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Boës X, Van Bocxlaer B, Prat S, Feibel C, Lewis J, Arrighi V, Taylor N, Harmand S. Aridity, availability of drinking water and freshwater foods, and hominin and archeological sites during the Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene in the western region of the Turkana Basin (Kenya): A review. J Hum Evol 2024; 186:103466. [PMID: 38134581 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103466] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2022] [Revised: 10/18/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023]
Abstract
Although the Turkana Basin is one of the driest regions of the East African Rift, its Plio-Pleistocene sediments are rich in freshwater vertebrates and invertebrates, providing evidence that freshwater resources were available to hominins in this region during the Plio-Pleistocene (4.2-0.7 Ma). Here we provide an overview of the hydroconnectivity of the Turkana Basin. We then review the period during which freshwater river and lake systems expanded into the western region of the Turkana Basin, where hominin and archeological sites have been discovered in sediments dating back to the Late Pliocene-Pleistocene. Freshwater conditions are reconstructed from river and lake sediments and the flora and micro- and macofauna they contain. Data synthesis suggests that drinking water and freshwater foods prevailed in the western region of the Turkana Basin at 4.20-3.98 Ma, 3.70-3.10 Ma, 2.53-2.22 Ma, then between 2.10 and 1.30 Ma and intermittently from 1.27 to 0.75 Ma. Milestones in hominin evolution occurred in this context, such as the first occurrence of Australopithecus anamensis (4.20-4.10 Ma) and Kenyanthropus platyops (3.50 Ma and 3.30-3.20 Ma), the presence of Paranthropus aethiopicus (2.53-2.45 Ma), early Homo (2.33 Ma), Paranthropus boisei (2.25 Ma and 1.77-1.72 Ma) and Homo ergaster/Homo erectus (1.75 Ma, 1.47-1.42 Ma and 1.10-0.90 Ma). Developments in hominin behavior also occurred during this timeframe, including the first known stone tools (3.30 Ma), the oldest Oldowan sites (2.34 Ma and 2.25 Ma) in the Turkana Basin, the earliest known evidence for the emergence of bifacial shaping in eastern Africa (1.80 Ma), and the first known Acheulean site (1.76 Ma). Our synthesis suggests that, diachronic variation in hydroconnectivity played a role on the amount of drinking water and freshwater foods available in the western region of the Turkana Basin, despite regional aridity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xavier Boës
- Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), 140 Avenue Du Maréchal Leclerc, 33323 Bordeaux-Bègles, France; CNRS/MNHN/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, UMR 7194, Musée de L'Homme, Palais Chaillot, 17 Place Du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris Cedex 16, France; Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
| | | | - Sandrine Prat
- CNRS/MNHN/UPVD, Alliance Sorbonne Université, UMR 7194, Musée de L'Homme, Palais Chaillot, 17 Place Du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris Cedex 16, France
| | - Craig Feibel
- Department of Anthropology and Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
| | - Jason Lewis
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Chronicle Heritage, 319 E Palm Lane, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA
| | - Vincent Arrighi
- Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), 13 Rue Du Négoce, 31650 Orens de Gameville, France
| | - Nicholas Taylor
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Turkana University College, Lodwar Rd., Lodwar, Kenya
| | - Sonia Harmand
- Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA; Laboratoire TRACES-UMR 5608, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Maison de La Recherche, 5 Allée Antonio Machado, 31058 Toulouse, France; Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA), UMIFRE, USR 3336, CNRS, Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa, Nairobi, Kenya
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Delagnes A, Galland A, Gravina B, Bertran P, Corbé M, Brenet M, Hailu HB, Sissay FM, Araya BG, Woldetsadik MG, Boisserie JR. Long-term behavioral adaptation of Oldowan toolmakers to resource-constrained environments at 2.3 Ma in the Lower Omo Valley (Ethiopia). Sci Rep 2023; 13:14350. [PMID: 37658122 PMCID: PMC10474039 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40793-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 09/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The long stratigraphic sequence of the Shungura Formation in the Lower Omo Valley documents 3 million years (Ma) of hominin evolution, which, when combined with detailed paleo-depositional environmental data, opens new perspectives for understanding the complex interactions between hominin landscape use and the development of stone tool-mediated activities. Stone tool assemblages produced by Paranthropus aethiopicus and/or a species of early Homo from ~ 2.3 Ma, reflect their ability to deal with the raw material scarce environment of the Lower Omo Valley. It remains to be seen whether this activity can be related to a single, brief occupation event or the expression of an emergent new adaptation. Here we report on the newly investigated site complex of OMO 79, which produced the first evidence for multiple phases of hominin tool-making and use in the Shungura Formation. The development of this long-lasting techno-economic behavior marks a cognitive tipping point around 2.3 Ma in the Lower Omo Valley, evidenced by the adaptability of the early hominins to resource-constrained environments.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Brad Gravina
