Olorgesailie

Olorgesailie is a geological formation in East Africa, on the floor of the Eastern Rift Valley in southern Kenya, southwest of Nairobi along the road to Lake Magadi. It contains a group of Lower Paleolithic archaeological sites. Olorgesailie is noted for the large number of Acheulean hand axes discovered there that are associated with animal butchering. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the finds are internationally significant for archaeology, palaeontology, and geology. The artifacts were first discovered by the British geologist John Walter Gregory in 1919, but it was not until 1943 that excavation began in earnest under the direction of Mary and Louis Leakey, with the assistance of paroled Italian prisoners of war. Work continued there until 1947. Glynn Isaac took up the excavation in the 1960s for his dissertation. In the 1980s, research was continued by Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution in conjunction with the National Museums of Kenya. Human tools are the most prominent of all historic items in the area. The abundant hand axes are characteristic of the Acheulean period, made by hominins between about 600,000 and 900,000 years agoalong what was then the shore of a now dried-up lake. Fossils of various animals have also been found, including those of extinct species of hippo, elephant, zebra, giraffe, and baboon, likely to have been butchered with the aid of the hand axes. In June 2003, a team led by Potts discovered a frontal bone in situ. Other parts of the small skull (designated KNM-OL 45500) were found in following months. The frontal bone is 900,000 to 970,000 years old and probably belonged to Homo erectus, thereby making it the first human fossil found on the site. The fossil remains were in the same stratigraphic level as two hand axes and several flakes, near dense deposits of hand axes. In 2018, evidence dating to about 320,000 years ago was found at Olorgesailie of the early emergence of complex and modern behaviors, possibly associated with early Homo sapiens, including: the trade and long-distance transportation of resources (such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points.