The Middle Awash is a paleoanthropological research area[1] in the northwest corner of Gabi Rasu in the Afar Region along the Awash River in Ethiopia's Afar Depression. It is a unique natural laboratory for the study of human origins and evolution and a number of fossils of the earliest hominins, particularly of the Australopithecines, as well as some of the oldest known Olduwan stone artifacts, have been found at the site—all of late Miocene, the Pliocene, and the very early Pleistocene times, that is, about 5.6 million years ago (mya) to 2.5 mya. [2][3][4] It is broadly thought that the divergence of the lines of the earliest humans (hominins) and of chimpanzees (hominids) was completed near the beginning of that time range, or sometime between seven and five mya. However, the larger community of scientists provide several estimates for periods of divergence that imply a greater range for this event, see CHLCA: human-chimpanzee split.[5][6]
A recent find of Australopithecus anamensis is dated to about 4.2 million years ago, which separates it only 200,000 years from an earlier fossil of the more primitive Ardipithecus ramidus (at 4.4 million years ago). Australopithecus garhi fossils are dated as recent as the very early Pleistocene, or 2.5 mya; fossils of Homo erectus in the Daka member at the site (at 1 mya) and Homo sapiens idaltu (at 160 ka ago) are found in the middle and late Pleistocene. And patches of fire-baked clay, disputed as evidences of the controlled use of fire, are also found in that later period.[7]
Sediments at the site were originally deposited in lakes or rivers, and carbonates found there contain low carbon isotope ratios. This information suggests that the environment of the Middle Awash was wet during the late Miocene, and that this currently arid region was occupied then by woodland or grassy woodland habitats. Fossil remains of other vertebrates found with the hominins, including the cane rat, further suggest such an environment.[5] The region was the site of periodic volcanism, which probably created distinct ecological regions inhabited by different species of vertebrate animals.[8]
Important hominin fossils found in the Middle Awash include:[8][9]
^Gilbert, W. Henry; Asfaw, Berhane (2008). Homo Erectus: Pleistocene Evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25120-5.
^Bogucki (1999) [1999-09-01]. Origins of Human Society. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-57718-112-3.
^ ab"Bimodal volcanism and rift basin development in the Middle Awash region, Ethiopia". Archived from the original on 2009-10-04. Retrieved 2006-04-12.
^Borenstein, Seth. "New Fossil Links Up Human Evolution". The Associated Press. Retrieved 2006-04-13. [dead link]
The MiddleAwash is a paleoanthropological research area in the northwest corner of Gabi Rasu in the Afar Region along the Awash River in Ethiopia's Afar...
The MiddleAwash Project is an international research expedition conducted in the Afar Region of Ethiopia with the goal of determining the origins of humanity...
as well as the southern half of the Afar Region. The Awash Valley (and especially the MiddleAwash) is internationally famous for its high density of hominin...
important fossil localities exist in the Afar region, including the MiddleAwash region and the sites of Hadar, Dikika, and Woranso-Mille. These sites...
Haile-Selassie based on bones collected from five localities in the MiddleAwash, Ethiopia. Haile-Selassie initially classified them as Ardipithecus ramidus...
skull, mandible, teeth and arm bones—from the Afar Depression in the MiddleAwash river valley of Ethiopia. More fragments were recovered in 1994, amounting...
skull dating to 259 (± 35) thousand years ago. H. s. idaltu, found at MiddleAwash in Ethiopia, lived about 160,000 years ago, and H. sapiens lived at Omo...
Yohannes (2009). Ardipithecus Kadabba: Late Miocene Evidence from the MiddleAwash, Ethiopia. University of California Press. pp. 243–244. ISBN 9780520254404...
recovered in 1997 from the Upper Herto Member of the Bouri Formation in the MiddleAwash site of the Afar Triangle, Ethiopia. The materials are: BOU-VP-16/1,...
(born 1966), archaeologist with focus on the palaeoarchaeology of the MiddleAwash. Sebsebe Demissew (born 1991), professor of plant systematics and biodiversity...
MSA site in East Africa being Gademotta in Ethiopia, at 276 kya. The MiddleAwash valley of Ethiopia and the Central Rift Valley of Kenya constituted a...
chronological and behavioural contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from MiddleAwash, Ethiopia". Nature. 423 (6941): 747–752. Bibcode:2003Natur.423..747C...
Giday (eds.). Ardipithecus Kadabba: Late Miocene Evidence from the MiddleAwash, Ethiopia. University of California Press. pp. 295–. ISBN 978-0-520-25440-4...
(2008), Homo erectus: pleistocene evidence from the MiddleAwash, Ethiopia, Volume 1 of MiddleAwash series, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-25120-2...
million years ago. In 2001, 6.5- to 5.5-million-year-old fossils from the MiddleAwash were classified as a subspecies of A. ramidus by Ethiopian paleoanthropologist...
erectus specimen from the Daka Member of the Bouri Formation in the MiddleAwash Study Area of the Ethiopian Rift Valley. It is reported that the metrics...
"Interrelationships of Late Neogene Elephantoids: New evidence from the MiddleAwash Valley, Afar, Ethiopia". Geobios. 28 (6): 727–736. Bibcode:1995Geobi...
the rocks might have occurred due to local volcanic activity. In the MiddleAwash River Valley, cone-shaped depressions of reddish clay were found that...
evolution. Berhane was invited by Professor Desmond Clark to join Clark's MiddleAwash field research group. This exposure to fieldwork redefined his interest...
Homo erectus: old radiometric ages and young Oldowan assemblages in the MiddleAwash Valley, Ethiopia". Science. 264 (5167): 1907–1910. Bibcode:1994Sci.....
Clark and F. Clark Howell in a laboratory in Addis Ababa as part of the MiddleAwash Research Project. She worked alongside researchers Berhane Asfaw, Giday...
chronological and behavioural contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from MiddleAwash, Ethiopia". Nature. 423 (6941): 747–752. Bibcode:2003Natur.423..747C...
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