The excavations uncovered the oldest Oldowan stone tools ever found at Oldupai Gorge, dating to ~2 million years ago. Excavations in long sequences of stratified sediments and dated volcanic horizons indicated hominin presence at Ewass Oldupai from 2.0 to 1.8 million years ago. Credit: Michael Petraglia. Read Time:
The UNESCO World Heritage Site Olduvai Gorge (now Oldupai Gorge) in northern Tanzania, known as the cradle of mankind , achieved worldwide fame, in particular through Louis and Mary Leakey. As reported in Nature Communications , new interdisciplinary field research has now led to the discovery of the oldest archaeological site to date in the Oldupai Gorge and shows that early humans used diverse habitats amid ecological changes over a period of 200,000 years.
Discoveries at Oldupai Gorge, the Famous Cradle of Humankind
Oldupai Gorge is a very important paleoanthropological site located in Tanzania in the Great Rift Valley. For more than a century, researchers have been excavating in this area, and cumulatively they have found hundreds of fossils and stone tools which date back millions of years. The site was made famous by Louis and Mary Leakey and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
EurekAlert! reports that, despite the long history of surveys and excavations at the Oldupai Gorge, there has been a lack of ecological studies associated with the cultural remains which have been found there. This allows the new study to cast light on the environmental contexts in which the early hominins lived.
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Oldest Hominins of Olduvai Gorge Persisted Across Changing Environments ~2.0 to 1.8 million year-old archaeological site demonstrates that early humans had the skills and tools to cope with ecological change
Olduvai (now Oldupai) Gorge, known as the Cradle of Humankind, is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tanzania, made famous by Louis and Mary Leakey. New interdisciplinary field work has led to the discovery of the oldest archaeological site in Oldupai Gorge as reported in Nature Communications, which shows that early human used a wide diversity of habitats amidst environmental changes across a 200,000 year-long period.
Overview of Ewass Oldupa in Olduvai (Oldupai) Gorge, Tanzania
Olduvai (now Oldupai) Gorge, known as the Cradle of Humankind, is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tanzania, made famous by Louis and Mary Leakey. New interdisciplinary field work has led to the discovery of the oldest archaeological site in Oldupai Gorge as reported in Nature Communications, which shows that early human used a wide diversity of habitats amidst environmental changes across a 200,000 year-long period.