Wilhelm Kattwinkel, Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey, Percy Edward Kent & Jonathan Leakey
Condition
Excavated
Ownership
Tanzanian Government
Management
Antiquities Division, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism[1]
Public access
Yes
National Historic Sites of Tanzania
Official name
Oldupai Gorge
Type
Pre-historic
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km long, and is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the Olbalbal ward located in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Laetoli, another important archaeological locality of early human occupation. The British/Kenyan paleoanthropologist-archeologist team of Mary and Louis Leakey established excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge that achieved great advances in human knowledge and are world-renowned. The site is registered as one of the National Historic Sites of Tanzania.[2]
The gorge takes its name from the Maasai word oldupai which means "the place of the wild sisal" as the East African wild sisal (Sansevieria ehrenbergii) grows abundantly throughout the gorge area. Twenty-five kilometers downstream of Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek, the gorge is the result of up to 90 meters erosion cutting into the sediments of a Pleistocene lake bed. A side gorge, originating from Lemagrut Mountain, joins the main gorge 8 km from the mouth. This side gorge follows the shoreline of a prehistoric lake, rich in fossils and early hominin sites. Periodic flows of volcanic ash from Olmoti and Kerimasi helped to ensure preservation of the fossils in the gorge.[3]
The locality is significant in showing the increasing developmental and social complexities in the earliest Hominina, largely revealed in the production and use of stone tools. Prior to tools, evidence of scavenging and hunting can be noted—highlighted by the presence of gnaw marks that predate cut marks—and of the ratio of meat versus plant material in the early hominin diet. The collecting of tools and animal remains in a centralised area is evidence of developing social interaction and communal activity. All these factors indicate an increase in cognitive capacities at the beginning of the period of hominids transitioning to homininina—that is, to human clade.
Homo habilis, probably the first early human species, occupied Olduvai Gorge approximately 1.9 million years ago (mya); then came a contemporary australopithecine, Paranthropus boisei, 1.8 mya, followed by Homo erectus, 1.2 mya. Homo sapiens, which is estimated to have emerged roughly 300,000 years ago, is thought to have occupied sites in the gorge 17,000 years ago.
The OlduvaiGorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the...
zebras, gazelles, and other animals. The conservation area also contains OlduvaiGorge, one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world....
foot bones dating to 1.75 million years ago (mya)—were discovered in OlduvaiGorge, Tanzania, in 1960 by Jonathan Leakey. However, the actual first remains—OH...
Look up olduvai in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Olduvai may refer to: OlduvaiGorge Seven Views of OlduvaiGorgeOlduvaiGorge Museum Olduvai Hominid...
Oldowan and Acheulean tools). The term Oldowan is taken from the site of OlduvaiGorge in Tanzania, where the first Oldowan stone tools were discovered by...
"Seven Views of OlduvaiGorge" is a science fiction novella by American writer Mike Resnick, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science...
humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at OlduvaiGorge with his wife, fellow palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey. Having established...
interpretation: The OlduvaiGorge is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable...
significance. Evidence of archaic humans has been discovered in Africa's OlduvaiGorge. In the southwestern United States, canyons are important archeologically...
Zinjanthropus skull at OlduvaiGorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at OlduvaiGorge, where they...
assigning sex to the fossil record is a few samples taken in OlduvaiGorge. In 1960, in OlduvaiGorge two skulls identified as OH12 and OH9, were found to be...
and Ketumbeine southeast of Ol Doinyo Lengai; further away are the OlduvaiGorge to the west and Kilimanjaro mountain east of the volcano. Most of the...
studied the lithic assemblages from Oldowan and Acheulean sites including OlduvaiGorge in Tanzania, Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, Gona in Ethiopia, Middle...
Olduvai Hominid number 9 (OH 9), known as the Chellean Man, is a fossilized skull cap of an early hominin, found in LLK II, OlduvaiGorge by Louis S....
OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959 at OlduvaiGorge, Tanzania and described by her husband Louis a month later. It was originally...
subsequently known throughout the world as Oldowan after OlduvaiGorge. The first hominid skull in OlduvaiGorge was discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959, and named...
(Oman and Saudi Arabia). It occurs notably in proliferation along the OlduvaiGorge in northern Tanzania. Dracaena hanningtonii bears its leaves in two...
Pleistocene epoch. The best known species is Pelorovis oldowayensis from OlduvaiGorge in Tanzania, from the Early Pleistocene. The species "Pelorovis" antiquus...
sites and lithic collections in Oldowan and Acheulean sites such as OlduvaiGorge in Tanzania, Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, Gona and Middle Awash...
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which contains Ngorongoro Crater and the OlduvaiGorge, where some of the oldest hominin fossils have been found. In 1993,...
of Homo habilis. The fossils were discovered on November 4, 1960 in OlduvaiGorge, Tanzania, by Jonathan and Mary Leakey. The remains are dated to approximately...
unrest brewing in China, beginning in 1966, and major discoveries at OlduvaiGorge and East Turkana (Koobi Fora), the paleoanthropological spotlight shifted...
The Olduvai Theory states that the current industrial civilization would have a maximum duration of one hundred years, counted from 1930. From 2030 onwards...
possess a hydroxy functional group OH, prefix of hominid fossils found at OlduvaiGorge OH, designation in the Unified Soil Classification System for organic-rich...
comprises a skull and partial skeleton. All specimens were discovered in OlduvaiGorge, Tanzania, in two different rock formations dating to 1.845 and 1.839...
crocodilian predation is known from bite marks on hominin bones from the OlduvaiGorge, and these marks were likely made by the closely related crocodile C...
Global Information
Tanzania