History of the World podcast Vol 1 Ep 5 - Lower paleolithic stone tools ( Olduvai Gorge )
Jul 15, 2018
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Oldowan Flake Technology Enabled Early Butchery
- Oldowan (Olduvai) tools used hard-hammer percussion to knock flakes from a core stone, producing sharp flakes for cutting and scraping.
- At Olduvai Gorge these flakes date to ~2.5 million years ago and enabled hominins to access meat and marrow from carcasses.
Scavenging Likely Preceded Systematic Hunting
- Early hominins were likely primarily scavengers initially, using stone flakes to access meat from predator kills, though evidence is mixed.
- Some Olduvai bones show carnivore bites overlaying hominin cut marks, complicating whether hominins had primary access.
Acheulean Hand Axes Spread With Homo Erectus
- Acheulean technology introduced bifacial hand axes made by flaking both sides of a large rock to create versatile cutting tools.
- Hand axes appear across Africa, Europe, Asia and likely aided Homo erectus expansion over ~1 million years.