The Oldowan: Case Studies into the Earliest Stone Age

by Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy

• ISBN13: 9780979227608
• ISBN10: 0979227607
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-12-28
• Publisher: David Brown Book Co

Summary

The earliest traces of proto-human technology emerged over 2.5 million years ago on the African continent. Called the Oldowan after the famous site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, these technologies herald a major evolutionary shift in the human lineage. This volume provides a critical look at early archaeological sites and their evidence. It also shows how a range of probing, multidisciplinary, experimental investigations - including experimental tool-making, comparative studies of ape technologies, biome-chanical analysis, and PET studies of brain activity - help us evaluate this tantalizing prehistoric evidence and appreciate its relevance to human evolution.

Table of Contents

An overview of the Oldowan Industrial Complex : the sites and the nature of their evidence	p. 3
The oldest stone artifacts from Gona (2.6-2.5 Ma), Afar, Ethiopia : implications for understanding the earliest stages of stone knapping	p. 43
The North African Early Stone Age and the sites at Ain Hanech, Algeria	p. 77
The acquisition and use of large mammal carcasses by Oldowan Hominins in Eastern and Southern Africa : a selected review and assessment	p. 113
After the African Oldowan : the earliest technologies of Europe	p. 129
A comparative study of the stone tool-making skills : Pan, Australopithecus, and Homo sapiens	p. 155
Rules and tools : beyond anthropomorphism	p. 223
Sex differences in chimpanzee foraging behavior and tool use : implications for the Oldowan	p. 243
Oldowan toolmaking and hominin brain evolution : theory and research using positron emission tomography (PET)	p. 267
Knapping skill of the earliest stone toolmakers : insights from the study of modern human novices	p. 307
Comparing the neural foundations of Oldowan and Acheulean toolmaking : a pilot study using positron emission tomography (PET)	p. 321
The biomechanics of the arm swing in Oldowan stone flaking	p. 333
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