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[redigera] Olduwan
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Olduwan (earlier spelled Oldowan or sometimes Oldawan) is an anthropological designation for an industry of stone tools used by prehistoric hominans of the Lower Paleolithic. The Olduwan is the very first stone tool assemblage in prehistory.
Sometimes they are called "core tools", "pebble tools", "bifaces" or "choppers." These terms have generally been abandoned because they are not accurate or apply to more than one tradition. Olduwan tools are not necessarily cores, pebbles, or bifaces, and comprise more than hand-axes; moreover, those terms could apply equally to Acheulean tools. "Olduwan" is very specific and is preferable by far.
Olduwan tool use was so ancient that it probably did not begin with Homo sapiens. It spanned such a long period that its users comprised a number of species of hominina, perhaps even more than one genus.
"Olduwan" therefore does not properly refer to a culture, as it must have included many cultures. However, they were all similar or the same and changed very slowly. Some writers do refer to "the Olduwan culture" as a common name.
[redigera] Dates and ranges
Clearly identified Olduwan tools should not be regarded as evidence of the first use of tools in any way. Many animals use tools, including many of the primates. Because of this, it would be very hard indeed to establish a date for "first tool use."
Moreover, the manufacture of stone tools implies a stage in which unmodified stones were used. These also would be difficult to identify; nevertheless, a quasi-tradition of "Eoliths" ("dawn stones") exists for stones thought to have been in this category.
The first clearly manufactured Olduwan tools are dated to as early as 2.6 million years ago in East Africa. Layers from that age can only be dated very roughly; consequently, the 2.6 should be regarded as a rough guideline. The start could have been later, or more probably earlier, nor, unless new techniques of dating are found, is a precise date ever likely to be established.
There is a floruit of Olduwan tools in East Africa, spreading to South Africa, between 2.4 and 1.7 MY. At 1.7 MYA the evidence becomes paradoxical to the previous world view of Stone Age archaeology. The first Acheulean appears at about then. Moreover, it continues on in parallel to Olduwan, sometimes in sites near each other. Acheulian had been supposed to follow Abbevillan. African Acheulean precedes European Abbevillian and there is certainly no sequence of replacement.
A number of solutions are possible and have been offered as explanation. Perhaps different hominins used the two traditions, or the same hominins for different purposes, or the same hominins with access to different stone.
The problem has not been resolved, but it shouldn't concern us too greatly. There are parallel circumstances in the transition to metal, when some people in mining regions used almost all metal implements, while their neighbors in poor regions continued on in the stone age. Tool use is not as simple as a progression of replacements.
At about that time, 1.7 MYA, Homo erectus left Africa and spread to Asia. There is no evidence that such a coincidence indicates the superiority of the hominin or that it was the special bearer of rationality. By that time the other hominins had nearly disappeared, but others were to follow, who would take up both the Olduwan and Acheulian traditions.
At between 1 MYA and .5 MYA Homo erectus entered Europe with Olduwan tools. By .5 MYA, the tradition had been fairly well distributed over the eastern hemisphere. When it stopped being used is unclear. Discounting neo-Olduwan, it is probably safe to say it was mainly gone by .25 MYA.
