Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T12:29:00.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Lower Pleistocene lithic assemblage from Dursunlu (Konya), central Anatolia, Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Erksin Güleç
Affiliation:
Ankara Üniversitesi, Dil ve Tarih-Coǧrafya Fakültesi, Antropoloji Bölümü, 06100 Sıhhiye, Ankara, Turkey
Tim White
Affiliation:
Department of Integrative Biology and Human Evolution Research Center, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 97420, USA
Steven Kuhn
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Bldg. 30, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721–0030, USA
Ismail Özer
Affiliation:
Ankara Üniversitesi, Dil ve Tarih-Coǧrafya Fakültesi, Antropoloji Bölümü, 06100 Sıhhiye, Ankara, Turkey
Mehmet Saǧır
Affiliation:
Ankara Üniversitesi, Dil ve Tarih-Coǧrafya Fakültesi, Antropoloji Bölümü, 06100 Sıhhiye, Ankara, Turkey
Hakan Yılmaz
Affiliation:
Ankara Üniversitesi, Dil ve Tarih-Coǧrafya Fakültesi, Antropoloji Bölümü, 06100 Sıhhiye, Ankara, Turkey
F. Clark Howell
Affiliation:
Department of Integrative Biology and Human Evolution Research Center, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 97420, USA

Abstract

Homo erectus leaving Africa a million years ago ought to have passed through the area that is now Turkey, and the authors report a first certain sighting of human activity of this date in a lignite quarry near Konya. The remains of rhino, hippo and horse were found with 135 modified quartz implements in layers dated by palaeomagnetic reversal to between 0.78 and 0.99 million years ago.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arzello, M., Marcolini, F., Pavia, G., Pavia, M., Petronio, C., Petrucci, M., Rook, L. & Sarda, R.. 2007. Evidence of earliest human occurrence in Europe: the site of Pirro Nord (southern Italy). Naturwissenschaften 94: 107–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. & Goren-Inbar, N.. 1993. The lithic assemblages of 'Ubeidiya, a Lower Paleolithic site in the Jordan Valley (Qedem 34, Monographs of the Institute of Archaeology). Jerusalem: Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Carbonell, E., Mosquera, M., RodríGuez, X. P., Sala, R., & Made, J. Van Der. 1999. Out of Africa: the dispersal of the earliest technical systems reconsidered. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18: 119–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbonell, E., BermúDez De Castro, J. M., Parés, J. M., PéRez-GonzáLez, A., Cuenca-Bescós, G., Ollé, A., Mosquera, M., Huguet, R., Van Der Made, J., Rosas, A., Sala, R., Vallderú, J., García, N., Granger, D. E., Martinón-Torres, M., RodríGuez, X. P., Stock, G. M., Vergés, J. M., Allué, E., Burjachs, F., CáCeres, I., Canals, A., Benito, A., Díez, C., Lozano, M., Mateos, A., Navazo, M., RodríGuez, J., Rosell, J. & Arusaga, J. L.. 2008. The first hominin in Europe. Nature 452(27): 465–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, R. J. 2000. Out of Africa and back again. International Journal of Anthropology 15: 185–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Lumley, H., Nioradzé, M., Barsky, D., Cauche, D., Celiberti, V., Nioradzé, G., Notter, O., Zvania, D. & Lordkipanidze, D.. 2005. Les industries lithiques préoldowayennes du début du Pléistocéne inférieur du site de Dmanissi en Géorgie. L'Anthropologie 109: 1182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabunia, L., Vekua, A. & Lordkipanidze, D.. 2000. The environmental context of early human occupation in Georgia (Transcaucasia). Journal of Human Evolution 34: 785802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goren-Inbar, N., Feibel, C. S., Verosub, K. L., Melamed, Y., Kislev, M. E., Tchernov, E. & Saragusti, I.. 2000. Pleistocene milestones on the Out-of-Africa corridor at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel. Science 289/5481: 944–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guadelli, J-L., Sirakov, N., Ivanova, S., Sirakova, S., Anastassova, E., Courtaud, P., Dimitrova, I., Djabarska, N., Fernandez, P., Ferrier, C., Fontugne, M., Gambier, D., Guadelli, A., Iordanova, D., Iordanova, N., Kovatcheva, M., Krumov, I., Leblanc, J. C., J-B, Mallye, Marinska, M., Miteva, V., Popov, V., Spassov, R., Taneva, S., Tisterat-Laborde, N. & Tsanova, T.. 2005. Une séquence du Paléolithique inférieur au Paléolithique récent dans les Balkans: la grotte Kozarnika à Orechets (nord-ouest de la Bulgarie), in Molines, N., Moncel, M.-H. & Monnier, J.-L. (ed.) Les premiers peuplements en Europe: colloque international, données récentes sur les modalités de peuplement et sur le cadre chronostratigraphique, géologique et paléogéographique des industries du Paléolithique ancien et moyen en Europe (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1364): 87103. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
