Lower Paleolithic
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The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by
Four views of an Acheulean handaxe
Reconstruction of a female Homo erectus
Homo heidelbergensis likely evolved from Homo ergaster (or African H. erectus) following an intense population bottleneck that occurred between 930,000 and 813,000 years ago.
Oldowan
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The Oldowan was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry during the early Lower Paleolithic spanning the late Pliocene and the first half of the Early Pleistocene. These early tools were simple
Lower Paleolithic
…first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the Oldowan (Mode 1) and Acheulean (Mode 2) lithics industries. In African archaeology, the time period roughly corresponds to the Early Stone Age, the earliest…
Carved pebble of Oldowan tradition from the Atlantic Sahara region Guelmim-Es Semara (National Archaeological Museum of Madrid)
Oldowan-tradition stone chopper.
Oldowan choppers dating to 1.7 million years BP, from Melka Kunture, Ethiopia
Chopper from Olduvai Gorge, some 1.8 million years old