Lower Paleolithic
The
Lower Paleolithic (or
Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the
Paleolithic or Old
Stone Age. It spans the time from around
2.5 million years ago when the first craft and use of
stone tools by
hominids appears in the archaeological record, until around
120,000 years ago when important evolutionary and technological changes ushered in the
Middle Paleolithic.
The earliest hominids, known as
australopithecines (personified by the famous find of
Lucy in
Ethiopia) were not advanced
stone tool users and were likely to have been common prey for larger animals. Sometime before 3 million years ago the first
fossils that can be called
Homo appear in the archaeological record. They may have evolved from the australopithecines or come from another
phylogenetic branch of the
primates.
Homo habilis remains, such as those from
Olduvai Gorge, are much more recognisable as humans. Stone-tool use was developed by these people around 2.5 million years ago before they were replaced by
Homo erectus about 1.5 million years ago.
Homo habilis used
Olduwan tools and had learned to control fire to support the hunter-gatherer method of subsistence.
The Olduwan moved on to
Europe from
Africa, where it had originated. In the north the Olduwan tradition (known in Europe as
Abbevillian) split into two parallel traditions: the
Clactonian, a flake tradition, and
Acheulean, a
hand-axe tradition. The
Levallois technique for knapping flint during this time.
The carrier species from Africa to Europe was undoubtedly
Homo erectus. This type of man is more clearly linked to the flake tradition, which spread across southern Europe through the
Balkans to appear relatively densely in
southeast Asia. Many
Mousterian finds in the
Middle Paleolithic have been knapped using a Levallois technique, suggesting that
Neanderthal Man evolved from Homo erectus.
Also in Europe appeared a type of man intermediate between Homo erectus and
Homo sapiens, typified by such fossils as
Swanscombe Man,
Steinheim Man,
Tautavel Man and Vertesszollos Man (Homo palaeohungaricus). Although it is unwise in the current state of knowledge to assume an exclusive association of any type of man with any type of tool, the intermediates seem responsible for the hand-axe tradition. Such an association should not imply that they necessarily evolved in Europe.
Flakes and axes coexisted in Europe, sometimes at the same site. The axe tradition, however spread to a different range to the east. It appears in Arabia and India, but more importantly, does not appear in southeast Asia.
At the site of
Monte Poggiolo, near
Forlì, thousands of handmade stones have been found, dating from 800,000 years ago.
