ANTH 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Upper Paleolithic, Olduvai Gorge, Lower Paleolithic
Document Summary
The stone age represents more than 3 million years of technological development. Subsistence strategy: how people obtained food from their environment, and what they ate: scavenging, hunting, farming and broad-spectrum foraging. Diagnostic artifacts: objects that are characteristic of a particular time period when we find certain diagnostic artifacts, we know we are dealing with a archaeological materials of a particular era. The oldest time period: the basal paleolithic period (3. 3-1. 9 mya) Oldowon tools: stone tools named after olduvai gorge, created by percussion flaking, were multi-purpose tools. Fist-sized stone cobble with 1. 3 large flakes removed from one end to produce informal chopping edge. Lower paleolithic era: 1. 9 300,000 years ago. Acheulean tools: more complex production and form, greater variet of tools and greater dependence on technology compared to basal. Handaxes: all purpose tools for cutting / sawing / digging / bashing. Flake tools like scrapers for cleaning hides and burins (chisels) for working wood.
