Introduction
For almost a million years in Africa during the first phase of human cultural development known as the Oldowan industrial complex, there appears to have been little directional change in tool technology. As sophisticated and variable as that technology had been, many archaeologists justifiably consider it a time of relative technological stasis, with differences across assemblages being relatively minor. Although the success of the simple core and flake adaptation was evident in its long endurance, by 1.7 Ma innovations began with the appearance of the Acheulean. An adaptive and technological threshold was crossed with the knapping of large flakes (>10 cm in size) and the shaping of heavy-duty tools (handaxes, cleavers, and picks) for specific tasks. The Acheulean industrial complex, together with the Oldowan, is referred to as the Earlier Stone Age (ESA) and persisted until c. 0.3/0.25 Ma in Africa. Mary Leakey (1971) published the first detailed description of the Early...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abbate, E., B. Woldehaimanot, Y. Libsekal, T.M. Tecle & L. Rook. (ed.) 2004. A step towards human origins: the Buia Homo one-million-years ago in the Eritrean Danakil Depression (East Africa). Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 110, Supplement.
Brink, J.S., A.I.R. Herries, J. Moggi-Cecchi, J.A.J. Gowlett, C. B. Bousman, J.P. Hancox, R. Grun, V. Eisenmann, J.W. Adams & L. Roussouw. 2012. First hominine remains from a ∼1.0 million year old bone bed at Cornelia-Uitzoek, Free State Province, South Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 63: 527-35.
Clark, J.D. 2001a. Variability in primary and secondary technologies of the Later Acheulian in Africa, in S. Milliken & J. Cook (ed.) A very remote period indeed: 1-18. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
- 2001b. Kalambo Falls prehistoric site, Volume III. London: Cambridge University Press.
De Heinzelin, J., J.D. Clark, K.D. Schick & W.H. Gilbert. 2000. The Acheulean and the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia (Belgique Annales-Sciences Géologiques 104). Tervuren: Musée Royal de l’Afrique Central.
De la Torre, I., R. Mora & J. Martinez-Moreno. 2008. The early Acheulean in Peninj (Lake Natron, Tanzania). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27: 244-64.
Gibbon, R.J., D.E. Granger, K. Kuman & T.C. Partridge. 2009. Early Acheulean technology in the Vaal River gravels, South Africa, dated with cosmogenic nuclides. Journal of Human Evolution 56: 152-60.
Goren-Inbar, N. L. Grosman & G. Sharon. 2011. The technology and significance of the Acheulian giant cores of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 1901-17.
Isaac, G.L. 1977. Olorgesailie. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kuman, K. 2007. The earlier Stone Age in South Africa: site context and the influence of cave studies, in T.R. Pickering, K. Schick & N. Toth (ed.) Breathing life into fossils: taphonomic studies in honor of C.K. (Bob) Brain: 181-98. Bloomington (IN): Stone Age Institute Press.
Kuman, K. & R.J. Clarke. 2000. Stratigraphy, artefact industries and hominid associations for Sterkfontein, Member 5. Journal of Human Evolution 38: 827-47.
Leakey, M.D. 1971. Olduvai Gorge, Volume III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leakey, M.D. & D.A. Roe. 1994. Olduvai Gorge, Volume 5: excavations in Beds III, IV and the Masek Beds, 1968-1971. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lepre, C.J. & D.V. Kent. 2010. New magnetostratigraphy for the Olduvai Subchron in the Koobi For a Formation, northwest Kenya, with implications for early Homo. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 290: 362-74.
Lepre, C.J., H. Roche, D.V. Kent, S. Harmand, R.L. Quinn, J.-P. Brugal, P.-J. Texier, A. Lenoble & C.S. Feibel. 2011. An earlier origin for the Acheulian. Nature 477: 82-5.
Peters, C.R., R.J. Blumenschine, R.L. Hay, D.A. Livingstone, C.W. Marean, T. Harrison, M. Armour-Chelu, P. Andrews, R. Bernor, R. Bonnefille, & L. Werdelin. 2008. Paleoecology of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, in A. Sinclair, C. Packer, S.A.R. Mduma & J.M. Fryxell (ed.) Serengeti III: humans’ impacts on ecosystem dynamics: 47-94. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pickering, T.R., M.B. Sutton, J.L. Heaton, R.J. Clarke, C.K. Brain & K. Kuman. 2012. New stratigraphic interpretations and hominid fossils from Swartkrans Member 1 (South Africa). Journal of Human Evolution 62: 618-28.
Potts, R. 1998. Environmental hypotheses of hominin evolution. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 41: 93-136.
Sharon, G. & N. Goren-Inbar. 1999. Soft percussor use at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov Acheulian site? Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 28: 55-79.
Wilkins, J. & M. Chazan. 2012. Blade production ∼500 thousand years ago at Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: support for a multiple origins hypothesis for early Middle Pleistocene blade technologies. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 1883-900.
Further Reading
Barham, L. & P. Mitchell. 2008. The first Africans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clark, J.D. 1970. The prehistory of Africa. London: Thames & Hudson.
Klein, R.G. 2000. The earlier Stone Age of southern Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 55: 107-22.
- 2009. The human career, 3rd edn. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kuman, K. (2014). Acheulean Industrial Complex. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_653
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_653
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law