Late pliocene hominid occupation in Central Africa: the setting, context, and character of the Senga 5A site, Zaire

Change and variability in Plio-Pleistocene climates: modelling the hominin response

“…With the true nature of the Dikika evidence still in contention (Dominguez-Rodrigo et al, 2010;McPherron et al, 2010), it is currently prudent to assign the earliest Oldowan a date of around 2.6 mya (Semaw, 2000;Semaw et al, 1997Semaw et al, , 2003. Following this initial date, a series of important Oldowan localities appear between 2.5 and 2 mya in the Hadar, Middle Awash and Omo areas of Ethiopia, on the west banks of Lake Turkana and at Kanjera in Kenya, and in the Upper Semliki Valley, Democratic Republic of Congo (Chavaillon, 1976;de Heinzelin et al, 1999;Goldman-Neuman and Hovers, 2009;Harris et al, 1987Harris et al, , 1990Hovers, 2009;Howell et al, 1987;Kimbel et al, 1996;Plummer et al, 1999Plummer et al, , 2009Roche et al, 1999). The Oldowan occurs in habitats ranging from riverine forest and grassy woodlands at Olduvai (Sikes, 1994) to open context savanna environments at Kanjera (de Lumley and Beyene, 2004;Plummer et al, 1999Plummer et al, , 2009, ultimately occurring over a latitudinal span of some 80 .…”

The World's Oldest Stone Artefacts from Gona, Ethiopia: Their Implications for Understanding Stone Technology and Patterns of Human Evolution Between 2·6–1·5 Million Years Ago

“…There are two sites, Senga 5a from Eastern Zaire and Mwimbi from the Chiwondo Beds in Malawi, with claims for the presence of archaeological sites with estimated ages of c. 2•2-2•3 Ma. However, there are no absolute dates to corroborate these claims (Harris et al, 1987(Harris et al, , 1990Kaufulu & Stern, 1987).…”

The origins of stone tool reduction and the transition to knapping: An experimental approach

“…In fact, de la Torre and Mora (2010) point out that at several Olduvai sites, such as TK, FLK North I, FC West, and FLK North II, percussive tasks could have been the most significant technical activities, even surpassing knapping. There is evidence for bipolar flaking at the sites of Senga (Harris et al, 1987), Sterkfontein (Kuman, 1998), and Omo (Merrick, 1976;Chavaillon, 1976). Anvils are present for the flaking of large blanks in Acheulian assemblages in the Sahara and East Africa (Alimen, 1963;Chavaillon and Chavaillon, 1981;Jones, 1994;Toth, 2001;Kleindienst and Keller, 1976).…”