Definition
The Oldowan is the earliest sustained stone tool industry, named after Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania where Louis and Mary Leakey first systematically described it. Oldowan toolmaking appears in East African archaeological sites by 2.6 million years ago (Gona, Ethiopia) and persists in recognisable form for over a million years, gradually giving way to the more sophisticated Acheulean industry around 1.7 mya.
Oldowan tools are conceptually simple: cobbles of stone struck with another stone (a hammerstone) to remove sharp flakes. Both the flakes and the cores left behind functioned as tools. Cores were sometimes shaped into recognisable chopper, polyhedron, or scraper forms; flakes provided sharp edges for cutting.
Why it matters
Where it shows up
The richest Oldowan localities are in East Africa — Olduvai, Koobi Fora, Omo, Hadar, Gona — but the industry also extends into North Africa, the Caucasus (Dmanisi, ~1.8 mya), and parts of southwestern Asia, marking the geographic spread of toolmaking hominins.
Sites typically combine clusters of stone artefacts with cut-marked or hammerstone-percussed bones, indicating butchery. The exact identity of the toolmakers is uncertain — Homo habilis is the conventional answer, but contemporary Paranthropus may also have manufactured or used stone tools, and pre-Homo manufacture remains possible.