Title:

An earlier origin for the Acheulian

Author(s):

Lepre, Christopher J.
Roche, Helene
Kent, Dennis V.
Harmand, Sonia
Quinn, Rhonda L.
Brugal, Jean-Phillipe
Texier, Pierre-Jean
Lenoble, Arnaud
Feibel, Craig S.

Date:

2011

Type:

Articles

Department:

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Volume:

477

Permanent URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:12298

Book/Journal Title:

Nature

Abstract:

The Acheulian is one of the first defined prehistoric technocomplexes and is characterized by shaped bifacial stone tools. It probably originated in Africa, spreading to Europe and Asia perhaps as early as 1 million years (Myr) ago. The origin of the Acheulian is thought to have closely coincided with major changes in human brain evolution, allowing for further technological developments. Nonetheless, the emergence of the Acheulian remains unclear because well-dated sites older than 1.4Myr ago are scarce. Here we report on the lithic assemblage and geological context for the Kokiselei 4 archaeological site fromthe Nachukui formation (West Turkana,Kenya) that bears characteristic early Acheulian tools and pushes the first appearance datumfor this stone-age technology back to 1.76Myr ago. Moreover, co-occurrence of Oldowan and Acheulian artefacts at the Kokiselei site complex indicates that the two technologies are notmutually exclusive time-successive components of an evolving cultural lineage, and suggests that the Acheulian was either imported from another location yet to be identified or originated from Oldowan hominins at this vicinity. In either case, the Acheulian did not accompany the first human dispersal from Africa9,10 despite being available at the time. This may indicate that multiple groups of hominins distinguished by separate stone-tool-making behaviours and dispersal strategies coexisted in Africa at 1.76Myr ago.

Subject(s):

Paleontology

DOI:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10372

Item views:

96

Metadata:

description

View | Download