TY  - JOUR
A1  - Beyene, Yonas
A1  - Katoh, Shigehiro
A1  - Wolde Gabriel, Giday
A1  - Hart, William K.
A1  - Uto, Kozo
A1  - Sudo, Masafumi
A1  - Kondo, Megumi
A1  - Hyodo, Masayuki
A1  - Renne, Paul R.
A1  - Suwa, Gen
A1  - Asfaw, Berhane
T1  - The characteristics and chronology of the earliest. Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia
JF  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
N2  - The Acheulean technological tradition, characterized by a large (>10 cm) flake-based component, represents a significant technological advance over the Oldowan. Although stone tool assemblages attributed to the Acheulean have been reported from as early as circa 1.6-1.75 Ma, the characteristics of these earliest occurrences and comparisons with later assemblages have not been reported in detail. Here, we provide a newly established chronometric calibration for the Acheulean assemblages of the Konso Formation, southern Ethiopia, which span the time period similar to 1.75 to <1.0 Ma. The earliest Konso Acheulean is chronologically indistinguishable from the assemblage recently published as the world's earliest with an age of similar to 1.75 Ma at Kokiselei, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. This Konso assemblage is characterized by a combination of large picks and crude bifaces/unifaces made predominantly on large flake blanks. An increase in the number of flake scars was observed within the Konso Formation handaxe assemblages through time, but this was less so with picks. The Konso evidence suggests that both picks and handaxes were essential components of the Acheulean from its initial stages and that the two probably differed in function. The temporal refinement seen, especially in the handaxe forms at Konso, implies enhanced function through time, perhaps in processing carcasses with long and stable cutting edges. The documentation of the earliest Acheulean at similar to 1.75 Ma in both northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia suggests that behavioral novelties were being established in a regional scale at that time, paralleling the emergence of Homo erectus-like hominid morphology.
KW  - chronostratigraphy
KW  - Early Pleistocene
KW  - lithic technology development
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221285110
SN  - 0027-8424
VL  - 110
IS  - 5
SP  - 1584
EP  - 1591
PB  - National Acad. of Sciences
CY  - Washington
ER  -