New methodological and technological approaches to the Oldowan and Acheulian archaeology of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) – introduction

For many years, Olduvai Gorge was home to Africa’s oldest flake-and-core (i.e. ‘Oldowan’) and Acheulian industries.Largely for this reason, theGorge’s numerous archaeological localities have played a critical historical role in the definition of these lithic technologies (Kleindienst 1962, 1973; L. Leakey 1936, 1951; M. D. Leakey 1971). While subsequent research has uncovered earlier examples of both Oldowan and Acheulian artefacts throughoutAfrica,Olduvai continues toyield significant insight into the livesandmindsof earlyhumanancestors, including numerous anthropogenic Oldowan faunas (this volume; Dom ınguez-Rodrigo et al. 2017), one of theoldestAcheulian records, containing theoldest,most symmetrical handaxe found to date (Diez-Mart ın et al. 2015), and early evidence for megafaunal exploitation (Dom ınguez-Rodrigo et al. 2014a, b; Organista et al. 2015). For these reasons, Olduvai’s Oldowan and Acheulian archaeological records keep providing exceptional windows into the lives and minds of early human ancestors. The number, extent and spatial resolution of the excavations in Beds I and II at Olduvai now enable detailed questions to be asked about site formation and hominin behaviour from both interand intra-site perspectives. Although some have argued that Olduvai Bed I and II sites were heavily impacted by fluvial postdepositional processes (e.g., de la Torre et al. 2017), such claims are geoarchaeologically naive and taphonomically unsupported.This volume highlights the use of new analytical approaches to the documentation of the creation and use of Oldowan and Acheulean stone tools and the spatial distribution of archaeological materials. The use of these methods emphasizes and provides insights into the complexities of Oldowan and Acheulian cultures.Ultimately, the papers in this volume reveal novel interpretations of the behaviours of Oldowan andAcheulianhominins livingwithin theOlduvaiBasinduringBed I and II times. Previous work by The Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) emphasized the palaeoecological context of the most well-known Bed I and Bed II sites (special volumes of Quaternary Research (2010) and Quaternary International (2014)). The present volume works within this palaeoecological framework to focus on site-specific patterns of hominin behaviour. In doing so, the papers analyse the functional association of stone tools and fossil bones, the variability and technological complexities of the lithic assemblages, andprovide a comparative framework to understand the differences and similarities identified in the Oldowan and Acheulian records. Before we fully synthesize the importance of these studies, it is important to stress that what is understood as ‘Oldowan’ (more specifically, the ‘Developed Oldowan’ as applied to the Bed II archaeological record) and ‘Acheulian’ is a contested ground.We, thus, offer a critical review both of how these industrial complexes are currently defined and how they differ from each other typologically (the prime focus of most comparative analyses) and beyond.