Under the direction of Dr. Stanley Ambrose, Mr. Michael Noll will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will analyze stone tools recovered from the archaeological site of Olorgesailie which is located in the southern Kenya Rift Valley. The site spans a period of from ca. 900,000 to 600,000 years ago and the large and well excavated samples of archaeological materials are representative of the Acheulean culture of Homo erectus. Dr. Glynn Isaac, the first archaeologist to conduct systematic research at Olorgesailie noted that that the assemblages recovered from different areas of the site varied significantly from each other but that they displayed no patterned change over either space or time. The variation seemed to be random with no discernible cause and reflected, therefore, patterns of thought uncharacteristic of modern humans. Mr. Noll will re-evaluate this hypothesis. He notes, as did Dr. Isaac, that the stone tools are fashioned from a wide variety of raw materials, some more amenable to flaking than others and he believes that changing availability of these materials over time and the physical constraints of the stones themselves may, to a large extent, explain the variation observed. To conduct this work, Mr. Noll will first locate raw material sites and determine the time intervals when they were geologically exposed. He will then conduct a series of flaking experiments and engineering analyses to elucidate flaking properties. In particular he wishes to learn whether some types of materials are more easily fashioned into tools than others. Finally he will examine the archaeological assemblages and attempt to explain observed variation in light of these factors. Archaeologists wish to understand how hominid behavior changed and developed over time. While many Acheulean period sites have been excavated, and while it is evident that these people acted differently than their modern day counterparts, it has proven very difficult to gain insight into their thought processes. Because Acheulean lithics are widespread across the Old World, they provide the best source of data for such a study and Mr. Noll has developed a technique which hopefully will accomplish this goal. The results of his work will be of interest to many anthropologists. The project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.
