Olduvai Gorge, an Early Stone Age site in northern Tanzania, is inarguably one of the world’s most prominent and important archaeological complexes, and has been instrumental to the study of human evolution. The site itself is located in the famous East African Rift Valley, in the south-eastern Serengeti. Several beds in the Gorge have yielded collections of human fossils and lithic artefacts which are considered key in the study of human evolution. After the discovery of the Zinjanthropus skull in the FLK site in 1959 by Mary and Louis Leakey, Olduvai was regarded as the Cradle of Humankind. The first stone tool artefacts associated with earliest fossil remains from Olduvai Gorge have been named the Oldowan tool industry (the earliest stone tool industry to occur across Africa).
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Panoramic view of Olduvai Gorge
Eric Kilby
(CC BY-SA 2.0) -
Early Acheulean stone tools from Olduvai Gorge
Archaeology Collection
University of the Witwatersrand
One of the first fossil ape skulls to be recovered was found in Olduvai Gorge. The skull is 25 million years old and belongs to the Proconsul primate.
Sources
1. 1. Yravedra, J., Rubio-Jara, S., Courtenay, L.A., Martos J.A. (2020). Mammal butchery by Homo erectus at the Lower Pleistocene Acheulean site of Juma’s korongo 2 (JK2), bed III, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Quaternary Science Reviews [Link]
2. Eren, M.I., Durant, A.J., Prendergast, M., Mabulla, A.Z.P. (2014). Middle Stone Age archaeology at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Quaternary International [Link]