Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge
Author: Mary Douglas Leakey
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1979
Genre: Anthropologists
ISBN:

Reconstructing Olduvai

Reconstructing Olduvai
Author: Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2024-05-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0443273839

Reconstructing Olduvai: The Behavior of Early Humans at David's Site provides the necessary information for future generations of archaeologists to peer into the lifestyle of early humans. Much of what is known about these hominins originates from the detailed excavations that Mary Leakey carried out at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Since then, work at Olduvai has produced a wealth of new fossils, resulting in the discovery of David's Site, the biggest early Pleistocene site in the world. Its exceptional preservation and size make it an invaluable paleoarcheological finding, and this book details the insights discovered therein about the dietary, technological, and social behaviors of hominins. Written by leaders of present-day excavations at Olduvai Gorge, this book is systematically divided into three parts to deliver a clear account of the research advancements at David's Site. Part I focuses on the presentation of the site and the description of its geological and paleoecological reconstruction. Part II examines hominin feeding habits, including how they brought, processed, and consumed animals at the site. Part III explores hominin technologies, including reconstruction of the stone-tool activities carried out at the site. Reconstructing Olduvai offers a much-needed update to the decades-old monographs focused on Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, by providing novel information on the fossils, sites, technologies, and behaviors of early humans. It is an indispensable resource for students, academics, and researchers who share an interest in the evolution of early human behavior.• Describes the discovery and excavation of David's Site (DS) at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania •Details the geological and paleoecological reconstruction of all Olduvai Gorge Bed I sites •Summarizes the impact of taphonomic analyses at Bed I sites on our understanding of early human behaviors •Explores the dietary habits and technologies of early Pleistocene hominins

Olduvai Gorge: Volume 1

Olduvai Gorge: Volume 1
Author: L. S. B. Leakey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 1965
Genre: Science
ISBN: 052105527X

Olduvai is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world; indeed, the only Middle Pleistocene site of comparable importance is Choukoutien and Olduvai can show deposits far older. The site has produced a mass of material of the highest archaeological and palaeontology importance and in this first of five volumes Dr Leakey and his collaborators make their preliminary reports. The story of the excavations initiated by Dr Leakey in 1951 is well known. Their purpose was to locate and uncover a series of living-floors of early Hand-axe man and, if possible, of the preceding Olduwan culture. The discoveries were of striking and far-reaching importance. They included, besides a mass of tools and artefacts, small animal and human remains and the famous skull of Zinjanthropus boisei, the earliest tool-making man. Against this background Leakey and his collaborators discuss the geological evidence, its relation to the fauna and other fossil evidence, the problems of climatic sequence and the use of potassium-argon dating. The purpose of this volume is to provide a context in which the fossil human remains and the Stone Age cultural sequence at Olduvai can be studied.

Olduvai Gorge: Volume 2

Olduvai Gorge: Volume 2
Author: P. V. Tobias
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 330
Release: 1967-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0521069017

For this second volume of the definitive publication of the Olduvai findings, Professor Tobias has undertaken a definitive analysis of the cranium.

Olduvai Gorge: Volume 5, Excavations in Beds III, IV and the Masek Beds

Olduvai Gorge: Volume 5, Excavations in Beds III, IV and the Masek Beds
Author: Mary Leakey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 1995-01-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780521334037

At Olduvai Gorge natural erosion exposed a deep series of superimposed geological beds containing rich artefact and fossil assemblages spanning the last 1.8 million years. The sire ot famous as a rsult of excavations conducted there since 1951 under the direction of Mary Leakey and her husband, the late Louis Leakey. This volume, written largely by Mary Leakey herself, is the last of the reports and records the archaeological finds in the upper part of the Olduvai sequence from excavations carried out from the end of 1968 until 1971. The period covered here is from about 1.2 to 0.4 million years ago and th efinds include artefacts and faunal remains excavated from sites in beds II, IV na the Masek beds. The volume follows on from the archaeological record in beds I and II published in volume 3 of the series.

Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai

Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai
Author: Richard Potts
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2017-07-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351329278

The earliest sites at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania are among the best documented and most important for studies of human evolution. This book investigates the behavior of hominids at Olduvai using data of stone tools and animal bones, as well as the results of work in taphonomy (how animals become fossils), the behavior of mammals, and a wide range of ecological theory and data. By illustrating the ways in which modern and prehistoric evidence is used in making interpretations, the author guides the reader through the geological, ecological, and archeological areas involved in the study of humans.Based on his study of the Olduvai excavations, animal life, and stone tools, the author carefully examines conventional views and proposals about the early Olduvai sites. First, the evidence of site geology, tool cut marks, and other clues to the formation of the Olduvai sites are explored. On this basis, the large mammal communities in which early hominids lived are investigated, using methods which compare sites produced mainly by hominids with others made by carnivores. Questions about hominid hunting, scavenging, and the importance of eating meat are then scrutinized. The leading alternative positions on each issue are discussed, providing a basis for understanding some of the most contentious debates in paleo-anthropology today.The dominant interpretive model for the artifact and bone accumulations at Olduvai and other Plio-Pleistocene sites has been that they represent home bases, social foci similar to the campsites of hunter-gatherers. Based on paleo-ecological evidence and ecological models, the author critically analyzes the home base interpretation and proposes alternative views. A new view of the Olduvai sites - that they represent stone caches where hominids processed carcasses for food - is shown to have important implications for our understanding of hominid social behavior and evolution.

The African Experience

The African Experience
Author: Roland Oliver
Publisher: Westview Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1992
Genre: Art
ISBN:

Covering the entire span of human history across the African continent, this book begins in the Garden of Eden in the highland interior of East Africa and ends with the disintegration of apartheid. In the first chapter the author introduces us to our earliest tool-making ancestor (known affectionately as "dear boy"), in the last the author ponders the changes we are likely to see as the political elites of Africa begin to review the operation of their single-party systems. The human colonization of the continent - the origins of food production, the formation and diffusion of African languages, the achievements of Ancient Egypt, the impact of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, slavery, the caravan trade, exploration and colonization, the economic, political and social developments which gave rise to the modern nation states - this book looks at all these aspects in an overview of the history of Africa.

Deconstructing Olduvai: A Taphonomic Study of the Bed I Sites

Deconstructing Olduvai: A Taphonomic Study of the Bed I Sites
Author: Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2007-07-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1402061501

The Olduvai Bed I archaeological sites have been at the epicenter of the debate on how early humans behaved. This book presents a new analytical approach that has produced unexpected results: the association of stone tools and faunal remains at most Olduvai Bed I sites is accidental and not related to hominid behavior. This revolutionary analysis shows that current models of reconstruction of human behavior are wrong.