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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
Nature, Volume 291, No. 5816, Year 1981
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Description
Fossils from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, show cutmarks which establish that hominids were using stone tools on animal tissues during the Lower Pleistocene in Africa. We identified cutmarks by elimination of other likely causes of the marks on the bone surfaces, for example, gnawing or chewing by carnivores or rodents, and damage made by tools of excavators or preparators. This was achieved by comparing the marks on the fossils with those produced by known causes on modern bones, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Because the fossils occur as part of accumulations of animal remains in relatively undisturbed geological contexts, we conclude that there is a functional association between the stone artefacts and bones at these sites, rather than an accidental, postmortem association1,2. © 1981 Nature Publishing Group.
Authors & Co-Authors
Potts, Richard
United States, Cambridge
Harvard University
Shipman, Pat
United States, Baltimore
Johns Hopkins University
Statistics
Citations: 447
Authors: 2
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/291577a0
ISSN:
00280836
Study Locations
Tanzania