Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge, paleoanthropological site in the eastern Serengeti Plain, within the boundaries of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania. It is a steep-sided ravine consisting of two branches that have a combined length of about 30 miles (48 km) and are 295 feet (90 metres) deep. Deposits exposed in the sides of the gorge cover a time span from about 2.1 million to 15,000 years ago. The deposits have yielded the fossil remains of more than 60 hominins (members of the human lineage), providing the most continuous known record of human evolution during the past 2 million years, as well as the longest known archaeological record of the development of stone-tool industries. Olduvai Gorge was designated part of a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. Although Olduvai Gorge has often been called the “Cradle of Mankind,” a different World Heritage site called the “Cradle of Humankind” is located in South Africa. Compare Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, and Kromdraai.

The Olduvai fossil beds accumulated in a lake basin between 4 and 9 miles (7 and 15 km) in diameter. The lake is underlain by volcanic rocks of the Pliocene Epoch (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago) and, farther below, by metamorphic deposits of Precambrian time (more than roughly 542 million years ago). Relatively continuous rift-valley fault movements and volcanic action left Olduvai deeply incised. Water flow through the gorge further eroded the rock, exposing a delineated sequence of strata from which evolutionary events could be traced. Seven major stratigraphic units, or formations, have been distinguished. From the oldest to the youngest they are: Bed I (about 1.7 million to 2.1 million years old), Bed II (1.15 million to 1.7 million years old), Bed III (800,000 to 1.15 million years old), Bed IV (600,000 to 800,000 years old), the Masek Beds (400,000 to 600,000 years old), the Ndutu Beds (32,000 to 400,000 years old), and the Naisiusiu Beds (15,000 to 22,000 years old).

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Bed I is at most 197 feet (60 metres) thick. It consists largely of lava flows, volcanic ash deposits, and detrital sediments. The upper part of the bed (1.7 million to 1.85 million years old) contains a rich and varied fauna and archaeological sites of the Oldowan industry. It was there in 1959 that English-born archaeologist Mary Leakey discovered a skull fragment belonging to an early hominin that her husband, Louis Leakey, named Zinjanthropus boisei (later reclassified as Paranthropus boisei). Officially labeled OH 5 (Olduvai Hominid 5) but dubbed “Nutcracker Man” because of its huge molars (indicative of a vegetarian diet), the skull was dated to about 1.75 million years ago. The discovery indicated that hominins evolved in Africa. Specimens of Homo habilis, a more humanlike species, were also found at Olduvai. These included OH 24, a skull popularly known as “Twiggy” because it had to be reconstructed from a flattened state.

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The remains of Bed I are found principally where streams from volcanic highlands brought fresh water to the southern margin of an alkaline lake that existed at Olduvai. Conditions for preservation were unusually favourable at these sites because ashfalls from nearby volcanoes and fluctuations of the lake led to rapid burial of the hominin and associated remains. Other finds include Oldowan tools and the bones and teeth of various animals, notably medium-sized antelopes. Long animal bones and others containing marrow generally have been split and broken and often display bone-tool cut marks.

Living sites in Beds II, III, and IV generally are found in former river or stream channels. Bed II is 66–98 feet (20–30 metres) thick and consists of different rock formations separated by a disconformity, or erosional break. Only the Oldowan industry occurs below the disconformity; the so-called Developed Oldowan industry and the Acheulean industry occur above. H. habilis remains were found in the lower one-third of Bed II, and a cranium of H. ergaster (also called African H. erectus) was collected near the top of Bed II. P. boisei occurs both in upper and lower parts of Bed II.

Beds III and IV were deposited on an alluvial plain. These two units are distinct only in the eastern part of the gorge and are elsewhere combined into a single unit. The two beds have a maximum aggregate thickness of about 98 feet (30 metres) and consist almost entirely of stream-laid detrital sediment. Archaeological sites in Beds III and IV represent the Developed Oldowan and Acheulean industries. Hominin remains there are assigned to H. erectus and other species of Homo.

The Masek Beds accumulated during a period of major faulting and explosive volcanism. They are some 82 feet (25 metres) thick and consist of about equal amounts of stream-laid detrital sediment and aeolian (wind-worked) tuff. Only one archaeological site, of the Acheulean industry, is known in these beds. The Ndutu Beds were deposited during intermittent faulting, erosion, and partial filling of the gorge. They consist largely of aeolian tuffs, and their maximum thickness is 79 feet (24 metres). The Naisiusiu Beds were deposited on the sides and in the bottom of the gorge after it had been eroded to very near its present level. These deposits are as much as 33 feet (10 metres) thick and consist largely of aeolian tuff. They contain one archaeological site consisting of a microlithic tool assemblage and a H. sapiens skeleton, both of which have an age of about 17,000 years.

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