The middle-late Pleistocene Kibish Formation of the Lower Omo Valley (Ethiopia) contains some of the oldest dated Homo sapiens fossils. Archaeological excavations at the Omo Kibish between 2002 and 2003 recovered numerous stone tools from extensive horizontal exposures of two sites, KHS (dated to 195+/-5 kyr) and BNS (dated to at least 104+/-7 kyr). Analysis of artifact distributions, lithic-debris densities, and refitting artifact sets sheds light on site-formation processes. Both localities reveal weak patterns of differentiation, and BNS seems to have a preferred refit orientation.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.05.016 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Age of the oldest known Homo sapiens from eastern Africa.
Nature
January 2022
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Efforts to date the oldest modern human fossils in eastern Africa, from Omo-Kibish and Herto in Ethiopia, have drawn on a variety of chronometric evidence, including Ar/Ar ages of stratigraphically associated tuffs. The ages that are generally reported for these fossils are around 197 thousand years (kyr) for the Kibish Omo I, and around 160-155 kyr for the Herto hominins. However, the stratigraphic relationships and tephra correlations that underpin these estimates have been challenged.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Omo-Kibish I pelvis.
J Hum Evol
July 2017
Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA.
Omo-Kibish I (Omo I) from southern Ethiopia is the oldest anatomically modern Homo sapiens skeleton currently known (196 ± 5 ka). A partial hipbone (os coxae) of Omo I was recovered more than 30 years after the first portion of the skeleton was recovered, a find which is significant because human pelves can be informative about an individual's sex, age-at-death, body size, obstetrics and parturition, and trunk morphology. Recent human pelves are distinct from earlier Pleistocene Homo spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe origin and evolution of Homo sapiens.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
July 2016
Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
If we restrict the use of Homo sapiens in the fossil record to specimens which share a significant number of derived features in the skeleton with extant H. sapiens, the origin of our species would be placed in the African late middle Pleistocene, based on fossils such as Omo Kibish 1, Herto 1 and 2, and the Levantine material from Skhul and Qafzeh. However, genetic data suggest that we and our sister species Homo neanderthalensis shared a last common ancestor in the middle Pleistocene approximately 400-700 ka, which is at least 200 000 years earlier than the species origin indicated from the fossils already mentioned.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConfirmation of a late middle Pleistocene age for the Omo Kibish 1 cranium by direct uranium-series dating.
J Hum Evol
November 2012
Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
While it is generally accepted that modern humans evolved in Africa, the specific physical evidence for that origin remains disputed. The modern-looking Omo 1 skeleton, discovered in the Kibish region of Ethiopia in 1967, was controversially dated at ~130 ka (thousands of years ago) by U-series dating on associated Mollusca, and it was not until 2005 that Ar-Ar dating on associated feldspar crystals in pumice clasts provided evidence for an even older age of ~195 ka. However, questions continue to be raised about the age and stratigraphic position of this crucial fossil specimen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCorrelation of the KHS Tuff of the Kibish Formation to volcanic ash layers at other sites, and the age of early Homo sapiens (Omo I and Omo II).
J Hum Evol
October 2012
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0102, USA.
Hominin specimens Omo I and Omo II from Member I of the Kibish Formation, Ethiopia are attributed to early Homo sapiens, and an age near 196 ka has been suggested for them. The KHS Tuff, within Member II of the Kibish Formation has not been directly dated at the site, but it is believed to have been deposited at or near the time of formation of sapropel S6 in the Mediterranean Sea. Electron microprobe analyses suggest that the KHS Tuff correlates with the WAVT (Waidedo Vitric Tuff) at Herto, Gona, and Konso (sample TA-55), and with Unit D at Kulkuletti in the Ethiopian Rift Valley.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!