Ricerc@Sapienza

At 2000m of altitude in Ethiopia, Melka Kunture provides a unique opportunity of understanding human evolution outside the savanna environments known elsewhere in Africa. Paleobotanical studies evidenced all over the Pleistocene mountains vegetation of the Dry evergreen afromontane forest and grassland complex. The rich archaeological sequence starts at 1.8 million years with the Oldowan, then the Acheulean, the Middle Stone Age and the Late Stone Age. Lithic raw materials, including obsidian, were abundantly available. The archaeological record also includes human and animal fossils, with footprints providing further direct evidence of animal and human life.
The ongoing project is aimed at: 1) defining into detail the environment, in order to better assess the limits of hominin adaptation to demanding conditions, with contrasted warm day temperatures and cold nights; 2) checking the evolving human capacities, through a techno-economic approach to well-dated lithic industries which takes into account the suitability and availability of raw materials; 3) re-assessing the taxonomic status of fossil hominin remains in relation with the lithic productions.
This year the focus will be on the Garba IV mandible, discovered in an Oldowan layer, published as of Homo erectus type. This is in contrast with the view that it was H. habilis who produced the Oldowan. The mandible was temporarily exported to Europe for micro-scanning, and this will allow a full re-assessment of the taxonomy. Fieldwork will be at Garba I Delta, a recently discovered layer of 1,300,000 years, a time so far poorly documented; at Simbiro III, more than 900,000 years old, with a unique specialization on obsidian use; and at Gombore II OAM, 850,000 years old, where ichnological excavations are planned. Communication and on line virtualization activities will be implemented in the framework of the candidature of Melka Kunture to Unesco's World Heritage List, as planned by the Ethiopian Authorities.