Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia

Sileshi Semaw; Michael J. Rogers; Scott W. Simpson; Naomi E. Levin; Jay Quade; Nelia Dunbar; William C. McIntosh; Isabel Cáceres; Gary E. Stinchcomb; Ralph L. Holloway; Francis H. Brown; Robert F. Butler; Dietrich Stout; Melanie Everett

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw4694

Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia

Sileshi Semaw, Michael J. Rogers, Scott W. Simpson, Naomi E. Levin, Jay Quade, Nelia Dunbar, William C. McIntosh, Isabel Cáceres, Gary E. Stinchcomb, Ralph L. Holloway, Francis H. Brown, Robert F. Butler, Dietrich Stout, Melanie Everett

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Although stone tools generally co-occur with early members of the genus Homo, they are rarely found in direct association with hominins. We report that both Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts and Homo erectus crania were found in close association at 1.26 million years (Ma) ago at Busidima North (BSN12), and ca. 1.6 to 1.5 Ma ago at Dana Aoule North (DAN5) archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. The BSN12 partial cranium is robust and large, while the DAN5 cranium is smaller and more gracile, suggesting that H. erectus was probably a sexually dimorphic species. The evidence from Gona shows behavioral diversity and flexibility with a lengthy and concurrent use of both stone technologies by H. erectus, confounding a simple “single species/single technology” view of early Homo.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	eaaw4694
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	6
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw4694
State	Published - 2020
Externally published	Yes

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Semaw, S., Rogers, M. J., Simpson, S. W., Levin, N. E., Quade, J., Dunbar, N., McIntosh, W. C., Cáceres, I., Stinchcomb, G. E., Holloway, R. L., Brown, F. H., Butler, R. F., Stout, D., & Everett, M. (2020). Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. Science Advances, 6(10), Article eaaw4694. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw4694

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title = "Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia",

abstract = "Although stone tools generally co-occur with early members of the genus Homo, they are rarely found in direct association with hominins. We report that both Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts and Homo erectus crania were found in close association at 1.26 million years (Ma) ago at Busidima North (BSN12), and ca. 1.6 to 1.5 Ma ago at Dana Aoule North (DAN5) archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. The BSN12 partial cranium is robust and large, while the DAN5 cranium is smaller and more gracile, suggesting that H. erectus was probably a sexually dimorphic species. The evidence from Gona shows behavioral diversity and flexibility with a lengthy and concurrent use of both stone technologies by H. erectus, confounding a simple “single species/single technology” view of early Homo.",

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AU - Quade, Jay

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AU - Brown, Francis H.

AU - Butler, Robert F.

AU - Stout, Dietrich

AU - Everett, Melanie

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Although stone tools generally co-occur with early members of the genus Homo, they are rarely found in direct association with hominins. We report that both Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts and Homo erectus crania were found in close association at 1.26 million years (Ma) ago at Busidima North (BSN12), and ca. 1.6 to 1.5 Ma ago at Dana Aoule North (DAN5) archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. The BSN12 partial cranium is robust and large, while the DAN5 cranium is smaller and more gracile, suggesting that H. erectus was probably a sexually dimorphic species. The evidence from Gona shows behavioral diversity and flexibility with a lengthy and concurrent use of both stone technologies by H. erectus, confounding a simple “single species/single technology” view of early Homo.

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Co-occurrence of Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts with Homo erectus cranial fossils from Gona, Afar, Ethiopia

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