Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

An earlier origin for the Acheulian

Abstract

The Acheulian is one of the first defined prehistoric techno-complexes and is characterized by shaped bifacial stone tools1,2,3. It probably originated in Africa, spreading to Europe and Asia perhaps as early as 1 million years (Myr) ago4,5,6. The origin of the Acheulian is thought to have closely coincided with major changes in human brain evolution, allowing for further technological developments7,8. Nonetheless, the emergence of the Acheulian remains unclear because well-dated sites older than 1.4 Myr ago are scarce. Here we report on the lithic assemblage and geological context for the Kokiselei 4 archaeological site from the Nachukui formation (West Turkana, Kenya) that bears characteristic early Acheulian tools and pushes the first appearance datum for this stone-age technology back to 1.76 Myr ago. Moreover, co-occurrence of Oldowan and Acheulian artefacts at the Kokiselei site complex indicates that the two technologies are not mutually exclusive time-successive components of an evolving cultural lineage, and suggests that the Acheulian was either imported from another location yet to be identified or originated from Oldowan hominins at this vicinity. In either case, the Acheulian did not accompany the first human dispersal from Africa9,10 despite being available at the time. This may indicate that multiple groups of hominins distinguished by separate stone-tool-making behaviours and dispersal strategies coexisted in Africa at 1.76 Myr ago.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Geological 11 and location map.
Figure 2: Summary diagram.
Figure 3: Age model.

References

  1. Leakey, M. Olduvai Gorge: Excavations in Beds I & II 1960–1963 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1971)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Isaac, G., Ll & Curtis, G. H. Age of early Acheulean industries from the Peninj Group, Tanzania. Nature 249, 624–627 (1974)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Asfaw, B. et al. The earliest Acheulean from Konso-Gardula. Nature 360, 732–735 (1992)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Goren-Inbar, N. et al. Pleistocene milestones on the out-of-Africa corridor at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Science 289, 944–947 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Scott, G. R. & Gibert, L. The oldest handaxes in Europe. Nature 461, 82–85 (2009)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Pappu, S. et al. Early Pleistocene presence of Acheulian hominins in south India. Science 331, 1596–1599 (2011)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Gowlett, J. A. J. in Stone Age Prehistory (eds Bailey, G. N. and Callow, O. ) 243–260 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1986)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Klein, R. The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins 3rd edn (University Chicago Press, 2009)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. Swisher, C. C., III, Curtis, G. H., Jacob, T., Getty, A. G. & Suprijo, A. Age of the earliest known hominids in Java, Indonesia. Science 263, 1118–1121 (1994)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gabunia, L. et al. Earliest Pleistocene hominid cranial remains from Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia: taxonomy, geological setting, and age. Science 288, 1019–1025 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Harris, J. M., Brown, F. H. & Leakey, M. G. Geology and paleontology of Plio-Pleistocene localities west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Contrib. Sci. 399, 1–128 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Roche, H. et al. Les sites archéologiques plio-pléistocènes de la formation de Nachukui, Ouest-Turkana, Kenya: bilan synthétique 1997–2001. C. R. Palevol 2, 663–673 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Harmand, S. Raw material and economic behaviours at Oldowan and Acheulean sites in the West Turkana region, Kenya. In Lithic Materials and Paleolithic Societies (eds Adams, B. & Blades, B. ). 3–14 (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Feibel, C. S., Harris, J. M. & Brown, F. H. in Koobi Fora Research Project Vol. 3 The Fossil Ungulates: Geology, Fossil Artiodactyls, and Palaeoenvironments (ed. Harris, J. M. ) 321–370 (Clarendon, 1991)

