Lower Paleolithic

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Four views of an Acheulean handaxe

The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) 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 hominins appears in the current archaeological record,[1] 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 finds dating back to 3.3 million years ago, with Lomekwian stone tool technology, spanning Mode 1 stone tool technology, which begins roughly 2.6 million years ago and ends between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago, with Mode 2 technology.[1][2][3]

The

control of fire by hominins dates to the Lower or to the Middle Paleolithic remains an open question.[4]

Gelasian

The Lower Paleolithic began with the appearance of the first

Lower Pleistocene), possibly first used by australopithecine forebears of the genus Homo (such as Australopithecus garhi
).

However, even older tools were later discovered at the single site of

Lomekwi 3 in Kenya, in 2015, dated to as early as 3.3 million years ago. As such, they would predate the Pleistocene (the Gelasian), and fall into the late Pliocene (the Piacenzian).[1]

The early members of the genus Homo produced primitive tools, summarized under the Oldowan industry, which remained dominant for nearly a million years, from about 2.5 to 1.7 million years ago. Homo habilis is assumed to have lived primarily on

scavenging, using tools to cleave meat off carrion or to break bones to extract the marrow
.

The move from the mostly

great apes to the earliest form of symbolic communication systems capable of displacement (referring to items not currently within sensory perception) and motivated by the need to "recruit" group members for scavenging large carcasses.[6]

Homo erectus appeared by about 1.8 million years ago, via the transitional variety Homo ergaster.

Calabrian

Homo erectus moved from scavenging to

hunting-gathering lifestyle that would remain dominant throughout the Paleolithic into the Mesolithic
. The unlocking of the new niche of hunting-gathering subsistence drove a number of further behavioral and physiological changes leading to the appearance of Homo heidelbergensis by some 800,000-600,000 years ago. As such, Homo rose to the ranks of omnivorous predators (and possibly became hypercarnivores before Homo sapiens again transformed into hypocarnivores). As active hunters, they came in opposition to other, quadruped predators and started living in large groups.

Homo erectus migrated out of Africa and dispersed throughout Eurasia. Stone tools in Malaysia have been dated to be 1.83 million years old.[7] The Peking Man fossil, discovered in 1929, is roughly 700,000 years old.

In Europe, the

hand-axe tradition. The Levallois technique for knapping flint
developed during this time.

The carrier species from Africa to Europe was undoubtedly

Neanderthals
evolved from Homo erectus (or, perhaps, Homo heidelbergensis; see below).

Acheulian littoral handaxe industry dating from 1.8 to 1.1 million years ago.[8]

The advent of technology and both verbal and non-verbal communication due to transition to group hunting and gathering resulted in the expansion of the parts of the brain associated with these, as well as greater cognition due to it being interlinked with the two. Later, behavioral adaptations to further social life, uncertain food distribution (resulting in need to find and secure food and remember where it could be found) and ecological changes brought about by Homo led to the further expansion of the brain in the areas of problem-solving, memory etc., ultimately leading to the great behavioral flexibility, highly efficient communication, and ecological dominance of humanity. The biological pre-adaptations of the

great apes and earlier primates allowed the brain to expand threefold within just 2 to 2.3 million years of the Pleistocene, in response to increasingly complex societies and changing habitats.[9][10]

Middle Pleistocene

The appearance of

Homo cepranensis
about 400,000 years ago. Homo heidelbergensis is a candidate for first developing an
burials
date to this period or only appear during the Middle Paleolithic is an open question.

Also, in Europe, a type of human appeared that was intermediate between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, sometimes summarized under

Arabia and India
, but more importantly, it does not appear in southeast Asia.

Transition to the Middle Paleolithic

From about 300,000 years ago, technology, social structures and behaviour appear to grow more complex, with

Homo sapiens first appeared about 300,000 years ago, as evidenced by fossils found at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco.[11]

Lower Paleolithic era by region

India

Narmada rivers of Gujarat.[15][16]

See also

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 1207285
    .
  2. ^ "Early Stone Age Tools". What does it mean to be human?. Smithsonian Institution. 2014-09-29. Retrieved 2014-09-30.
  3. .
  4. ^ "Lower Paleolithic". Dictionary com. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  5. PMID 14529651
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  6. ]
  7. ^ "Malaysian scientists find stone tools "oldest in Southeast Asia"". Tehran Times. AFP. 1 February 2009.
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  14. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20190108145555/http://revenueharyana.gov.in/Portals/0/hr-gaz-ch-5.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 January 2019. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)[full citation needed]
  15. ^ Frederick Everard Zeuner (1950). Stone Age and Pleistocene Chronology in Gujarat. Deccan College, Postgraduate and Research Institute.
  16. . Retrieved 14 October 2017 – via Shodhganga.