View source for Lower Paleolithic

{{Short description|Earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic}}
[[Image:Biface Cintegabelle MHNT PRE 2009.0.201.1 V2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Four views of an Acheulean handaxe]]
{{Paleolithic|lower}}
<mapframe text="Selected Lower Paleolithic sites from the [https://www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb ROAD database] (CC BY-SA 4.0 ROCEEH)" width="400", height="300">
{
  "type": "ExternalData",
  "service": "page",
  "title": "ROCEEH/Lower Paleolithic.map"
}
</mapframe>
{{Human history and prehistory}}
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 [[Lomekwi|first evidence]] for [[stone tool]] production and use by [[Hominini|hominin]]s appears in the current [[archaeological record]],<ref name="Harmand 2015">{{cite journal|last1=Harmand|first1=Sonia|title=3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya|journal=Nature|date=21 May 2015|volume=521|issue=7552|pages=310–315|doi=10.1038/nature14464|display-authors=etal|pmid=25993961|url=https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8697F75/download|bibcode=2015Natur.521..310H|s2cid=1207285}}</ref> until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the [[Oldowan]] ("mode 1") and [[Acheulean]] ("mode 2") [[Lithic technology|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 [[Lomekwi]]an 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.<ref name="Harmand 2015" /><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/tools/early-tools|title = Early Stone Age Tools|date = 2014-09-29|access-date = 2014-09-30|website = What does it mean to be human?|publisher = Smithsonian Institution}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to Most Recent Foragers|url = https://archive.org/details/firstafricansafr00barh|url-access = limited|last1 = Barham|first1 = Lawrence|publisher = Cambridge|year = 2008|isbn = 978-0-521-61265-4|location = New York|pages = [https://archive.org/details/firstafricansafr00barh/page/n37 16]|last2 = Mitchell|first2 = Peter}}</ref>

The [[Middle Paleolithic]] followed the Lower Paleolithic and recorded the appearance of the more advanced [[Prepared-core technique|prepared-core]] tool-making technologies such as the [[Mousterian]]. Whether the earliest [[control of fire]] by hominins dates to the Lower or to the Middle Paleolithic remains an open question.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lower-paleolithic |title=Lower Paleolithic |publisher=Dictionary com |access-date=December 30, 2016 |archive-date=July 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716190953/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/lower-paleolithic |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Gelasian==
{{further|Gelasian|Homo habilis|Olduvai Gorge}}

The Lower Paleolithic began with the appearance of the first [[stone tool]]s in the world. Formerly associated with the emergence of ''[[Homo habilis]]'', some 2.8 million years ago, this date has been pushed back significantly by finds of the early 2000s,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Semaw | first1 = S. | last2 = Rogers | first2 = M. J. | last3 = Quade | first3 = J. | last4 = Renne | first4 = P. R. | last5 = Butler | first5 = R. F. | last6 = Domínguez-Rodrigo | first6 = M. | last7 = Stout | first7 = D. | last8 = Hart | first8 = W. S. | last9 = Pickering | first9 = T.|display-authors=etal| year = 2003 | title = 2.6-Million-year-old stone tools and associated bones from OGS-6 and OGS-7, Gona, Afar, Ethiopia | journal = Journal of Human Evolution | volume = 45 | issue = 2| pages = 169–177 | doi = 10.1016/S0047-2484(03)00093-9 | pmid = 14529651  | bibcode = 2003JHumE..45..169S }}</ref> the [[Oldowan]] or Mode 1 horizon, long considered the oldest type of lithic industry, is now considered to have developed from about 2.6 million years ago, with the beginning [[Gelasian]] ([[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]]).<ref name="Harmand 2015" />

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 [[Bone marrow|marrow]].

The move from the mostly [[frugivorous]] or [[omnivorous]] diet of hominin ''Australopithecus'' to the [[carnivorous]] scavenging lifestyle of early ''Homo'' has been explained by the climate changes in [[East Africa]] associated with the [[Quaternary glaciation]]. Decreasing oceanic evaporation  produced  a drier climate and the expansion of the [[savannah]] at the expense of forests. Reduced availability of fruits stimulated some proto-[[australopithecines]] to search out new food sources found in the drier savannah ecology. [[Derek Bickerton]] (2009) has designated to this period the  move from simple [[animal communication systems]] found in all [[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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bickerton |first1=Derek |title=Adam's Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans |date=2009 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-1-4299-3029-1 }}{{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref>

