Why the Oldowan? Plio-Pleistocene Toolmaking and the Transport of Resources

Abstract

As the oldest known lithic technology (ca. 2.5-1.5 my B.P.), the Oldowan exhibits the simplest methods of stone tool flaking and utilization. Certain Oldowan artifact assemblages (<2.0 my B.P.) also show evidence of behavioral sophistication beyond simple stone percussion. This includes repeated flaking and movement of stones in and out of sites. Although Oldowan toolmaking may have involved access to new food items, it was the spatial pattern of resource use--i.e., the transport of separated stones and foods to common places in the foraging range--that signified the key innovation of the Oldowan. Once this system of transport was engaged, essentially any movable resource in the environment was accessible for stone tool processing. This new pattern of resource use had important consequences, though food sharing at home bases, as in modern foragers, need not have been an immediate result. The importance of resource transport has increasingly become recognized as the focus of Oldowan studies has expanded from artifacts to sites and, ultimately, to ancient landscapes.

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