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Olduvai Gorge – Ancient Discoveries in Tanzania
Olduvai Gorge, also known as Oldupai is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains, near the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania. This unique yet significant paleoanthropological site is around 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from Laetoli, another significant archaeological site of early human occupation.
Remnants of early humans and stone tools discovered here have helped answer many questions we asked about ourselves. The site is a steep-sided ravine in the eastern arm of the Great East African Rift Valley. The two rift valley branches have an estimated combined length of 48 km (30 miles) and are 90 meters (295 ft) deep.
The name Olduvai is derived from a local Maasai term, “oldupai, which means the place of the wild sisal, as the gorge area supports the growth (in abundance) of the East African wild sisal throughout.
In 1960, Mary and Louis Leakey, British and Kenyan paleoanthropologists and archeologists, unearthed, over the course of more than 30 years of backbreaking work, the first well-dated fossils and artifacts of some of our earliest human ancestors.
It was Homo habilis, the “handy man”, the first representative of the Homo genus, a member of the human lineage, or the direct ancestor of the modern human. A series of discoveries followed thereafter, including those made in different parts and regions of Tanzania and East Africa as a whole.
Some of their discoveries include the famous Zinjanthropus (Australopithecus boisei) skull, as well as the remains of 1.6 to 1.8 million years old Homo habilis, the presumed maker of the numerous early stone tools found in deposits, and Homo erectus, the larger-bodied and larger-brained hominin that preceded the earliest modern humans (Homo sapiens).
Other discoveries were made in Laetoli, another significant archaeological site around 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from Olduvai. Although Laetoli yielded generous findings as well, Olduvai gained the most fame of all the sites. It lies 150 km (90 miles) away from the town of Arusha.
Over time, we humans have come to understand that our history began in this very place, the eastern Serengeti Plains, within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is in the sunny but abundant Ngorongoro area that a qualitative evolutionary shift from Australopithecus to Homo occurred.
A monument shaped like two enormous fossil skulls was built to commemorate the findings that have had a profound impact on our understanding of the history of humankind. The monument displays the exact shape of the actual skulls unearthed in Olduvai.
A museum of anthropology and human evolution was also constructed in the gorge, where unique artifacts are preserved. The Mary and Louis Leakey team established excavation and research programs at the Gorge that achieved great advances in human knowledge and are world-renowned.
The deposits have significantly yielded the fossil remains of more than 60 hominins, which provide the most continuous known record of human evolution during the past 2 million years and the longest known archaeological record of the development of stone-tool industries.
The many sites and deposits exposed by the gorge cover a time span from about 2.1 million to 15,000 years ago and have proven invaluable in furthering our understanding of early human evolution.
Olduvai Gorge is often referred to as the “Cradle of Mankind” and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. It is also a registered National Historic Site in Tanzania. The gorge is open for visits any time of year with the help of an official guide to see the actual excavations.
