Integration of Paleolandscape and in.site reconstruction of Homininin activities during FLK west times.

FLK West (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge) contains the oldest association of Acheulian stone tools and exploitation of fauna (including megafauna) by hominins in the Pleistocene. Its paleolandscape has been recently intensively studied unveiling a spatial association between archaeological materials and hydrothermal resources. A new type of landscape use by hominins has also been documented around the area where the pene-contemporaneous FLK West and HWK sites were formed, resulting in an array of habitats spanning thousands of square meters covered with large amounts of lithic artefacts.

In our project, we will study how the intensive use of certain environments by hominins resulted in these “megasites”, in which hominins engaged in a variety of activities, complementary to those performed at discrete archaeological clusters like FLK West.