Paleoecological Assessment of the Douglas Korongo East and Bell's Korongo East Sites, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

Summary

Current work at DKE and BKE in concert with The Olduvai Paleoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) has exposed Bed I and Bed II deposits, respectively. At DKE a series of tuffs and siltstones, including paleosols, indicates DKE hosted a series of productive landscapes through time. Paleosols have well-developed blocky structure and host large concentrations of fossils. At BKE sandy fluvial deposits adjacent to siliceous siltstones confirm previous descriptions of site materials. Cultural materials occur primarily in these fluvial sands, which are complex on a fine scale, featuring cross-bedding, density sorting, and carbonate rip-up class, indicating relatively high velocity water flow that would have attracted animals. Sediment mineralogy and chemistry, including stable isotopic analysis reveal the nature and formation conditions of deposits at both sites. Following assessment of site formation processes and artifact matrices, investigation of the continuity of tuffs and paleosols at DKE, and of channel-fill deposits at BKE will enable mapping of paleolandscape surfaces that would have been available to hominin populations. Additionally, dating and correlation of unnamed tuffs will allow calculation of sediment flux and provide more narrow age ranges for cultural deposits and paleolandscapes at DKE and BKE.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Ecological Perspectives on Hominin Landscape Use during the Early Stone Age of Africa

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16427