominids and by a larger body size. (In 1984 anthropologists in Kenya found a nearly complete skeleton of an adolescent Homo erectus who would have been 1.8 m (6 ft) tall as an adult.)

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Experts do not know for certain which of these species was responsible for individual Oldowan sites. All of these species may have made and used Oldowan-style stone tools to varying degrees. However, anthropologists have long suspected that the larger-brained and smaller-toothed Homo was probably a more habitual toolmaker. It is likely that Homo erectus was responsible for many of the Oldowan sites more recent than 1.85 million years ago. In any case, by 1 million years ago, all of these species except Homo erectus had gone extinct, so researchers can be certain that at least the Homo lineage was involved in using and making stone tools. Homo erectus appears to have moved out of Africa and into Eurasia sometime before 1 million years ago, although some anthropologists think this geographic spread of hominids may have occurred nearly 2 million years ago.

The everyday life of Oldowan hominids is largely a matter of archaeological conjecture. Most sites in East Africa are found near lakes or along streams, suggesting that they preferred to live near water sources. Studies of rock sources suggest that Oldowan hominids sometimes transported stone several kilometers to the sites where stone artifacts are found. Well-preserved sites often have collections of stone artifacts and fragmented fossil animal bones associated together, often in dense concentrations of several thousand specimens. Scholars disagree regarding the nature of these sites. Some archaeologists interpret them as camps, home bases, or central foraging places, similar to those formed by modern hunter-gatherers during their daily activities. Others think that such sites represent scavenging stations where hominids were primarily involved in processing and consuming animal carcasses. Still others view these accumulations as stone caches where hominids collected stone in areas where such raw materials did not occur naturally.

Fossil remains from some Oldowan sites suggest that Oldowan hominids used stone tools to process meat and marrow from animal carcasses, some weighing several hundred pounds. Although some archaeologists have argued that large game hunting may have occurred in the Oldowan, many Oldowan specialists believe these early Stone Age hominids likely obtained most of their meat from large animals primarily through scavenging. The early hominids may have hunted smaller animals opportunistically, however. Modern experiments have shown that sharp Oldowan flakes are especially useful for the processing of animal carcasses—for example, skinning, dismembering, and defleshing. The bulk of early hominid diet likely consisted of a variety of plant foods, such as berries, fruits, nuts, leaves, flowers, roots, and tubers, but there is little archaeological record of such perishable foodstuffs.

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Acheulean Industry

The term Acheulean was first used by 19th-century French archaeologist Gabriel de Mortillet to refer to remnants of a prehistoric industry found near the town of Saint-Acheul in northern France. The distinguishing feature of this site is an abundance of stone hand axes, tools more sophisticated than those found at Oldowan sites. The term Acheulean is now used to refer to hand axe industries in Africa, the Near East, Europe, and Asia dating from 1.5 million years ago to 200,000 years ago and spanning human evolution from Homo erectus to early archaic Homo sapiens.

The characteristic Acheulean hand axe is a large, pointed or oval-shaped form. These hand axes were often made by striking a blank (a rough chunk of rock) from a larger stone and then shaping the blank by carefully removing flakes around its perimeter. Usually, both sides, or faces, of the blank were flaked, a process called bifacial flaking. Later Acheulean hand axes may have been produced by the soft-hammer technique, in which a softer hammer of stone, bone, or antler produced thinner, more carefully shaped forms. Other associated forms include cleavers, bifacial artifacts with a sharp, guillotine-like bit at one end; and thick, pointed artifacts known as picks. Simpler, typical Oldowan artifacts are usually also found at Acheulean sites, as well as a range of retouched flake tools such as scrapers. Experiments have demonstrated that Acheulean hand axes and cleavers are excellent tools for heavy-duty butchery activities, such as severing animal limbs. Some archaeologists, however, believe they may have served other functions, or perhaps were general, all-purpose tools.

Acheulean tools did not entirely replace Oldowan tools. Archaeologists have discovered numerous sites where Oldowan tools were used throughout the Acheulean time period, sometimes in the same geographic region as Acheulean industries. Interestingly, the Acheulean seems to be especially restricted to Africa, Europe, and western Asia, with few sites in East Asia of stone industries with typical Acheulean hand axes and cleavers during the Lower Paleolithic. Most of the industries found in East Asia tend to be simpler, Oldowan-like technologies that can be seen at sites at Nihewan and the cave of Zhoukoudian in northern China.

Well-studied Acheulean sites include those at Olduvai Gorge and Isimila, in Tanzania; Olorgesailie, in Kenya; Konso Gardula and Melka Kunture, in Ethiopia; Kalambo Falls, in Zambia; Montagu Cave, in South Africa; Tabun and Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, in Israel; Abbeville and Saint-Acheul, in France; Swanscombe and Boxgrove, in England; and Torralba and Ambrona, in Spain.

Most anthropologists think that Acheulean populations of Homo erectus and early Homo sapiens were probably more efficient hunters than Oldowan hominids. Recently discovered wooden spears from about 400,000 years ago at Schöningen, Germany, as well as a 300,000-year-old wooden spear tip from Clacton, England, suggest that the hominids who made these implements may have hunted game extensively.

Experts disagree as to whether Acheulean hominids and their contemporaries harnessed the use of fire. Archaeologists have found evidence such as apparent burnt bone and stone, discolored sediment, and the presence of charcoal or ash at a number of sites, including Cave of Hearths, in South Africa; Zhoukoudian, in China; and Terra Amata, in France. Discrete fireplaces (hearths), however, appear to be quite rare. Similarly, there is only questionable evidence of huts or other architectural features.

