Research on Late Pliocene Oldowan Sites at Kanjera South, Kenya

Plummer, Thomas W.; Bishop, Laura C.; Ditchfield, Peter; Hicks, Jason F.

doi:10.1006/jhev.1998.0256

Cited by 109 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The presence of the Olduvai subchron (1.95-1.77 Ma) in Bed KS-5 overlying the archaeological levels, and the co-occurrence of the equid Equus sp., the suids Metridiochoerus andrewsi and M. modestus, and the proboscidean Deinotherium sp., indicate that the KS-1 to KS-3 archaeological occurrences date between approximately 2.3 Ma (the dispersal of Equus across Africa, and the first occurrence of M. modestus) and 1.95 Ma (the base of the Olduvai subchron) (Plummer et al, 1999). An age of ~ 2 Ma for the archaeological occurrences seems most likely, given the apparent rapidity of deposition.…”

Section: Figure 1 Herementioning

confidence: 97%

“…1). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 The Southern Member of the Kanjera Formation is comprised of six beds, from oldest to youngest KS-1 to KS-6 (Behrensmeyer et al, 1995;Plummer et al, 1999). Archaeological materials have been excavated from a ~ 3 metre sequence from the top of Bed KS-1 through Bed KS-3, and are the focus of current study.…”

Section: Localitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An age of ~ 2 Ma for the archaeological occurrences seems most likely, given the apparent rapidity of deposition. Hominins were the primary agent of accumulation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 the archaeological material, barring materials deposited in the conglomerate lenses (Plummer et al, 1999;Ferraro et al, 2013). The majority of the in situ artifacts are from Excavation 1, a 169 m 2 area that has yielded 3663 fossils and 2883 artifacts lifted with three dimensional coordinates.…”

Section: Figure 1 Herementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here we analyse use-wear of the lithic industry from the Oldowan site of Kanjera South, southwestern Kenya (Plummer et al, 1999;2009a,b;Braun et al, 2008;2009a,b;Ferraro et al, 2013). This assemblage is particularly suited for use-wear analysis, as stone artifact surfaces have not undergone extensive postdepositional modification, and multiple raw materials preserve use-wear traces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Old stones' song: Use-wear experiments and analysis of the Oldowan quartz and quartzite assemblage from Kanjera South (Kenya)

Lemorini

Plummer

Braun

et al. 2014

Journal of Human Evolution

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Old stones' song: Use-wear experiments and analysis of the Oldowan quartz and quartzite assemblage from Kanjera South (Kenya) http://ljmu-new.eprints-hosting.org/313/ Article LJMU has developed LJMU Research Online for users to access the research output of the University more effectively. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article (s) AbstractEvidence of Oldowan tools by ~2.6 million years ago (Ma) may signal a major adaptive shift in hominin evolution. While tool-dependent butchery of large mammals was important by at least 2.0 Ma, the use of artifacts for tasks other than faunal processing has been difficult to diagnose.Here we report on use-wear analysis of ~2.0 Ma quartz and quartzite artifacts from Kanjera South, Kenya. A use-wear framework that links processing of specific organic materials and tool motions to their resultant use-wear patterns was developed in a suite of experiments. A blind test was then carried out to assess and improve the efficacy of this experimental use-wear framework, which was then applied to the analysis of 62 Oldowan artifacts from Kanjera South.Use-wear on a total of 23 artifact edges was attributed to the processing of specific materials.Use-wear on seven edges (30%) was attributed to animal tissue processing, corroborating zooarchaeological evidence for butchery at the site. Use-wear on sixteen edges (70%) was attributed to the processing of plant tissues, including wood, grit-covered plant tissues that we interpret as underground storage organs (USOs), and stems of grass or sedges. These results expand our knowledge of the suite of behaviors carried out in the vicinity of Kanjera South to include the processing of materials that would be "invisible" using standard archaeological methods. Wood cutting and scraping may represent the production and/or maintenance of wooden tools. Use-wear related to USO processing extends the archaeological evidence for hominin acquisition and consumption of this resource by over 1.5 Ma. Cutting of grasses, sedges or reeds may be related to a subsistence task (e.g., grass seed harvesting, cutting out papyrus culm for consumption) and/or a non-subsistence related task (e.g., production of "twine," simple carrying devices, or bedding). These results highlight the adaptive significance of lithic technology for hominins at Kanjera.

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Section: Figure 1 Herementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Localitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figure 1 Herementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Old stones' song: Use-wear experiments and analysis of the Oldowan quartz and quartzite assemblage from Kanjera South (Kenya)

Lemorini

Plummer

Braun

et al. 2014

Journal of Human Evolution

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152

100

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“…En la misma línea se enmarcan los hallazgos, entre otros, Lokalalei 2C (West Turkana, Kenya) (Delagnes y Roche, 2005) con industrias que presentan una cronología de 2.3-2.4 Ma. o Kanjera South (Kenya) (Plummer, Bishop, Ditchfield y Hicks, 1999) con industrias de 2.2 Ma.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Los orígenes de la tecnología a debate: una revisión de las primeras industrias líticas.

Cueva-Temprana

2016

pantarei

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Durante muchos años, la comunidad científica ha considerado la producción de artefactos líticos como privativa del género Homo. Sin embargo, recientes hallazgos realizados en yacimientos africanos han aportado unos resultados que parecen poner en duda esta cuestión, retrasando la cronología de aparición de las primeras industrias líticas hasta más allá de los 2.6 Ma. planteados por el yacimiento de Gona. A partir de una revisión de estos yacimientos, el presente trabajo pretende realizar una reflexión sobre la posible autoría de estas primeras tecnologías, enmarcadas en un contexto paleoantropológico de creciente complejidad, y quizás atribuibles a miembros de otros géneros. For many years, the scientific community has considered the production of lithic artifacts as a unique characteristic of the genus Homo. However, recent discoveries made in African sites have provided results that seem to put this issue in doubt, delaying the appearance time of the first stone industries to beyond the 2.6 Myr. posed by the deposits of Kada Gona. This paper aims to make a review on these sites, trying to consider the possible authorship of that early technologies, which are framed in a high complexity paleoanthropological context, and perhaps are attributable to members of other genres.

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The Case for Exploitation of Wetlands Environments and Foods by Pre‐Sapiens Hominins

Stewart

2010

Human Brain Evolution

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Research on Late Pliocene Oldowan Sites at Kanjera South, Kenya

Cited by 109 publications

References 53 publications

Old stones' song: Use-wear experiments and analysis of the Oldowan quartz and quartzite assemblage from Kanjera South (Kenya)

Old stones' song: Use-wear experiments and analysis of the Oldowan quartz and quartzite assemblage from Kanjera South (Kenya)

Los orígenes de la tecnología a debate: una revisión de las primeras industrias líticas.

The Case for Exploitation of Wetlands Environments and Foods by Pre‐Sapiens Hominins

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