- PACEA, University of Bordeaux-CNRS, Pessac, France
- Musée National de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies, France
| | - Pascal Bertran
- PACEA, University of Bordeaux-CNRS, Pessac, France
- Inrap-NAOM, Bègles, France
| | - Marion Corbé
- PALEVOPRIM, CNRS-University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
| | - Michel Brenet
- PACEA, University of Bordeaux-CNRS, Pessac, France
- Inrap-NAOM, Bègles, France
| | | | | | | | | | - Jean-Renaud Boisserie
- PALEVOPRIM, CNRS-University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
- Centre Français des Études Éthiopiennes, CNRS-Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Delagnes A, Brenet M, Gravina B, Santos F. Exploring the relative influence of raw materials, percussion techniques, and hominin skill levels on the diversity of the early Oldowan assemblages: Insights from the Shungura Formation, Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0283250. [PMID: 37018222 PMCID: PMC10075482 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2023] [Indexed: 04/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The eastern African Oldowan has been documented in multiple raw material contexts and physical environments and displays considerable differences in terms of technological complexity. The relative influence of percussion techniques and raw material quality are central to debates concerning hominin skill levels as a potential driver of change during the period between 2.6 and 2 million-years (Ma). The early Oldowan assemblages from the Shugura Formation play a key role in these debates due to a number of distinctive features, including the small size of the artefacts and poorly controlled flaking. Here we mobilize quantified and replicable experimental data in order to (a) assess the significance of the bipolar technique in the Omo archaeological assemblages and (b) discriminate the respective impact of raw materials, technical choices and knapper skill levels on the unique character of these assemblages. By combining descriptive statistics with regression tree models, our analysis demonstrates knapper skill level to be of minimal importance in this context for the production of sharp-edged flakes. The absence of a link between skill and knapping success reflects the combined effect of raw material constraints, the frequent use of the bipolar technique, and relatively simple technical objectives. Our analysis confirms the key role played by local environmental conditions in the unique appearance of the Shungura assemblages, a relationship which has been frequently suggested but never demonstrated. Beyond the operational and sensorimotor skills considered in most studies, we suggest that the diversity of early Oldowan assemblages should be better sought in the cognitive abilities developed by early toolmakers as a response to landscape learning and use, two elements of early human evolution that remain largely unexplored.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Delagnes
- PACEA—De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, Université de Bordeaux/CNRS/Ministère de la Culture, Pessac, France
| | - Michel Brenet
- PACEA—De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, Université de Bordeaux/CNRS/Ministère de la Culture, Pessac, France
- Inrap-Nouvelle-Aquitaine & Outre-Mer, Bègles, France
| | - Brad Gravina
- PACEA—De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, Université de Bordeaux/CNRS/Ministère de la Culture, Pessac, France
- Musée national de Préhistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, France
| | - Frédéric Santos
- PACEA—De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, Université de Bordeaux/CNRS/Ministère de la Culture, Pessac, France
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Abstract
The ability to modify the environment through the transport of tools has been instrumental in shaping the evolutionary success of humans. Understanding the cause-and-effect relationships between hominin behavior and the environment ultimately requires understanding of how the archaeological record forms. Observations of living primates can shed light on these interactions by investigating how tool-use behaviors produce a material record within specific environmental contexts. However, this requires reconciling data derived from primate behavioral observations with the time-averaged nature of the Plio-Pleistocene archaeological record. Here, we use an agent-based model to investigate how repeated short-distance transport events, characteristic for primate tool use, can result in significant landscape-scale patterning of material culture over time. Our results illustrate the conditions under which accumulated short-distance transport bouts can displace stone tools over long distances. We show that this widespread redistribution of tools can also increase access to tool require resources over time. As such, these results elucidate the niche construction processes associated with this pattern of tool transport. Finally, the structure of the subsequent material record largely depends on the interaction between tool transport and environmental conditions over time. Though these results have implications for inferring hominin tool transports from hominin archaeological assemblages. Furthermore, they highlight the difficulties with connecting specific behavioral processes with the patterning in the archaeological record.
