The Olduvai Gorge is an ancient archaeological site located in northern Tanzania. The site holds significant weight in the evidence to prove Darwin’s theory of evolution as the site is believed to hold the very first ever human remains, effectively making it the birthplace of mankind. The site was discovered and excavated following a 1913 expedition by German geologist Hans Reck. The site was more extensively excavated over the course of several decades by Mary and Louis Leakey starting in the late 1950s. The gorge’s stratigraphy is a major feature of the site, with exposed deposits peppering the steep walls of the gorge’s iconic plateau in addition to the eroded river bed surrounding the area. These deposits have been able to provide archaeologists with an extensive continuous record of human evolution and how hominids and other animals adapted to the ecosystem of the Serengeti. The marquis discoveries of the Leakey’s excavations include the Zinjanthropus Boisei skull, one of the oldest existing hominid remains dating back to around 1.75 million years ago that was given a new unique distinction as a new species after its discovery as well as the first discovered remains of Homo Habilis, another prehistoric human ancestor.
The discovery of Homo Habilis remains was also accompanied by the discovery of many early stone tools which current research has revealed underwent an extensive decision-making process by early hominids in order to create tools that were optimized for unique circumstances by selecting different pieces of stone based on traits such as their sharpness and durability. This conclusion was reached through testing and recreation of stone tools using the raw materials available in the area and has provided invaluable knowledge on the cognitive capabilities of some of humanity’s earliest ancestors. By recreating the tools, Dr. Alastair Key and his team were able to conclude that early hominids preferred using chert, lava stones, and quartzite for their varying degrees of sharpness and durability, with Lavas providing an ideal medium for larger flake tools such as hand axes while chert and quartzite were chosen to make smaller flake tools that could be easily carried and used for animal butchering.
The knowledge of human origins that has emerged from Olduvai Gorge has been invaluable not only to archaeology as a whole, but how we understand the development and evolution of species over time.
Sources Used:
“A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Leakey Family Discovers Human Ancestors.” PBS. Accessed April 21, 2024. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/do59le.html.
Ucl. “Early Humans Optimised Stone Tool Use at Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge.” UCL News, May 6, 2022. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/jan/early-humans-optimised-stone-tool-use-tanzanias-olduvai-gorge.