World Atlas Core Records · Evolution

Olorgesailie Basin

c. 1.2 million-300,000 years ago · Kenya

A long archaeological sequence records environmental change, handaxe traditions and later technological innovation.

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AI-generated evidence-guided visualization related to Olorgesailie Basin, c. 1.2 million-300,000 years ago. — AI-generated visualization based on the cited record and period context. It is not documentary evidence or an authenticated reconstruction of a single event.

How the setting appeared

Open East African basin landscapes shifted between grassland and lakeshore conditions, drawing animals and human groups to water and raw stone.

Agent citation CIT-CORE-OLORGESAILIECIT-CORE001-OLORGESAILIE-SCIENCE Setting and material context · 2 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812

How people lived

Groups moved through variable habitats rather than occupying a built town.

Agent citation CIT-CORE-OLORGESAILIECIT-CORE001-OLORGESAILIE-SCIENCE Lifeways and community · 2 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812

How people worked

Large cutting tools were made for much of the sequence; later people used smaller prepared tools, pigments and distant stone.

Agent citation CIT-CORE-OLORGESAILIECIT-CORE001-OLORGESAILIE-SCIENCE Work, tools and exchange · 2 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812

Belief, ritual and worship

Beliefs cannot be securely reconstructed from the surviving evidence.

Agent citation CIT-CORE-OLORGESAILIECIT-CORE001-OLORGESAILIE-SCIENCE Belief, ritual and evidence limits · 2 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812

World-atlas stage: Early Homo
Region: Africa · Kenya
Languages and scripts: Not named in this record
Important people: No individual is centered in this record
Events and changes: Acheulean handaxe-making occupations are documented from c. 1.2 million to 500,000 years ago.; Middle Stone Age technologies, pigment use, and long-distance obsidian transport appear by c. 320,000 years ago.
Evidence confidence (generic fallback): No record-specific confidence statement is registered. This generic fallback identifies a metadata gap; it is not an evidence assessment.

Agent citation CIT-CORE-OLORGESAILIECIT-CORE001-OLORGESAILIE-SCIENCE Dates, place, language, people and events; missing confidence metadata disclosed · 2 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812

Historical geography

A dated anchor, not an exact border

The local map uses modern coastlines only for orientation. The marker identifies this record's geographic anchor, not the full reach of a community or polity.

Map geometry loads only when requested. Modern outlines are orientation only; historical geography and identities changed through time.

Agent citation CIT-CORE-OLORGESAILIECIT-CORE001-OLORGESAILIE-SCIENCE Historical-geography anchor and stated limits · 2 registered source URLs · registration is not semantic proof · audit HEM-AUDIT-20260812

Evidence register

Guides used for this record

Each registered source ID is paired with its institutional URL for independent checking. Source count is transparent, and duplicate URLs count only once.

CIT-CORE-OLORGESAILIE

Olorgesailie Basin: record evidence guide

https://humanorigins.si.edu/research/east-african-research-projects/olorgesailie-kenya

humanorigins.si.edu

CIT-CORE001-OLORGESAILIE-SCIENCE

Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aao2646

Science

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