https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004724842400006X
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.
"Kanjera South provides the earliest
evidence documented so far for long-distance
raw material procurement in a
grassland-dominated ecosystem..."
"Hominins had early access to meat and
focused their hunting efforts on small bovid
juveniles with a mixed strategy of hunting
and scavenging individuals of larger taxa."
"Hominins sometimes traveled distances over
10 km to obtain high quality ‘exotic’ raw
materials such as quartz, quartzite, rhyolite,
basalt, felsite, chert and granite, reflecting
their preference for durable materials."
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