Age and formation processes of an Acheulean site with extensive accumulation of large cutting tools: Garba I (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia)

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences - Tập 14 - Trang 1-31 - 2022
Sol Sánchez-Dehesa Galán1,2,3, Eduardo Méndez-Quintas2,4,5, Jean-Jacques Bahain6, Luca di Bianco1, Raymonde Bonnefille7, Elisa Brunelli1, Denis Geraads8,9, Rita Melis2,10, Andrea Serodio Domínguez2,4, Pierre Voinchet6, Margherita Mussi1,2
1Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
2Italo-Spanish Archaeological Mission at Melka Kunture and Balchit, Italy-Spain , Rome, Italy
3Préhistoire et Technologie, UMR 7055, CNRS, Université de Nanterre, Nanterre Cedex, France
4Grupo de Estudos de Arqueoloxía, Antigüidade e Territorio (GEAAT), University of Vigo, Ourense, Spain
5Instituto de Evolución en África (IDEA), Madrid, Spain
6Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, UMR7194, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle - CNRs- UPVD, Paris, France
7Cerege UMR 7330, CNRS, Universite Aix-Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, France
8Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie – Paris, UMR 7207, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris cedex 05, France
9Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
10Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

Tóm tắt

The paper provides new data on the age and formation processes of Garba I (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash, Ethiopia). The site, one of the largest handaxe accumulations of the African Acheulean, was extensively excavated in the 1960s of the last century by J. Chavaillon but left largely unpublished. The chronology was also poorly constricted. Quartz grains dated through electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry now provide a minimum age of 538 ka for the archaeological layer. In addition, we make available new data allowing an updated interpretation of the stratigraphic sequence and spatial distribution, as well as a detailed taphonomic study of the lithic assemblage. Additional information on the archaeozoological and palaeobotanical record are integrated in the discussion. We conclude that the extensive accumulation of large cuttings tools (LCTs) is not the result of major sedimentary disturbance processes but rather the outcome of a distinct hominin behaviour, which possibly was not focused on the processing and consumption of large mammals. New research at Garba I allows new insights on the Acheulean sites with similar large accumulations of handaxes. Additionally, it contributes to a better understanding of the early Middle Pleistocene in Africa, an under-researched period of the Early Stone Age.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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