scholarly journals Tracing the spatial imprint of Oldowan technological behaviors: A view from DS (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254603
Author(s):  
Fernando Diez-Martín ◽  
Lucía Cobo-Sánchez ◽  
Adrian Baddeley ◽  
David Uribelarrea ◽  
Audax Mabulla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Economic Study ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Fossil Bones ◽  
Intense Exploitation ◽  
Close Source

DS (David’s site) is one of the new archaeological sites documented in the same paleolandscape in which FLK 22 was deposited at about 1.85 Ma in Olduvai Gorge. Fieldwork in DS has unearthed the largest vertically-discrete archaeological horizon in the African Pleistocene, where a multi-cluster anthropogenic accumulation of fossil bones and stone tools has been identified. In this work we present the results of the techno-economic study of the lithic assemblage recovered from DS. We also explore the spatial magnitude of the technological behaviors documented at this spot using powerful spatial statistical tools to unravel correlations between the spatial distributional patterns of lithic categories. At DS, lavas and quartzite were involved in different technological processes. Volcanic materials, probably transported to this spot from a close source, were introduced in large numbers, including unmodified materials, and used in percussion activities and in a wide variety of reduction strategies. A number of volcanic products were subject to outward fluxes to other parts of the paleolandscape. In contrast, quartzite rocks were introduced in smaller numbers and might have been subject to a significantly more intense exploitation. The intra-site spatial analysis has shown that specialized areas cannot be identified, unmodified materials are not randomly distributed, percussion and knapping categories do not spatially overlap, while bipolar specimens show some sort of spatial correlation with percussion activities.

Experimental implement manufacture and use; a case study from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

1981 ◽  
Vol 292 (1057) ◽  
pp. 189-195 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Technical Level ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Olduvai Gorge

Experiments involving the manufacture and use of stone tools are described. The original tools that served as models came from two sites in upper bed IV at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. The following conclusions are drawn. Widespread use of terms such as ‘crude’ or ‘refined’ in describing stone tools tells us nothing of the technical level achieved by the makers of the assemblages. The different qualities of the available raw materials, the forms in which they occur and how they function when used may have influenced the tool maker’s designs and the morphology of the tools. The experiments suggest uses for the tools that are relevant to our understanding of what is found on some archaeological sites.

Hominid carnivory and foraging strategies, and the socio-economic function of early archaeological sites

1991 ◽  
Vol 334 (1270) ◽  
pp. 211-221 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Marrow Fat ◽  
Density Dependent ◽  
Early Hominids ◽  
Competing Hypotheses ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Economic Function

New evidence for the tissue types exploited by early hominids from carcasses possibly acquired through scavenging is derived from the larger mammal bone assemblages from FLK I, level 22 ( Zinjanthropus floor), and FLKN levels 1 and 2 from Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Published skeletal part profiles from the two archaeological sites are evaluated using (i) modern observations on the sequence by which carnivores consume carcass parts in order to assess the timing of hominid access to carcasses, and (ii) measurements of flesh and marrow yields to assess the tissue types sought and acquired. These results suggest that the maximization of marrow (fat) yields, not flesh (protein) yields, was the criterion shaping decisions about carcass processing. Because of evidence for density-dependent destruction of some flesh-bearing parts by scavengers of the hominid-butchered assemblages, however, it is uncertain whether carcass parts were transported and acquired by hominids in a largely defleshed condition. The results on tissue types acquired are combined with a discussion of predation risk, feeding competition and the equipment needs of carcass processing in an attempt to identify archaeological test implications of competing hypotheses for the socio-economic function of the earliest archaeological sites.

Percussive-Abrasive Stone Tools from Chagyrskaya Cave: Results of Functional Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
M. V. Seletsky ◽  
A. Y. Fedorchenko ◽  
P. V. Chistyakov ◽  
S. V. Markin ◽  
K. A. Kolobova
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
Wear Analysis ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Experimental Use ◽  
Abrasive Stone ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Reference Samples ◽  
Comprehensive Study

This article presents a comprehensive study of percussive-abrasive active stone tools from Chagyrskaya Cave, using experimental use-wear and statistical methods, supplemented by 3D-modeling. Experiments combined with use- wear analysis allowed us to determine the functions of these tools by comparing the working surfaces and use-wear traces in the Chagyrskaya samples with those in the reference samples. As a result, we identified 19 retouchers, four hammerstones for processing mineral raw materials, and one hammer for splitting bone, which indicates the dominance of secondary processing over primary knapping in the Chagyrskaya lithic assemblage. Using statistical analysis, we traced the differences in the dimensions of the manuports and lithics under study. These artifacts are a promising and underestimated source of information for identifying working operations associated with stone- and bone-processing; moreover, they can provide new data on the functional attribution of sites and the mobility of early hominins.

