How Many Handaxes Make an Acheulean?
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Ignacio de la Torre Sainz; Rafael Mora Torcal
- Source
- Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
- Subject
- Early Stone Age
Evolución humana
Achelense
Olduvai
Olduvayense
Tanzania
- Language
The first major archaeological transition –and one that has received much attention– is that from the Oldowan to the Acheulean. The seminal work by Mary Leakey (1971) at Olduvai Gorge built the paradigm for the chronological, technological and evolutionary grounds over which such transition took place. The past decade has also witnessed the renewal of fieldwork in early Acheulean contexts at Olduvai, which is contributing new data to the debate on the dynamics of the Oldowan-Acheulean transition. This paper aims to contribute to such debate by presenting a first-hand re-study of the lithic assemblage excavated by Mary Leakey (1971) in SHK-Annexe. Leakey (1971) included SHK within the Developed Oldowan B, and therefore it is a relevant assemblage to characterize technological dynamics during the onset of the Acheulean at Olduvai Gorge.
We thank the National Museum of Nairobi for permits to study the Leakey collection from SHK. Funding by the NSF (BCS-0852292) and the European Research Council-Starting Grants (283366) is gratefully acknowledged