    Google Scholar 

  15. McDougall, I. & Brown, F. H. Precise 40Ar/39Ar geochronology for the upper Koobi Fora Formation, Turkana Basin, northern Kenya. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 163, 205–220 (2006)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. McDougall, I. & Brown, F. H. Geochronology of the pre-KBS Tuff sequence, Omo Group, Turkana Basin. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 165, 549–562 (2008)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Lourens, L., Hilgen, F., Shackleton, N. J., Laskar, J. & Wilson, D. in A Geologic Time Scale (eds Gradstein, F., Ogg, J. & Smith, A. ) 409–440 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kidane, T., Otofuji, Y.-I., Brown, F. H., Takemoto, K. & Eshete, G. Two normal paleomagnetic polarity intervals in the lower Matuyama Chron recorded in the Shungura Formation (Omo Valley, Southwest Ethiopia). Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 262, 240–256 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Lepre, C. J. & Kent, D. V. New magnetostratigraphy for the Olduvai Subchron in the Koobi Fora Formation, northwest Kenya, with implications for early Homo. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 290, 362–374 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Ninkovich, D., Opdyke, N. D., Heezen, B. C. & Foster, J. H. Paleomagnetic stratigraphy, rates of deposition and tephrachronology in North Pacific deep-sea sediments. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 1, 476–492 (1966)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Clement, B. M. & Kent, D. V. Geomagnetic polarity transition records from five hydraulic piston core sites in the North Atlantic. Initial Rep. Deep Sea Drill. Proj. 94, 831–852 (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Tauxe, L., Opdyke, N. D., Pasini, G. & Elmi, C. Age of the Plio-Pleistocene boundary in the Vrica section, southern Italy. Nature 304, 125–129 (1983)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Zijderveld, J. D. A., Hilgen, F. J., Langereis, C. G., Verhallen, P. J. J. M. & Zachariasse, W. J. Integrated magnetostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the upper Pliocene–lower Pleistocene from the Monte Singa and Crotone areas in Calabria, Italy. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 107, 697–714 (1991)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Roberts, A. P., Florindo, F., Larrasoaña, J. C., O’Regan, M. A. & Zhao, X. Complex polarity pattern at the former Plio–Pleistocene global stratotype section at Vrica (Italy): Remagnetization by magnetic iron sulphides. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 292, 98–111 (2010)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Wood, B. A. Koobi Fora Research Project Vol. 4 Hominid Cranial Remains from Koobi Fora (Clarendon, Oxford, 1991)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Spoor, F. et al. Implications of new early Homo fossils from Ileret, east of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 448, 688–691 (2007)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Kirschvink, J. L. The least-squares line and plane and the analysis of palaeomagnetic data. Geophys. J. R. Astron. Soc. 62, 699–718 (1980)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Zijderveld, J. D. A. A. C. in Methods in Paleomagnetism (eds Collinson, D. W., Creer, K. M. & Runcorn, S. K. ) 254–286 (Elsevier, 1967)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the office of the President of Kenya and the National Museums of Kenya for permission to conduct this research, TOTAL Kenya for logistical support, and the WTAP team. Funding was provided by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Science Foundation (BCS 02-18511 to C.S.F.). Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is acknowledged for ongoing support to the Paleomagnetics Laboratory.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

C.J.L. recorded field sedimentological and stratigraphic data, collected and analysed geological samples, interpreted palaeomagnetic data, and wrote the overall paper. H.R. oversaw archaeological excavations, analysed and interpreted archaeological material, and wrote sections of the paper. D.V.K. analysed geological samples, interpreted palaeomagnetic data, and edited the paper. S.H. conducted archaeological excavations, analysed and interpreted the archaeological material, and wrote sections of the paper. R.L.Q. recorded field sedimentological and stratigraphic data, collected geological samples, and edited the paper. J.-P.B. analysed and interpreted fossil material. P.-J.T. analysed and interpreted archaeological material. A.L. conducted geological mapping. C.S.F. recorded field sedimentological and stratigraphic data and conducted geological mapping.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher J. Lepre.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Figures 1-11 with legends, supplementary table 1 and additional references. (PDF 7838 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lepre, C., Roche, H., Kent, D. et al. An earlier origin for the Acheulian. Nature 477, 82–85 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10372

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10372

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing