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Paleoenvironments of the earliest stone toolmakers, Gona, Ethiopia

Jay Quade^,1, Naomi Levin^,1, Sileshi Semaw^,2, Dietrich Stout^,2, Paul Renne^,3, Michael Rogers^,4 and Scott Simpson^,5

¹ Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
² Craft Research Center, 419 N. Indian Ave., Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408, USA
³ Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Rd., Berkeley, California 94709, USA
⁴ Department of Anthropology, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent, New Haven, Connecticut 06515-1355, USA
⁵ Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44106-4930, USA

Fluvio-lacustrine sediments of the Hadar and Busidima Formations along the northern Awash River (Ethiopia) archive almost three million years (3.4 to <0.6 Ma) of human evolution, including the earliest documented record of stone toolmaking at 2.5–2.6 Ma. This paper brings together sedimentologic and isotopic evidence for the paleoenvironmental context of early hominids from both formations, but with particular emphasis on the setting for the early toolmakers.

The pre–2.92 Ma record (Hadar Formation) is characterized by low-gradient fluvial, paludal, and lacustrine deposition in an undissected topography most analogous to reaches of the modern middle Awash River near Gewane. The Gona area experienced repeated deep dissection and aggradation by the Awash River, starting between 2.92 and ca. 2.7 Ma and continuing through the top of the record at <0.6 Ma (Busidima Formation). Each aggradational succession is 10–20 m in thickness and fines upward from well-rounded conglomerates at the base to capping paleosols at the top. During this period the ancestral Awash represented by these fining upward sequences was dominantly meandering and flowed northeast, as it does today. Smaller channels tributary to the axial Awash system are also extensively exposed in the Busidima Formation. Compared to the axial-system conglomerates, the tributary channels transported finer, less mature volcanic clasts mixed with abundant carbonate nodules reworked from adjacent badlands.

Stone artifacts (Oldowan; 2.6–2.0 Ma) at the oldest archaeological sites are only associated with the axial Awash system, in the bedded silts or capping paleosols of the fining upward sequences. The implements were made from rounded cobbles from the channels, but manufacture and use of the tools was always away from the channel bars, on the nearby sandy banks and silt-dominated floodplains. Archaeological sites higher in the record (Acheulian; <1.7 Ma) occur in similar axial river contexts, as well as along tributary channels further removed from artifact raw material sources.

Mature paleosols in the Hadar and Busidima Formations are mostly pale to dark-brown Vertisols typified by abundant clay slickensides, pseudo-anticlinal and vertical fracturing, and carbonate nodules. Such calcic Vertisols are common in the region today, demonstrating that the paleoclimate over the past 3.4 m.y. has been semi-arid and strongly seasonal.

Carbon isotopic results from pedogenic carbonates in the Vertisols allow reconstruction of the proportion of C₃ plants (trees and shrubs) to C₄ plants (grasses) through time. The ¹³C results from the Hadar Formation prior to 2.9 Ma range from –9.3 to –4.1, indicating a dominantly forested environment but with locally substantial (average 34%) grasses on the Awash floodplain. The ¹³C values from soil carbonate in the lower Busidima Formation (2.7–1.6 Ma) increase (–6.5 to –2.7) in floodplain paleosols, indicating 50% average grass cover. Vertisols of the upper Busidima Formation (<1.6 Ma) formed on gently sloping alluvial fans adjacent to the Awash floodplain and display even more positive ¹³C values, up to –1.8, showing that grassland dominated the margins of the active Awash floodplain.

Key Words: Gona • Ethiopia • carbon isotopes • early hominids • Oldowan • first stone tools • Awash • paleoenvironment

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