|
The Oldowan, sometimes spelled Olduwan, is the archaeological term used to refer to the earliest stone tool archaeological industry in prehistory. Oldowan tools were used during the Lower Paleolithic period, 2.6 million years ago up until 1.7 million years ago, by ancient hominins across much of Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and Europe. This technological industry was followed by the more sophisticated Acheulean industry. The term "Oldowan" is taken from the site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where the first Oldowan lithics were discovered by the archaeologist Louis Leakey in the 1930s. However, some contemporary archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists prefer to use the term "Mode 1" tools to designate pebble tool industries (including Oldowan), with "Mode 2" designating bifacially-worked tools (including Acheulean handaxes), "Mode 3" designating prepared-core tools, and so forth. Classification of Oldowan tools is still somewhat contended. Mary Leakey was the first to create a system to classify Oldowan assemblages, and built her system based on prescribed use. The system included choppers, scrapers, and pounders. However, more recent classifications of Oldowan assemblages have been made that focus primarliy on manufacture due to the problematic nature of assuming use from stone artefacts. An example is Isaac et al.'s tri-modal categories of "Flaked Pieces" (cores/ choppers), "Detached Pieces" (flakes and fragments), "Pounded Pieces" (cobbles utilized as hammerstones, etc.) and "Unmodified Pieces" (manuports, stones transported to sites)〔Isaac, G. Ll., Harris, J. W. K. & Marshall, F. 1981. "Small is informative: the application of the study of mini-sites and least effort criteria in the interpretation of the Early Pleistocene archaeological record at Koobi Fora, Kenya." in "Inter-nacional de Ciencias Prehistoricas Y Protohistoricas", Mexico City. Mexico, pp. 101–119.〕 Oldowan tools are sometimes called "pebble tools," so named because the blanks chosen for their production already resemble, in pebble form, the final product.〔Napier, John. 1960. "Fossil Hand Bones from Olduvai Gorge." in ''Nature", December 17th edition.〕 It is not known for sure which hominin species actually created and used Oldowan tools. Its emergence is often associated with the species ''Australopithecus garhi''〔 and its flourishing with early species of ''Homo'' such as ''H. habilis'' and ''H. ergaster''. Early ''Homo erectus'' appears to inherit Oldowan technology and refines it into the Acheulean industry beginning 1.7 million years ago.〔 .〕 ==Dates and ranges== The oldest known Oldowan tools have been found in Gona, Ethiopia, and are dated to about 2.6 mya. The use of tools by apes including chimpanzees and orangutans can be used to argue in favour of tool-use as an ancestral feature of the hominin family. Tools made from bone, wood, or other organic materials were therefore in all probability used before the Oldowan. Oldowan stone tools are simply the oldest recognisable tools which have been preserved in the archaeological record. There is a flourishing of Oldowan tools in eastern Africa, spreading to southern Africa, between 2.4 and 1.7 mya. At 1.7 mya., the first Acheulean tools appear even as Oldowan assemblages continue to be produced. Both technologies are occasionally found in the same areas, dating to the same time periods. This realisation required a rethinking of old cultural sequences in which the more "advanced" Acheulean was supposed to have succeeded the Oldowan. The different traditions may have been used by different species of hominins living in the same area, or multiple techniques may have been used by an individual species in response to different circumstances. Sometime before 1.8 mya ''Homo erectus'' had spread outside of Africa, reaching as far east as Java by 1.8 mya. and in Northern China by 1.66 mya. In these newly colonised areas, no Acheulean assemblages have been found. In China, only "Mode 1" Oldowon assemblages were produced, while in Indonesia stone tools from this age are unknown. By 1.8 mya early ''Homo'' was present in Europe, as shown by the discovery of fossil remains and Oldowan tools in Dmanisi, Georgia.〔http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/07/0703_020704_georgianskull.html〕 Remains of their activities have also been excavated in Spain at sites in the Guadix-Baza basin and near Atapuerca. Most early European sites yield "Mode 1" or Oldowan assemblages. The earliest Acheulean sites in Europe only appear around 0.5 mya. In addition, the Acheulean tradition does not seem to spread to Eastern Asia. It is unclear from the archaeological record when the production of Oldowon technologies ended. Other tool-making traditions seem to have supplanted Oldowon technologies by 0.25 mya. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「oldowan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|