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Searching for intra-site spatial patterns in the African Early Acheulean: the lowermost archaeo-units at FLK West (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)

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Abstract

FLK West (Olduvai Gorge) constitutes one of the most relevant archeological resources for the study of the Acheulean in East Africa. This site presents a number of unique characteristics that make it an exceptional archeological document: a precise chronological framework, a multi-component site with six different archeological units bearing a rich lithic and faunal record, the oldest association of stone tools and processed fauna, and a well-preserved paleoenvironmental context. For these reasons, FLK West constitutes a remarkable opportunity to undertake a micro-spatial analysis at an archaeo-unit level. This work pursues a first approach to the intra-site study of the archeological associations preserved in the densest patches documented in the lowermost levels (L4 to L6) of the FLK West sequence. For this purpose, a variety of analyses will be considered, including archaeo-stratigraphy, a preliminary refitting program and, more specifically, the inspection of spatial horizontal correlations between archeological remains. The most significant spatial patterns observed point to differences in the distribution of diagnostic Acheulean implements with respect to specimens included in knapping categories and faunal remains. These observations open up the possibility to explore the debated functional meaning of large Acheulean tools from a complementary spatial perspective.

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Data availability

All referred data published in this article is included in both the main manuscript and the supplementary material. Archeological materials are curated in the Mturi-Aguirre Scientific Station at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania).

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), the Division of Antiquities and NCAA (Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority), within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism for permission to conduct research at Olduvai Gorge. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for providing comments that strengthened this work significantly.

Funding

This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the National Plan I + D + i (projects HAR2013-45246-C3-3-P and HAR2017-82463-C4-4-P).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Valladolid, Pza. del Campus S/N, 47011, Valladolid, Spain

    Fernando Diez-Martín, Cristina Fraile-Márquez, Sara de Francisco, Javier Duque-Martínez & Policarpo Sánchez-Yustos

  2. Institute of Archaeology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Lucía Cobo-Sánchez

  3. Museo Arqueológico Regional, Pza. De Las Bernardas S/N, 28801, Alcalá de Henares, Spain

    Enrique Baquedano

  4. Institute of Evolution in Africa (IDEA), University of Alcalá, Covarrubias 36, 28010, Madrid, Spain

    Enrique Baquedano & Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo

  5. Archaeology Unit, University of Dar Es Salaam, P.O. Box 35050, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

    Audax Mabulla

  6. Area of Prehistory, University of Alcalá, 28801, Alcalá de Henares, Spain

    Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo

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  1. Fernando Diez-Martín
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Contributions

All authors contributed to this work. Fernando Diez-Martín, Lucía Cobo-Sánchez, and Cristina Fraile-Márquez conceptualized the work, did formal analysis, and applied methodology. Fernando Diez-Martín and Lucía Cobo-Sánchez wrote the main manuscript. Fernando Diez-Martín, Lucía Cobo-Sánchez, and Cristina Fraile-Márquez produced figures. Fieldwork and data collection were performed by Fernando Diez-Martín, Cristina Fraile-Márquez, Javier Duque-Martínez, Sara de Francisco, and Policarpo Sánchez-Yustos. Fernando Diez Martín, Enrique Baquedano, Audax Mabulla, and Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo are responsible for funding acquisition and project administration. All authors read, reviewed, and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fernando Diez-Martín.

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Diez-Martín, F., Cobo-Sánchez, L., Fraile-Márquez, C. et al. Searching for intra-site spatial patterns in the African Early Acheulean: the lowermost archaeo-units at FLK West (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 64 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01773-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01773-w

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