Luis Luque

The Oldowan industry of Peninj and its bearing on the reconstruction of the technological skills of Lower Pleistocene hominids

The Oldowan technology has traditionally been assumed to reflect technical simplicity and limited planning by Plio-Pleistocene hominids. The analysis of the Oldowan technology from a set of 1.6-1.4 Ma sites (ST Site Complex) in Peninj adds new information regarding the curated behavior of early hominids. The present work introduces new data to the few published monographic works on East African Oldowan technology. Its relevance lies in its conclusions, since the Peninj Oldowan assemblages show complex technological skills for Lower Pleistocene hominids, which are more complex than has been previously inferred for the Oldowan stone tool industry. Reduced variability of tool types and complex use of cores for flaking are some of the most remarkable features that identify the Oldowan assemblages from Peninj. Hominids during this period seem to have already been experimenting with pre-determination of the flaked products from cores, a feature presently assumed to appear later in time. Planning and template structuring of flaked products are integral parts of the Oldowan at Peninj.

The Middle to Later Stone Age Technological Transition in East Africa. New Data from Mumba Rockshelter Bed V (Tanzania) and their Implications for the Origin of Modern Human Behavior

Recent re-excavation of Mumba Rockshelter unearthed an unbiased lithic sample from Bed V. Technological analysis has permitted a reinterpretation of the so-called Mumba Industry, a transitional industry between Middle and Later Stone Ages originally defined by Mehlman (1989). Our data confirm Mehlman’s observation that the “evolutionary” markers in Mumba Bed V are basically typological. However, our study differs from his in that we classify all of Bed V as LSA based on the combined analyses of typology and technology in our excavated assemblage. From a technological perspective, no changes have been observed throughout the sequence, and continuity is the main technological characteristic of the series. The only transitional marker from Lower through Upper Bed V is the appearance of the geometric crescent in the latter, taking into account that microliths exist throughout the sequence. This evidence casts some doubts on previous interpretations and underscores the need to recover a larger sample using modern excavation techniques. It also stresses the need to define the MSA/LSA transition in better terms, combining techno-typological criteria.

New Excavations at Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania

Mumba Rockshelter in northern Tanzania presents one of the richest and most complete archaeological sequences in East Africa for the Middle Stone Age through the Iron Age. Past excavations of the shelter revealed an extremely rich lithic and faunal assemblage, but were problematic, either because of poor excavation and recording methods (in the 1930s), or because the materials were never fully studied (in the 1979/1981 excavations). In both cases, excavators had concluded that the shelter contained a deposit without visible separation between archaeological levels. Re-excavation of Mumba, using modern techniques for recording spatial data, show that the previous geological and archaeological sub-divisions of the shelter deposits need much revision. The results of the excavation have implications for the interpretation of the “transitional” Mumba Industry in the Pleistocene levels and for the co-occurrence of ceramic traditions in the Holocene levels.

Tsunami vs. storm surge deposits: a review of the sedimentological and geomorphological records of extreme wave events (EWE) during the Holocene in the Gulf of Cadiz, Spain

The Gulf of Cadiz region of Spain has undergone many studies examining Holocene tsunami and storm deposists. Some of the studies aimed at determining recurrence intervals of events interpreted of tsunamigenic origin. A review of geomorphologic, sedimentary and paleontological features of these deposits suggests that only a few of them can be accurately ascribed to tsunami events; instead, most of them lack conclusive evidence of a tsunamigenci genesis and should be referred to as generated by extreme wave events (EWE)

A new archaic Homo sapiens fossil from Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.

a Department of Prehistory, Complutense University, Prof. Aranguren s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain b Archaeology Unit, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania c Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel, Edificio Dinópolis, Avda. Sagunto s/n, 44002 Teruel, Spain d Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada e School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada f Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Valladolid, Plaza del Campus s/n, 47011 Valladolid, Spain

The archaeology of the Middle Pleistocene deposits of Lake Eyasi, Tanzania

Ongoing archaeological research at North Lake Eyasi has produced a wealth of information, including a new hominid fossil and several archaeological sites dating to the end of the Middle Pleistocene. One of the sites (WB9) has been excavated and has produced evidence of multiple processes in its formation, including evidence of functional associations of stone tools and faunal remains which are scarce for this time period. The stone tool industry is based on a core and flake industry, which is not very diagnostic and attributed to MSA. Earlier heavy-duty tools classified as Sangoan may derive from the underlying Eyasi Beds. The stratigraphic provenience of previous fossil hominids is unknown. Surface collections from the Eyasi lake, thus, comprise two different sets of stone tools and fossils, which can only be clearly differentiated in the field. This advises against the use of previously curated collections as a homogeneous sample. Earlier definitions of the Njarasa industry should be revised. This work presents results on the paleoecology of the area and of its paleontological and archaeological information, with special reference to the excavation of WB9, the most complete site discovered in the area so far. This contributes to the limited information available about site functionality and hominid subsistential behaviour in East Africa during the end of the Middle Pleistocene. A technological study from WB9 also shows the variability of stone tool traditions at this time.

