Olorgesailie
Sign in to saveOlorgesailie is a geological formation in East Africa, on the floor of the Eastern Rift Valley in southern Kenya, southwest of Nairobi along the road to Lake Magadi. It contains a group of Lower Paleolithic archaeological sites. Olorgesailie is noted for the large number of Acheulean hand axes discovered there that are associated with animal butchering. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the finds are internationally significant for archaeology, palaeontology, and geology.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Olorgesailiesite1993(2).jpg
Show 1 more fact
- Commons category
- Olorgesailie
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Article
6 sectionsContents
- History
- Finds
- Geology
- Olorgesailie drilling project
- References
- Bibliography
Olorgesailie is a geological formation in East Africa, on the floor of the Eastern Rift Valley in southern Kenya, southwest of Nairobi along the road to Lake Magadi. It contains a group of Lower Paleolithic archaeological sites. Olorgesailie is noted for the large number of Acheulean hand axes discovered there that are associated with animal butchering. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the finds are internationally significant for archaeology, palaeontology, and geology.
==History== left|thumb|Hand axes The artifacts were first discovered by the British geologist John Walter Gregory in 1919, but it was not until 1943 that excavation began in earnest under the direction of Mary and Louis Leakey, with the assistance of paroled Italian prisoners of war. Work continued there until 1947. Glynn Isaac took up the excavation in the 1960s for his dissertation. In the 1980s, research was continued by Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution in conjunction with the National Museums of Kenya.
On the map
2 mapped locations