Oldowan industry (Mode 1 choppers and flakes)
Industria olduvayense (Modo 1: choppers y lascas)
- Date
- c. 2.6 Ma · confidence high
- Place
- Gona (Afar), Ethiopia; eponymous site at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
- Credited to
- Homo habilis, Australopithecus garhi and Paranthropus (multiple authorship)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The first standardised lithic technology: worked cores (choppers) and sharp flakes obtained by direct percussion. It is the first technical system culturally transmitted for over a million years.
Nyayanga (Kenya, c. 3.0–2.6 Ma) and Ledi-Geraru (2.6 Ma) compete with Gona for the earliest date. Olduvai (1.85 Ma) gives the industry its name but is not its origin.
What it led to
- Defleshing and fracturing of bones for marrow: a diet richer in fat and protein
- Brain expansion and reduction of the chewing apparatus
- Transport of raw materials over distance: the first planned mobility networks
- Intergenerational cultural transmission of techniques
Built on
- Lomekwian stone flakesc. 3.3 Ma
- Lomekwian stone flakes
Made possible
- Hippopotamus butchery with Oldowan tools at Nyayangac. 2.9 Ma
- Butchery and tool-assisted scavengingc. 2.5 Ma
- Oldowan tools and cut marks at Ain Boucheritc. 2.4 Ma
- Acheulean handaxe (Mode 2)c. 1,76 Ma
- Bone tools for termite foragingc. 1.5 Ma
- Acheulean handaxe (Mode 2)
- Butchery and tool-assisted scavenging