A late stone age sequence from West Ethiopia: The sites of K'aaba and Bel K'urk'umu (Assosa, Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State)

In this paper, the results of the test excavations in two rock shelters in the Central Ethiopian escarpment near the Sudanese border are presented. A continuous sequence of quartz lithic industry, from the lowest levels of K’aaba (with an archaic MSA-like industry of side-scrapers, Levallois- discoid cores and unifacial points) to the upper levels of Bel K’urk’umu (with a LSA industry, characterised by elongated flakes and end-scrapers, that still displays many archaic features such as centripetal flakes and cores) may be inferred. The escarpment’s mountainous and forested areas may have acted as a refuge zone from the end of the Pleistocene, when hyper-arid conditions deterred human occupation of the Sudanese plains nearby, and may also have been a cause for the cultural archaism of the late MSA groups, a case similar to others recorded in the African continent (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nile Valley). The arrival of Sudanese pottery in the mid-Holocene period may be explained by the onset of arid conditions that drove “aqualithic” groups and early herders towards more humid areas. The conservative character of the late prehistoric cultural sequence derived from both sites is consistent with the resilient traditional nature of the Nilo- Saharan groups that currently settle the Ethio-Sudanese borderlands.

Preservation of Dinosaur Footprints in Shallow Intertidal Deposits of the Jurassic-Cretaceous Transition in the Iberian Range (Teruel, Spain)

This article describes the sedimentological characteristics of dinosaur ichnites at three sites within the municipal area of El Castellar (in the Province of Teruel, Aragón, Spain): El Castellar (CT-1), El Pozo (CT-2), and Camino El Berzal (CT-3). These sites possess large concentrations of footprints made by quadrupedal (sauropod, stegosaurid and ornithopod) and bipedal theropod dinosaurs. Among the more than 800 documented footprints at CT-1 is a trail left by a large theropod, and at least one other made by a stegosaurid (the holotype of Deltapodus ibericus). CT-3 contains some of the largest sauropod footprints ever found in the Iberian Peninsula. The three sites lie within the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, which was deposited over the Tithonian-Berriasian period in an environment under tidal influence. Tidal carbonates host the largest number of footprints. Different footprint shapes and degrees of preservation are apparent, even within a single layer, reflecting the characteristics of the original sediment in which the footprints were made. The grain size and water content of the original sediment, primarily the micritic mud derived from the pellets when it contains some water, appear to have been the most important factors in determining the quality of the preserved prints. The presence of algal mats appear to have been less important, because the mats detected inside the massive or pelletoidal micrite were broken and deformed, and would therefore not have invested the substrate with cohesion enough to favor footprint preservation.

The East African Early Acheulean of Peninj (Lake Natron, Tanzania)

The Pleistocene record of Peninj, dated to 1.5–1.4 Ma and located on the Western shore of Lake Natron (Tanzania), is one of the classic archaeo-paleontological sources for the study of the early Acheulean in Africa. Beginning with the seminal project led by Glynn Isaac in the decades of 1960s and 1980s, other research programs have been carried out in Peninj since then, particularly the landscape archaeology approach undertaken by M. Dominguez-Rodrigo between 1995 and 2005. In 2007, fieldwork was resumed in the area and a new project is currently in progress. As a result of this long-lasting scientific effort, the variety of geological, contextual, technological, and spatial information gathered so far can shed light on a number of aspects related to the early Acheulean record identified in the three different archaeological areas of Peninj (the Type Section, the North and the South Escarpments). This paper presents a synthesis of the history of research in Lake Natron and the geology of the Peninj Group. It also reviews some of the main discussions related to the Type Section technology, the bifacial hierarchical centripetal method hypothesis, and the Oldowan–Acheulean dichotomy for the attribution of the lithic samples in the framework of the archaeological record of Peninj. The paper includes a synthesis of the new data gathered in the Acheulean sites of the Escarpments in the course of the present research project and, finally, a regional interpretation of the early Acheulean of the Lake Natron.