Long-distance obsidian transport
Transporte de obsidiana a larga distancia
- Date
- c. 320 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Olorgesailie, Rift Valley, Kajiado, Kenya
- Credited to
- Early Middle Stone Age people (possibly early Homo sapiens)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Obsidian tools whose rock came from sources 25-95 km from the site, alongside Middle Stone Age tools. It is the oldest evidence of the systematic long-distance movement of raw materials, perhaps through exchange between groups.
Brooks et al. (Science, 2018). It is not known whether groups travelled these distances themselves or whether the obsidian passed from hand to hand; the same study documented the use of pigments.
What it led to
- social networks extending beyond a single group's territory
- deliberate selection of raw materials for their quality
- the basis of the exchange economy of the African Palaeolithic