Diatomaceous sediments and environmental change in the Pleistocene Olorgesailie Formation, southern Kenya Rift Valley

Owen, R. Bernhart; Potts, Richard; Behrensmeyer, Anna K.; Ditchfield, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.06.021

Cited by 83 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 63 publications

(99 reference statements)

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“…The importance of wetlands as potential watering locations for hominins, especially during times of water stress, has recently been pointed out by Owen et al (2008b) and Ashley et al (2009). This increases the need for criteria that can be used to identify wetlands in ancient sedimentary basins where hominins evolved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland sedimentation and associated diatoms in the Pleistocene Olorgesailie Basin, southern Kenya Rift Valley

Owen

Renaut

Scott

et al. 2009

Sedimentary Geology

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland sedimentation and associated diatoms in the Pleistocene Olorgesailie Basin, southern Kenya Rift Valley

Owen

Renaut

Scott

et al. 2009

Sedimentary Geology

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“…Behrensmeyer, and R.B. Owen (e.g., Owen et al 2008) further indicate that the Member 1 artifacts accumulated during a lengthy interval of high aridity-moisture variability, resulting from climatic fluctuation, which suggests a period of overall resource unpredictability. The Member 6/7 paleolandscape, by contrast, is dominated by proximal floodplain sands adjacent to highly localized, shallow sand-filled channels that drain into a wetland.…”

Section: Paleoenvironment Reconstruction Of the Uppermentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Potts (e.g., 1994;Potts et al 1999) has conducted a program of paleolandscape investigations here since 1985. Results of this project include a precise chronological framework for the Olorgesailie Formation, which spans ~1200-490 ka, with detailed habitat reconstructions and artifact distributions for several intervals (see Behrensmeyer et al 2002;Deino and Potts 1990;Potts et al 1999;Sikes et al 1999;Owen et al 2008).…”

Section: The Olorgesailie Formation Of Kenyamentioning

confidence: 99%

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2011

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Acheulean lithic technology is comprised of more than handaxes or other large cutting tools. Artifact assemblages from Member 11' of the Olorgesailie Formation, Kenya, form the basis of our detailed examination of the flake and core component of an Acheulean behavioral system preserved in sediments dating to ~662-625 ka. We contrast what we consider descriptive and explanatory methods of lithic analysis currently in use among researchers studying the African Early Stone Age, and explore here an 'industry-free,' attribute-based analysis for the study of raw material economy. For sites from Member 11' and Member 1 (~990 ka) of the Olorgesailie Formation, we compared the size of transported artifacts, the reduction intensity of flaked pieces, and flake utility (estimated by the ratio of flake cutting edge:thickness). Our results suggest a positive relationship between raw material economy and inferred paleoenvironmental structure, and demonstrate that the analysis of flakes and cores is an important complement to the study of handaxes, cleavers, and other characteristic Acheulean artifacts.This special issue is guest edited by Gilbert B. Tostevin (Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota). This is article #7 of 7. INTRODUCTIONM uch of the current debate on the relative merits of the chaîne opératoire, core reduction, and other approaches to understanding stone tool production has been shaped by analyses of Eurasian Paleolithic sites and assemblages. Data from Africa, particularly in areas distant from the Mediterranean, have often played a peripheral role. However, recent technological analyses of how Oldowan (e

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“…The hominins include significant specimens, such as the earliest/most complete specimens of H. rudolfensis and H. erectus, early members of our own genus. The time window targeted here (∼ 1.9-1.4 Ma) also includes the earliest evidence of Acheulean (e.g., large hand axes) stone tool technology (Lepre et al, 2011) Potts et al, 1999;Sikes et al, 1999;Behrensmeyer et al, 2002;Owen et al, 2008). Prior research here has fueled hypotheses and debates about climate-evolution relationships (e.g., Owen et al, 2009a, b;Trauth and Maslin, 2009).…”

Section: The West Turkana Drilling Area Kenyamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project: inferring the environmental context of human evolution from eastern African rift lake deposits

Cohen¹,

Campisano²,

Arrowsmith³

et al. 2016

Sci. Dril.

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Abstract. The role that climate and environmental history may have played in influencing human evolution has been the focus of considerable interest and controversy among paleoanthropologists for decades. Prior attempts to understand the environmental history side of this equation have centered around the study of outcrop sediments and fossils adjacent to where fossil hominins (ancestors or close relatives of modern humans) are found, or from the study of deep sea drill cores. However, outcrop sediments are often highly weathered and thus are unsuitable for some types of paleoclimatic records, and deep sea core records come from long distances away from the actual fossil and stone tool remains. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) was developed to address these issues. The project has focused its efforts on the eastern African Rift Valley, where much of the evidence for early hominins has been recovered. We have collected about 2 km of sediment drill core from six basins in Kenya and Ethiopia, in lake deposits immediately adjacent to important fossil hominin and archaeological sites. Collectively these cores cover in time many of the key transitions and critical intervals in human evolutionary history over the last 4 Ma, such as the earliest stone tools, the origin of our own genus Homo, and the earliest anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Here we document the initial field, physical property, and core description results of the 2012-2014 HSPDP coring campaign.

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Diatomaceous sediments and environmental change in the Pleistocene Olorgesailie Formation, southern Kenya Rift Valley

Cited by 83 publications

References 63 publications

Wetland sedimentation and associated diatoms in the Pleistocene Olorgesailie Basin, southern Kenya Rift Valley

Wetland sedimentation and associated diatoms in the Pleistocene Olorgesailie Basin, southern Kenya Rift Valley

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The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project: inferring the environmental context of human evolution from eastern African rift lake deposits

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