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Middle Paleolithic

The Middle Paleolithic extends from around 200,000 years ago until about 30,000 years ago. It is also called the Mousterian Industry in Europe, the Near East, and North Africa and called the Middle Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Innovations of the Middle Paleolithic

Toolmakers in the Middle Paleolithic used a range of retouched flake tools, especially side-scrapers, serrated scrapers, backed knives (blade tools with the nonblade side dulled to fit comfortably in the hand), and points. Experts believe these tools were used to work animal hides, to shape wood implements, and as projectile points. This period is also characterized by the use of specially prepared cores. Using the disc core method, a circular core could produce numerous flakes to serve as blanks for retouched tools. With the Levallois method (named after a suburb of Paris, France, where the first such artifacts were discovered), flakes of a predetermined shape were removed from specially prepared cores. This process resulted in oval-shaped flakes or large, triangular points, depending on the type of Levallois core. Levallois cores and flakes are first seen at some late Acheulean sites but become much more common in the Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age.

Some regional variation can be seen among Middle Paleolithic industries. A North African variant known as Aterian produced tools and points characterized by tangs (stems projecting from the base of the tool or point, to allow the tool to be attached to a handle or shaft). In Eastern Europe, a variant called Szeletian produced two-sided, leaf-shaped points, a style not usually seen elsewhere until the Upper Paleolithic. In Central Africa, a variant called the Sangoan produced a range of heavy-duty picks and axes.

Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age archaeological sites are often found in the deposits of caves and rock shelters. Well-studied caves include Pech de l'Aze, Combe Grenal, La Ferrassie, La Quina, and Combe Capelle, in France; Tabun, Kebara, Qafzeh, and Skhūl, in Israel; Shānidār, in Iraq; Haua Fteah, in Libya; and Klasies River Mouth, in South Africa. In East Asia, sites that are contemporary with the Middle Paleolithic often exhibit a simpler toolmaking technology, without as much standardization of the flake tool forms as in much of the rest of Eurasia and Africa.

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Middle Paleolithic Humans

Hominids associated with the Middle Paleolithic include Neandertals and other archaic Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens predating anatomically modern humans, who lived from about 200,000 to 35,000 years ago). In Europe, the Middle Paleolithic is associated with Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, or Neandertals, who lived from about 200,000 to 35,000 years ago. Neandertals were short, robust humans with fully modern cranial capacity. They had more jutting faces, more prominent brow ridges, thicker cranial bones, and larger nose cavities than modern humans. Skeletal remains show that Neandertals were very robust and muscular. Healed injuries to some skeletons suggest that Neandertals led stressful, rigorous lives. Famous Neandertal discoveries include Neander Valley, in Germany; La Chapelle-aux-Saints and La Ferrassie, in France; Krapina, in Croatia; Monte Circeo and Saccopastore, in Italy; Shānidār, in Iraq; and Tabun and Amud, in Israel. Fossils of archaic Homo sapiens from this time period have been found at sites such as Dali and Maba, in China and at Florisbad, in South Africa, and Ngaloba, in Tanzania. In addition, fossils that have been interpreted as early anatomically modern humans have been found at some Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age sites in parts of Africa and the Near East, such as at Qafzeh and Skhūl, in Israel, and Klasies River Mouth, in South Africa.

Middle Paleolithic hominids appear to have been more successful hunters than their predecessors. Abundant animal remains suggest that these hominids ate many kinds of large mammals. It is unknown, however, how much of the meat consumed was obtained through hunting, as opposed to scavenging. Accumulations of remains at some sites show that a high percentage of the animals were of a common species and were adults in their prime, which some researchers suggest is an indication of efficient hunting behavior. Several sites in Europe that contain the carcass of one or more large animals are believed to be butchery sites, where early humans processed the spoils of kills. Some archaeologists have also argued that some Middle Paleolithic stone points were probably attached to spears, a new development in hunting technology. At Klasies River Mouth Cave in South Africa, archaeologists discovered a buffalo vertebra with a broken tip of what was probably a spearhead embedded in it, which could be evidence that the large mammal was hunted or trapped by hominids.

Middle Paleolithic hominids tend to show more behavioral complexity than their predecessors. For example, although the majority of the stone found at most Middle Paleolithic sites is local—its source within a few kilometers of a site—an increasing percentage is exotic stone, transported from its sources tens of kilometers away. Simple hearths at many Middle Paleolithic sites suggest habitual fire use and possible fire-making as well. Evidence of housing is still quite uncommon, but is present at some sites. For example, at Molodovo, Ukraine, a circle of mammoth bones has been interpreted as a hut structure. Microscopic studies of residues on Middle Paleolithic scraper tools suggest that they may have been used for woodworking and to work animal hides for use as clothing or in shelters.

Over the course of the Middle Paleolithic, hominids spread across much of Eurasia. The use of fire and clothing and the ability to build more substantial shelters may have helped them survive in cold regions, such as the central Asian steppe. By 40,000 years ago, near the end of the Middle Paleolithic, humans entered Australia, which apparently would have required traversing some distance of open ocean, probably in some form of craft. Some Middle Paleolithic sites have skeletal remains that are interpreted as simple burials. No representational art is known from this period, although occasional ornaments such as beads have been found at late Middle Paleolithic/Middle Stone Age sites.

Opinion is divided among anthropologists as to whether Neandertals and other archaic Homo sapiens had fully modern cognitive abilities, particularly the ability to recognize and communicate with symbols, a skill required to form modern languages. On one hand, the large cranial capacities of these populations might suggest modern human cognitive and behavioral capabilities. On the other hand, their technological development was very slow, and they left behind no trace of the use of symbols, such as representational cave paintings. Archaeologists have found much greater evidence of symbolism and cultural complexity during the Upper Paleolithic.

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