Paleolithic inferior

The Paléolithique inferior is the first period of the Préhistoire, marked by the appearance of the Homme in Africa. According to the points of view and the criteria selected, it begins between 3 and 2,5 Million years Before the present (or 2,5 My BP). It finishes approximately 300.000 years ago, when changes on the level of the tools and human evolution announce the beginning of the Paléolithique means. The lithic industries associated to the paleolithic inferior are the Oldowayen (in the case of Europe, one also speaks about Chelléen and Abbevillien) and the Acheuléen.

The Paleolithic inferior in Africa

The principal discoveries concerning the beginnings of the human adventure have as a framework the African continent, and particularly Eastern and southern Africa. It is of these areas that the oldest fossils allotted to the family come from the Hominidés: among these ancestors - or close relatives - of the Man one finds the Australopithecus (of which Australopithecus afarensis and famous the Lucy, then Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus ) and first representatives of mankind itself ( Homo rudolfensis then Homo habilis , the first to have a cranial capacity of more than 600 cm ³).

It is from there also that the oldest known cut tools come to date: they were discovered in Ethiopia, in Kada Gona, in grounds gone back to approximately 2,6 My BP. If these first tools are generally not very elaborate, of the recent discoveries carried out in the site of Lokalalei in Kenya (Western of the Lac Turkana), showed that the size of the stone could be organized enough and revealed a certain technical skill as of 2,3 My BP.

After one period during which they are rare, the sites with tools lithic multiply starting from 1,9 My BP. The sites of Olduvai in Tanzania or Koobi Fora in Kenya delivered many vestiges of this industry called Oldowayen. The instruments of this time remain very simple and comprise primarily cut glares and rollers. From 1,6 My BP, always in Africa, one attends the appearance of new species of fossil Hominides and a new lithic industry:

indeed, one finds at that time, at the sides of the Paranthropus robustus , the Homo ergaster then the Homo erectus .
in addition, one sees appearing new tools, larger and more elaborate, such as the Biface S, the Hachereau X or the bolas, which characterize the Acheuléen. The sites of this time are extremely numerous but one can retain the names of Olduvai (Tanzania), Olorgesailie, Kilombe, Isenya (Kenya), Melka Kunture, Gadeb (Ethiopia)

The Paleolithic inferior in Europe (- 1 My - 300.000 years)

Although one of its predecessors - who remains to be defined - could venture out of Africa as testifies to them the discoveries carried out with Dmanissi (Georgia; - 1,7 My?), it is the Homo erectus which truly will gradually populate the Close East (- 1,4 My in Palestine), Asia (- 1 My/- 800.000 years in China and in Java, where it was recognized under the name of Pithécanthrope) and Europe (- 1 My). The European fossils of Ceprano and Altamura (Italy), of Mauer (Germany), of Tautavel (France) or of Atapuerca (Spain) can be regarded as advanced Homo erectus comprising already certain specific features to their direct descendants, the Hommes of Néandertal.

The first units lithic clearly identified in Europe comprise primarily glares and rollers or blocks cut, sometimes associated with some Biface improved S and some glares (transformed into tools more specialized by small removals on the edges). One can mention in particular the sites of Assembles Poggiolo, Isernia Pineta, Venosa-Notarchirico (Italy), Atapuerca, Orce (Spain), Soleilhac, Abbeville and Saint-Acheul (France), which spread out between 1 My and 500.000 years BP. These industries are gradually replaced, perhaps at the time of a second wave of settlement, by industries acheuléennes with double-side and hatchets definitely more: one finds the trace of it, between 500 and 300.000 years BP, in the sites of Torre in Pietra, Castel di Guido, Fontana Ranuccio, Venosa (Italy), of Pinedo, Aridos, Torralba, Ambrona, Atapuerca (Spain), of Terra Amata, Tautavel, Orgnac 3, Cagny (France), of Swanscombe, Hoxne (England), of Kärlich, Schöningen, Bilzingsleben (Germany).

Lifestyles with the Paleolithic inferior

The indications relating to the daily life directly are extremely rare for these moved back periods, because of bad general conservation of the perishable material vestiges. It is generally impossible to determine the function of the vestiges lithic themselves, for lack of a good conservation of their traces of use. Moreover the space distribution of the objects discovered at the time of the archaeological excavations seldom corresponds at their original disposal and it is difficult to know how the habitat was organized.

But sometimes of the exceptional discoveries allow to foresee complex behaviors: thus the practice of hunting could be shown thanks to the setting at the day of worked spears out of wooden, in particular with Clacton-one-Sea (England) and Schöningen (Germany). Even if the charognage could play a big role, dice this time the driven out species are very varied, their size being able to go from that of rabbit to that of the mammoth.

A major discovery of this end of Paleolithic old is the domestication Feu: : it also is to be put in the active Homo erectus and it is attested from approximately - 400.000 years, in particular in the sites of Terra Amata, Carry out-Dregan (France), Bilzingsleben (Germany) or Vértesszőlős (Hungary). ----

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