Oldowan

An Earlier Stone Age industry and complex seen at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and other African sites, dating from c 2.5 million to about 1.6 million years ago (and later). It is comprised of the earliest toolkits, flake and pebble tools, used by hominids (Homo habilis). Robust australopithecines were present at the same time and at the same sites, however. These simple stone tools were flaked in one or two directions and is characterized by the production of small flakes removed from alternate faces along the edge of a cobble. In its pure form, hand axes are absent. Oldowan tools were made for nearly 1 million years before gradual improvement in technique resulted in a standardized industry known as the Acheulian.

Stone tools from Bed I at Olduvai Gorge and levels of comparable date elsewhere in Africa are often attributed to an Oldowan culture. In its pure form, hand axes are absent, and it is pebble tools, especially those called ‘chopping tools’, which are characteristic. The subsequent ‘Developed Oldowan’ of M.D. Leakey, however, often has tools like hand axes. The true Oldowan belongs to the period cl .6 to 2 million years ago, but the Developed Oldowan is later.