: The Homa Peninsula, in southwestern Kenya, continues to yield insights into Oldowan hominin landscape behaviors. The Late Pliocene locality of Nyayanga (∼3-2.6 Ma) preserves some of the oldest Oldowan tools. At the Early Pleistocene locality of Kanjera South (∼2 Ma) toolmakers procured a diversity of raw materials from over 10 km away and strategically reduced them in a grassland-dominated ecosystem. Here, we report findings from Sare-Abururu, a younger (∼1.7 Ma) Oldowan locality approximately 12 km southeast of Kanjera South and 18 km east of Nyayanga. Sare-Abururu has yielded 1754 artifacts in relatively undisturbed low-energy silts and sands. Stable isotopic analysis of pedogenic carbonates suggests that hominin activities were carried out in a grassland-dominated setting with similar vegetation structure as documented at Kanjera South. The composition of a nearby paleo-conglomerate indicates that high-quality stone raw materials were locally abundant. Toolmakers at Sare-Abururu produced angular fragments from quartz pebbles, representing a considerable contrast to the strategies used to reduce high quality raw materials at Kanjera South. Although lithic reduction at Sare-Abururu was technologically simple, toolmakers proficiently produced cutting edges, made few mistakes and exhibited a mastery of platform management, demonstrating that expedient technical strategies do not necessarily indicate a lack of skill or suitable raw materials. Lithic procurement and reduction patterns on the Homa Peninsula appear to reflect variation in local resource contexts rather than large-scale evolutionary changes in mobility, energy budget, or toolmaker cognition.

New Oldowan locality Sare-Abururu (ca. 1.7 Ma) provides evidence of diverse hominin behaviors on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya / Finestone, Emma M.; Plummer, Thomas W.; Vincent, Thomas H.; Blumenthal, Scott A.; Ditchfield, Peter W.; Bishop, Laura C.; Oliver, James S.; Herries, Andy I. R.; Palfery, Christopher Vere; Lane, Timothy P.; Mcguire, Elizabeth; Reeves, Jonathan S.; Rodés, Angel; Whitfield, Elizabeth; Braun, David R.; Bartilol, Simion K.; Rotich, Nelson Kiprono; Parkinson, Jennifer A.; Lemorini, Cristina; Caricola, Isabella; Kinyanjui, Rahab N.; Potts, Richard. - In: JOURNAL OF HUMAN EVOLUTION. - ISSN 0047-2484. - 190:(2024). [10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103498]

New Oldowan locality Sare-Abururu (ca. 1.7 Ma) provides evidence of diverse hominin behaviors on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya

Lemorini, Cristina;Caricola, Isabella;
2024

Abstract

: The Homa Peninsula, in southwestern Kenya, continues to yield insights into Oldowan hominin landscape behaviors. The Late Pliocene locality of Nyayanga (∼3-2.6 Ma) preserves some of the oldest Oldowan tools. At the Early Pleistocene locality of Kanjera South (∼2 Ma) toolmakers procured a diversity of raw materials from over 10 km away and strategically reduced them in a grassland-dominated ecosystem. Here, we report findings from Sare-Abururu, a younger (∼1.7 Ma) Oldowan locality approximately 12 km southeast of Kanjera South and 18 km east of Nyayanga. Sare-Abururu has yielded 1754 artifacts in relatively undisturbed low-energy silts and sands. Stable isotopic analysis of pedogenic carbonates suggests that hominin activities were carried out in a grassland-dominated setting with similar vegetation structure as documented at Kanjera South. The composition of a nearby paleo-conglomerate indicates that high-quality stone raw materials were locally abundant. Toolmakers at Sare-Abururu produced angular fragments from quartz pebbles, representing a considerable contrast to the strategies used to reduce high quality raw materials at Kanjera South. Although lithic reduction at Sare-Abururu was technologically simple, toolmakers proficiently produced cutting edges, made few mistakes and exhibited a mastery of platform management, demonstrating that expedient technical strategies do not necessarily indicate a lack of skill or suitable raw materials. Lithic procurement and reduction patterns on the Homa Peninsula appear to reflect variation in local resource contexts rather than large-scale evolutionary changes in mobility, energy budget, or toolmaker cognition.
2024
Hominin paleoecology; Isotopic analysis; Kenya; Lithic technology; Pleistocene; Stone tools
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
New Oldowan locality Sare-Abururu (ca. 1.7 Ma) provides evidence of diverse hominin behaviors on the Homa Peninsula, Kenya / Finestone, Emma M.; Plummer, Thomas W.; Vincent, Thomas H.; Blumenthal, Scott A.; Ditchfield, Peter W.; Bishop, Laura C.; Oliver, James S.; Herries, Andy I. R.; Palfery, Christopher Vere; Lane, Timothy P.; Mcguire, Elizabeth; Reeves, Jonathan S.; Rodés, Angel; Whitfield, Elizabeth; Braun, David R.; Bartilol, Simion K.; Rotich, Nelson Kiprono; Parkinson, Jennifer A.; Lemorini, Cristina; Caricola, Isabella; Kinyanjui, Rahab N.; Potts, Richard. - In: JOURNAL OF HUMAN EVOLUTION. - ISSN 0047-2484. - 190:(2024). [10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103498]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1709989
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