Production and use of percussive stone tools in the Early Stone Age: Experimental approach to the lithic record of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 367-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Policarpo Sánchez Yustos ◽  
Fernando Diez-Martín ◽  
Isabel M. Díaz ◽  
Javier Duque ◽  
Cristina Fraile ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age

scholarly journals Public Law Restrictions in the Context of 3D Land Administration—Review on Legal and Technical Approaches

Land ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Kitsakis ◽  
Eftychia Kalogianni ◽  
Efi Dimopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Real Property ◽  
Spatial Unit ◽  
3D Space ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
Utility Network ◽  
Intense Exploitation ◽  
Land Administration Systems

Intense exploitation of land implies the development of multi-level, multi-purpose, overlapping and interlocking structures on 3D space, thus resulting in complex, stratified, 3D real property rights between individual owners, as well as restrictions. Legislation regulates the ownership status and use of land by imposing restrictions known as Public Law Restrictions (PLRs). PLRs extend to various fields and various legislative frameworks, such as the protection of archaeological sites, protection and maintenance of underground infrastructures and utilities, environmental protection, flying of unmanned air vehicles, etc. PLRs are usually investigated in the context of property rights and restrictions in the various Land Administration Systems worldwide, and do not often gain specific attention. However, it is noticed that the restrictions that arise from Public Law need to be investigated and classified, so that they can be better utilised in the property status of land ownership. This review paper investigates the legal statutes on PLRs within the context of 3D land administration and the stipulations used to provide unambiguous modelling of PLRs, as provided by the relative literature. Moreover, the PLRs applied in the 3D space, to clearly depict rights, restrictions and responsibilities on the relevant spatial unit (land, air, marine parcel, mine, utility network, etc.), are particularly examined. Therefore, this work is to critically review and assess the aforementioned approaches on PLRs’ registration, modelling and organisation, as provided by a literature survey, and provides an overall view of the requirements and challenges within the development of 3D Land Administration Systems also considering standardisation developments.

How Meat Made us Human

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Bunn ◽  
Travis Pickering ◽  
Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Age At Death ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Limb Bones ◽  
Early Homo ◽  
Fossil Bones ◽  
Large Animals ◽  
Early Human

This chapter examines the oldest known archaeological evidence from 2.6–1.5 million years ago (Ma) from several sites in East Africa, to improve understanding of the diet and related behavioural capabilities of early human ancestors (hominins) from that period. The archaeological evidence from the period consists of both small scatters and large, dense concentrations of flaked stone tools often found with fossil bones of large animals. The proportions of different skeletal elements, particularly once-meaty limb bones, and the abundance of stone-tool butchery damage on those bones, indicate that by 1.84 Ma at the FLK Zinj site at Olduvai Gorge, hominins had first access to prey carcasses. Moreover, mortality (age at death) profiles suggest active hunting by early Homo rather than secondary access to scavenged carcasses. Evidently, early Homo was repeatedly transporting meaty portions of large carcasses for delayed consumption and probable food sharing—behaviours characteristic of humans, not apes.

THE ORIGIN OF PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-356
Author(s):  
GIAN BATTISTA VAI
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Prehistoric Archaeology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mapping Approach ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Fossil Bones

ABSTRACT Prehistoric archaeology had its first pioneers in France led by Boucher de Perthes (the Abbeville school), who excavated fossil bones and stone tools beginning in the late 1820s to early 1830. At about the same time a second group in Denmark led by Worsaae (the Copenhagen school) studied an archaeological interval prior to their historical record, based on museum collections. Though lacking stratigraphical excavation they provided a chrono-typologic basic division into the stone, bronze, and iron ages across the past 3000 years. A third group led by the Italian Scarabelli (the Imola school) introduced the name ancient (prehistoric) archaeology with a field stratigraphic, geologic, petrologic and mapping approach. The discipline of prehistoric archaeology originated almost simultaneously as a multi-vocal result of activity led by these three independent groups.

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