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Diez-Martín F, Cobo-Sánchez L, Baddeley A, Uribelarrea D, Mabulla A, Baquedano E, Domínguez-Rodrigo M. Tracing the spatial imprint of Oldowan technological behaviors: A view from DS (Bed I, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania). PLoS One 2021; 16:e0254603. [PMID: 34252171 PMCID: PMC8274881 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
DS (David's site) is one of the new archaeological sites documented in the same paleolandscape in which FLK 22 was deposited at about 1.85 Ma in Olduvai Gorge. Fieldwork in DS has unearthed the largest vertically-discrete archaeological horizon in the African Pleistocene, where a multi-cluster anthropogenic accumulation of fossil bones and stone tools has been identified. In this work we present the results of the techno-economic study of the lithic assemblage recovered from DS. We also explore the spatial magnitude of the technological behaviors documented at this spot using powerful spatial statistical tools to unravel correlations between the spatial distributional patterns of lithic categories. At DS, lavas and quartzite were involved in different technological processes. Volcanic materials, probably transported to this spot from a close source, were introduced in large numbers, including unmodified materials, and used in percussion activities and in a wide variety of reduction strategies. A number of volcanic products were subject to outward fluxes to other parts of the paleolandscape. In contrast, quartzite rocks were introduced in smaller numbers and might have been subject to a significantly more intense exploitation. The intra-site spatial analysis has shown that specialized areas cannot be identified, unmodified materials are not randomly distributed, percussion and knapping categories do not spatially overlap, while bipolar specimens show some sort of spatial correlation with percussion activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando Diez-Martín
- Department of Prehistory and Archeology, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
| | - Lucía Cobo-Sánchez
- Institute of Archaeology, University of Cologne, Köln, Germany
- Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
| | - Adrian Baddeley
- School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
| | - David Uribelarrea
- Department of Geodynamics, Stratigraphy and Paleontology, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
| | - Audax Mabulla
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Enrique Baquedano
- Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
- Regional Archaeological Museum of Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
| | - Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
- Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
- Area of Prehistory, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Spain
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Martin F, Plastiras CA, Merceron G, Souron A, Boisserie JR. Dietary niches of terrestrial cercopithecines from the Plio-Pleistocene Shungura Formation, Ethiopia: evidence from Dental Microwear Texture Analysis. Sci Rep 2018; 8:14052. [PMID: 30232366 PMCID: PMC6145942 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32092-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2018] [Accepted: 08/28/2018] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
This study aims to explore the feeding ecology of two terrestrial papionins, Papio and Theropithecus from the Shungura Formation in Ethiopia, the most complete stratigraphic and paleontological record of the African Plio-Pleistocene. Two aspects were evaluated using Dental Microwear Texture Analysis: differences in diet between the extinct genera and their extant relatives, and any potential dietary fluctuations over time. Amongst more than 2,500 cercopithecid dental remains, 154 Theropithecus molars and 60 Papio molars were considered. Thirty-nine extant wild baboons and 20 wild geladas were also considered. The results show that diets of extinct monkeys from Member G already differed between genera as it is the case for their extant representatives. The shearing facets on the Theropithecus molars display significant variations in microwear textures, suggesting several dietary shifts over time. Two events point to higher intakes of herbaceous monocots (tougher than dicots foliages), at about 2.91 Ma (between members B and C) and at 2.32 Ma (between members E and F). These two events are separated by an inverse trend at about 2.53 Ma (between members C and D). Some of these variations, such as between members E and F are supported by the enamel carbon isotopic composition of herbivorous mammals and with paleovegetation evidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Martin
- Laboratory Paleontology Evolution Paleoecosystems Paleoprimatology (PALEVOPRIM) - UMR CNRS-INEE/University of Poitiers, 86073, POITIERS CEDEX 9, France
| | | | - Gildas Merceron
- Laboratory Paleontology Evolution Paleoecosystems Paleoprimatology (PALEVOPRIM) - UMR CNRS-INEE/University of Poitiers, 86073, POITIERS CEDEX 9, France.
| | - Antoine Souron
- De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA) - UMR 5199 CNRS/Université de Bordeaux/Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, 33615, PESSAC CEDEX, France
| | - Jean-Renaud Boisserie
- Laboratory Paleontology Evolution Paleoecosystems Paleoprimatology (PALEVOPRIM) - UMR CNRS-INEE/University of Poitiers, 86073, POITIERS CEDEX 9, France.,Centre Français des Etudes Ethiopiennes (CFEE) - USR 3137 CNRS/Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires Etrangères, Ambassade de France en Ethiopie, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
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