Olduvai Gorge: Volume 3, Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960-1963Olduvai Groge is a valley in the Serengeti Plains at the western margin of the Eastern Rift Valley in northern Tanzania. The formations discussed in this volume, Beds I and II, were deposited in the Lower and Middle Pleistocene and have yielded large quantities of the remains of early man, in the form of bones and stone tools and evidence of the environment in which they lived. Bed I, in which remains of Australopithecus boisei and Homo habilis have been found, is firmly dated between 1.9 million years for the lowest level and 1.65 million years for a level below the top. This third volume describes the excavations. In Part I, starting with the lowest levels and devoting a chapter to each main level, Dr Leakey describes the actual process of excavation and the finding of the principal remains. In Part II, Dr Leakey describes the circumstances of the discovery of the hominid skeletal remains. These range from purposive excavation to accidental discovery while collecting small stones for mixing in concrete. Finally, mammalian bones, as tools and as food remains are discussed. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
HWK East Lightduty chert tools | 3 |
Stratigraphic Summary | 9 |
page 26 | 76 |
MNK Sketch plan of the gully showing | 116 |
EFHR Lava biface with a denticulated edge | 129 |
51 | 132 |
MNK Main Occupation Site Lava biface | 151 |
52 | 169 |
The discoveries of hominid remains | 225 |
Mammalian bones from Beds I and II with evidence of hominid | 235 |
utilisation on rounded edges From | 241 |
Appendix A List of the recorded sites in Olduvai Gorge | 282 |
Appendix B List of identified faunal remains from known stratigraphic | 290 |
| 343 | |
FC West Lava biface from the reworked tuff | 162 |
Other editions - View all
Olduvai Gorge: Volume 3, Excavations in Beds I and II, 1960-1963 M. D. Leakey No preview available - 1971 |
Common terms and phrases
Acheulean artefacts assemblage basalt bifaces bifacially flaked bones Bovid broken flakes burins butt ends cent chert chipping and blunting circumference clay claystones complete flakes consist core fragments cortex surface débitage Deinotherium deposits Developed Oldowan Discoids edge/circumference ratio EF-HR End choppers end-struck Equid examples excavated faunal remains flake scars flakes and chips FLK NN FLK North gneiss gully Hammerstones heavy-duty Hippo hominid Homo habilis horizon humerus HWK East jagged lateral edge lava cobblestones Leakey length/breadth measurements range length/breadth/thickness measurements range Light-duty flakes lower faces mandible manuports mean diameters range mean diameters vary Modified battered nodules nodules and blocks notches occupation floor occur Olduvai Olduvai Gorge Polyhedrons quartz and quartzite quartz flakes quartz or quartzite side scrapers Side-struck skull specimens Spheroids steeply trimmed striking platforms Subspheroids thick tibia tooth tuff unifacial UTH UTH Vertebra Whole flakes Zinjanthropus