Reanalysis of FLK North North 3: yet another case of a palimpsest?

Level 3 of the FLK North North site (henceforth called FLK NN3) in Olduvai Bed I is situated on a land surface that rests on top of Tuff IB and it is therefore slightly older than the FLK Zinj level. It is the oldest site in Olduvai after the DK complex, discussed in Chapter 15 (Leakey, 1971). It is also one of the three archaeological levels in Bed I – the other two being DK-3 and FLK Zinj – that are limited to a thin horizon over a paleosol. FLK NN3 was located near the lake-margin deposits and the silty/clay sediments suggest that it was on the lacustrine plain, probably about 1 km from the lake margin (Hay, 1976). The site must have been situated in a moist environment, as suggested by the abundant fish and turtle remains. The fauna found at the site suggested a closed environment, between closed woodland and subtropical forest, with no modern counterpart (Kappelman, 1984; Potts, 1988; Plummer and Bishop, 1994; Fernández-Jalvo et al. 1998; Andrews and Humphrey, 1999).