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

== Calabrian ==
{{main|Calabrian (stage)|Homo |}}

''Homo erectus'' moved from scavenging to [[hunting]], developing the [[hunting-gathering]] lifestyle that would remain dominant throughout the Paleolithic into the [[Mesolithic]].
The unlocking of the [[Niche construction|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&nbsp;years ago. As such, ''Homo'' rose to the ranks of omnivorous predators (and possibly became [[hypercarnivore]]s before ''Homo sapiens'' again transformed into [[hypocarnivore]]s). 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 tool]]s in [[Malaysia]] have been dated to be 1.83&nbsp;million years old.<ref>{{cite news |title=Malaysian scientists find stone tools "oldest in Southeast Asia" |url=https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/188362/Malaysian-scientists-find-stone-tools-oldest-in-Southeast-Asia |work=Tehran Times |agency=AFP |date=1 February 2009 }}</ref> The [[Peking Man]] fossil, discovered in 1929, is roughly 700,000&nbsp;years old.

In Europe, the [[Olduwan]] tradition (known in Europe as [[Abbevillian]]) split into two parallel traditions, the [[Clactonian]], a flake tradition, and the [[Acheulean]], a [[hand-axe]] tradition.  The [[Levallois technique]] for [[knapping]] [[flint]] developed during this time.

The carrier species from Africa to Europe was undoubtedly ''[[Homo erectus]]''. This type of human is more clearly linked to the flake tradition, which spread across southern Europe through the [[Balkans]] to appear relatively densely in [[southeast Asia]]. Many [[Mousterian]] finds in the [[Middle Paleolithic]] have been knapped using a Levallois technique, suggesting that [[Neanderthals]] evolved from ''Homo erectus'' (or, perhaps, ''Homo heidelbergensis''; see below).

[[Monte Poggiolo]], near [[Forlì]], Italy, is the location of an [[Acheulian]] [[Littoral zone|littoral]] handaxe [[Lithic technology|industry]] dating from 1.8 to 1.1&nbsp;million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Despriée |first1=Jackie |last2=Voinchet |first2=Pierre |last3=Tissoux |first3=Hélène |last4=Bahain |first4=Jean-Jacques |last5=Falguères |first5=Christophe |last6=Courcimault |first6=Gilles |last7=Dépont |first7=Jean |last8=Moncel |first8=Marie-Hélène |last9=Robin |first9=Sophie |last10=Arzarello |first10=Marta |last11=Sala |first11=Robert |last12=Marquer |first12=Laurent |last13=Messager |first13=Erwan |last14=Puaud |first14=Simon |last15=Abdessadok |first15=Salah |title=Lower and Middle Pleistocene human settlements recorded in fluvial deposits of the middle Loire River Basin, Centre Region, France |journal=Quaternary Science Reviews |date=June 2011 |volume=30 |issue=11–12 |pages=1474–1485 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2011.02.011 |bibcode=2011QSRv...30.1474D }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bretas |first1=Rafael Vieira |last2=Yamazaki |first2=Yumiko |last3=Iriki |first3=Atsushi |title=Phase transitions of brain evolution that produced human language and beyond |journal=Neuroscience Research |date=December 2020 |volume=161 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1016/j.neures.2019.11.010 |pmid=31785329 |s2cid=208303849 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Henke-von der Malsburg |first1=Johanna |last2=Kappeler |first2=Peter M. |last3=Fichtel |first3=Claudia |title=Linking ecology and cognition: does ecological specialisation predict cognitive test performance? |journal=Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |date=December 2020 |volume=74 |issue=12 |pages=154 |doi=10.1007/s00265-020-02923-z |s2cid=229402432 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2020BEcoS..74..154H |url=https://publications.goettingen-research-online.de/bitstream/2/83386/1/s00265-020-02923-z.pdf }}</ref>

==Chibanian==
{{main|Chibanian}}
{{further|Homo heidelbergensis||Archaic humans}}
The appearance of ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' about 600,000 years ago heralds a number of other new varieties, such as ''[[Homo rhodesiensis]]'' and ''[[Homo cepranensis]]'' about 400,000&nbsp;years ago.
''Homo heidelbergensis'' is a candidate for first developing an [[Hmmmmm|early form of symbolic language]]. Whether [[control of fire]] and earliest [[paleolithic burial|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 [[Archaic humans|archaic ''Homo sapiens'']], typified by such fossils as those found at [[Swanscombe Man|Swanscombe]], [[Steinheim skull|Steinheim]], [[Tautavel Man|Tautavel]], and [[Vertesszollos]] (''Homo palaeohungaricus''). The hand-axe tradition originates in the same period. The intermediate may have been ''Homo heidelbergensis'', held responsible for the manufacture of improved ''Mode 2'' [[Acheulean]] tool types, in Africa, after 600,000&nbsp;years ago. Flakes and axes coexisted in Europe, sometimes at the same site. The axe tradition, however, spread to a different range in the east. It appears in [[Arabia]] and [[India]], but more importantly, it does not appear in southeast Asia.

