Singular or plural Oldowan tool-makers during the Lower Pleistocene in eastern Africa?

Over the last twenty-five years, the study of hominin evolution and archaeological assemblages has become increasingly complex, due to new archaeological and paleoanthropological discoveries, and the advent of innovative analytical approaches. Findings from paleontological and archaeological sites and localities along the East African Rift Valley reveal substantial cultural and biological diversity during the Lower Pleistocene. From this context emerge critical questions about the relationships between the different material cultures and hominins. To explore these questions, I propose a cross-disciplinary approach that examines both the skeletal anatomy of hominins and the associations between hominins and archaeological assemblages in Lower Pleistocene sites and localities in East Africa. Anatomical evidence suggests that the dexterity required to produce Oldowan assemblages was likely not exclusive to the genus Homo. Moreover, multiple hominin species appear to have been involved in tool-making, particularly within Oldowan assemblages. These assemblages have been associated with Homo sp. and Homo habilis (n = 10), Homo erectus/ergaster (n = 6), and with a significant number, of Paranthropus remains (n = 8). Given this evidence, Paranthropus should now be recognized as a stone tool-maker alongside early Homo.