GüLec, E.Howell, F.C. & White, T.. 1999. Dursunlu-A new Lower Pleistocene artifact-bearing locality in southern Anatolia, in Ullrich, H. (ed.) Hominid evolution: lifestyles and survival strategies: 349–64. Gelsenkirchen: Archaea.Google Scholar
Harmankaya, S. & Tanindi, O.. 1996. Türkiye Arkeolojik Yerleseleri, 1. Paleolitik/Epipaleolitik. Istanbul: Ege Yayinlar.Google Scholar
Kuhn, S. 2002. Paleolithic archaeology in Turkey. Evolutionary Anthropology 11:198210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S., Arsebük, G. & Howell, F. C.. 1996. The Middle Pleistocene lithic assemblage from Yarmburgaz Cave, Turkey. Paléorient 22:3149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahn, E. 1948. Contribution à l'étude géologique et géomorphologique des lacs de la Turquie. Maden Tetkik ve Arama Enstitüsü Yaynlarndan Seri B, no. 12:1178 (in Turkish and French).Google Scholar
Louchart, A. 1997. Les oiseaux de Pléistocène inférieur de l'ancienne carrière de Dursunlu (Turquie). Unpublished dissertation (Mémoire de D.E.A. Paléontologie) University of Montpelier II.Google Scholar
LüTtig, G. & Steffens, P.. 1976. Paleogeographic atlas of Turkey from the Oligocene to the Pleistocene (explanatory notes). Paleogeographic atlas of Turkey 1:500,000. Hanover: Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe.Google Scholar
Mora, R. & De La Torre, I.. 2005. Percussion tools in Olduvai Beds I and II (Tanzania): implications for early human activities. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24: 179–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otte, M., Yalcnkaya, I., Kozlowski, J., Bar-yosef, O., LóPez Bayón, I. & Takiran, H.. 1998. Long-term technical evolution and human remains in the Anatolian Palaeolithic. Journal of Human Evolution 34: 413–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Palmqvist, P., MartíNez-Navarro, B., Toro, I., Patrocinio Espigares, M., Ros-Montoya, S., Torregrosa, V. & PéRez-Claros, J. A.. 2005. Réévaluation de la présence humaine au Pléistocène inférieur dans le Sud de l'Espagne. L'Anthropologie 109(3): 411–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roebroeks, W. & Dennell, R.. 2005. An Asian perspective on early human dispersal from Africa. Nature 438(22/29): 10991103.Google Scholar
Shea, J. 1999. Artifact abrasion, fluvial processes, and ‘living floors’ from the Early Paleolithic site of Ubeidiya. Geoarchaeology 14(2): 191207.3.0.CO;2-K>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slimak, L., Roche, H., Mouralis, D., Buitenhuis, H., Balkan-Atli, N., Binder, D., Kuzucuolu, K. & Grenet, M.. 2004. Kaletepe Deresi 3 (Turquie). Aspects archéologiques, chronologiques et paléontologiques d'une séquence Pléistocène en Anatolie centrale. Comptes Rendus Palevol de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 3: 411–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slimak, L., Kuhn, S., Roche, H., Mouralis, D., Buitenhuis, H., Balkan-Atli, N., Binder, N., Kuzucuolu, C. & Guillou, H.. 2008. Kaletepe Deresi 3 (Turkey): archaeological evidence for early human settlement in Central Anatolia. Journal of Human Evolution 54(1): 99111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tasķiran, H. 2008. Réflexions sur l'Acheuléen d'Anatolie. L'Anthropologie 112(1):140–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De La Torre, I. & Mora, R.. 2005. Unmodified lithic material at Olduvai Bed I: manuports or ecofacts? Journal of Archaeological Science 32(2):273–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ünay, E., Karabiyikolu, M., Kazanci, N. & Sarac, G., 1997. The Dursunlu open cast mine, in A.G Leroy, S. & Ravazzi, C. (ed.) Volume of abstracts and guidebook for the Inter-INQUA colloquium on Milankovitch and Plio-Pleistocene vegetation succession from 26 to 09 Ma, 29 March-1 April 1997, Ankara, Turkey: 6974. Ankara.Google Scholar
Vekua, A., Lordkipanidze, D., Rightmire, G. P., Agusti, J., Ferring, R., Maisuradze, G., Mouskhelishvili, A.Nioradze, M., Ponce De Leon, M., Tappen, M., Tvalchrelidze, M. & Zollikofer, Christoph. 2002. A new skull of early Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Science 297:85–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Villa, P. 2001. Early Italy and the colonization of Western Europe, in Bar-Yosef, O. & Straus, L. (ed.) Out of Africa in the Pleistocene (Quaternary International 75 special issue): 113–30. Oxford: Pergammon Press.Google Scholar
Yalcnkaya, I., Otte, M., Bar-Yosef, O., Kozlowski, J., Leotard, M., Takiran, H.. 1992. Karain 1991: recherches paléolithiques en Turquie du sud. Paléorient 18/2: 109–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar