Lower Paleolithic

The earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic, extending from the first known stone tools to the Middle Paleolithic. Its archaeological record includes early tool industries and the rise of multiple human species.

Paleolithic: The prehistoric era characterized by stone-tool use, extending from the earliest known tools to the adoption of farming. The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of this broader era.
Stone knapping: The deliberate removal of flakes from stone to produce tools or usable edges. Knapping created the cores, flakes, and bifaces that define many Lower Paleolithic assemblages.
Lomekwi 3: An archaeological site in Kenya with stone tools dated to about 3.3 million years ago. Its tools push evidence of stone technology earlier than the traditional Lower Paleolithic record.
Australopithecus afarensis: An extinct hominin species from eastern Africa that lived roughly 3.9 to 2.9 million years ago. It predates most accepted stone-tool industries, amid debate over possible earlier tool use.
Middle Paleolithic: A Paleolithic subdivision following the Lower Paleolithic, associated in many regions with prepared-core technologies and Neanderthals or early Homo sapiens. Its emergence marks the endpoint of the Lower Paleolithic in the conventional sequence.
Lithic technology: The study and practice of making and using stone tools. Stone artifacts provide the main evidence used to identify Lower Paleolithic cultures.
Biface: A stone tool shaped by flaking on both faces, often with a cutting edge around much of its perimeter. Bifaces are characteristic products of the Acheulean tradition.
Olduvai Gorge: A paleoanthropological site complex in Tanzania with a long record of hominins, artifacts, and environments. Its deposits preserve evidence central to the study of early stone-tool industries.
Homo habilis: An extinct human species from Africa associated with early Oldowan stone tools. Its fossils occur in contexts central to debates about the earliest toolmakers.
Mousterian: A Middle Paleolithic stone-tool industry associated especially with Neanderthals in Europe and parts of western Asia. Its flake-based toolkits contrast with the earlier prominence of Acheulean handaxes.

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