==Transition to the Middle Paleolithic==
{{further|Homo rhodesiensis|Anatomically modern humans}}
From about 300,000 years ago, technology, social structures and behaviour appear to grow more complex, with [[prepared-core technique]] lithics, earliest instances of [[paleolithic burial|burial]] and changes to [[hunting-gathering]] patterns of subsistence. ''[[Anatomically modern humans|Homo sapiens]]'' first appeared about 300,000 years ago, as evidenced by fossils found at [[Jebel Irhoud]] in Morocco.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title=Oldest members of our species discovered in Morocco |journal=Science |date=9 June 2017 |volume=356 |issue=6342 |pages=993–994 |doi=10.1126/science.356.6342.993 |pmid=28596316 }}</ref>

==Lower Paleolithic era by region==
;{{Expand section|date=March 2023}}
;South India
{{anchor | India | indian subcontinent}}

The '''Madrasian culture''' is a prehistoric [[archaeological culture]] of the [[Indian subcontinent]], dated to the Lower Paleolithic, the earliest subdivision of the [[Stone Age]]. It belongs to the [[Acheulean|Acheulian industry]], and some scholars consider the distinction between the Madrasian and the broader, regional Acheulian tradition defunct.

The Madrasian is characterized by [[Bifacial|bifacial handaxes]] and [[Cleaver (tool)|cleavers]], but also includes [[flake tool]]s, [[microlith]]s and other chopping tools. Most were made from [[quartzite]].

The Madrasian was named for its [[type site]] of [[Attirampakkam]] (then part of the [[Madras Presidency]]), and Pallavaram near to the city of Madras (now renamed as [[Chennai]]) in the state of Tamilnadu, discovered by British archaeologist and geologist [[Robert Bruce Foote]] in 1863. The oldest tools at Attirampakkam have been dated to 1.5 million years ago using [[Surface exposure dating|cosmic-ray exposure dating]].

'''North India'''

[[Guy Ellcock Pilgrim]], a British geologist and [[palaeontology|palaeontologist]], discovered 1.5 million-year-old [[Archaic humans|prehistoric human]] teeth and part of a jaw indicating that [[Peopling of India#Early hominins of the Acheulean period|ancient people]], intelligent [[Hominini|hominins]] dating as far back as 1,500,000 [[Before Present|ybp]] [[Acheulean]] period,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pappu |first1=Shanti |last2=Gunnell |first2=Yanni |last3=Akhilesh |first3=Kumar |last4=Braucher |first4=Régis |last5=Taieb |first5=Maurice |last6=Demory |first6=François |last7=Thouveny |first7=Nicolas |title=Early Pleistocene Presence of Acheulian Hominins in South India |journal=Science |date=25 March 2011 |volume=331 |issue=6024 |pages=1596–1599 |doi=10.1126/science.1200183 |pmid=21436450 |bibcode=2011Sci...331.1596P |s2cid=206531024 }}</ref> lived in the Pinjore region near [[Chandigarh]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pilgrim |first1=Guy E. |title=New Siwalik Primates and Their Bearing on the Question of the Evolution of Man and the Anthropoidea |date=1915 |isbn=978-0-404-16675-5 |pages=2–61 }}</ref> [[Quartzite]] tools of the lower Paleolithic period were excavated in this region extending from Pinjore in Haryana to [[Nalagarh]] ([[Solan district]] in Himachal Pradesh).<ref name="hargazc1">{{cite web |url=http://revenueharyana.gov.in/Portals/0/hr-gaz-ch-5.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108145555/http://revenueharyana.gov.in/Portals/0/hr-gaz-ch-5.pdf |archive-date=8 January 2019 |title=Revenue and Disaster Management Department Haryana &#124; India }}{{full citation needed|date=October 2022}}</ref> The lands of Gujarat has been continuously inhabited from the Lower Paleolithic (c. 200,000 BP) period. Evidence of Stone Age habitation has been discovered in riverbeds of [[Sabarmati River|Sabarmati]], [[Mahi River]] and lower [[Narmada]] rivers of Gujarat.<ref name="Zeuner1950">{{cite book|author=Frederick Everard Zeuner|title=Stone Age and Pleistocene Chronology in Gujarat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1glAAAAMAAJ|year=1950|publisher=Deccan College, Postgraduate and Research Institute}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Control of fire by early humans]]
*[[Lomekwi]], site of the oldest tools discovered

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Prehistoric technology| state=expanded}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Lower Paleolithic| ]]

[[sv:Paleolitikum#Tidigpaleolitikum]]