History of Tanzania - Prehistory

Prehistory

Tanzania is home to some of the oldest human settlements unearthed by archaeologists, including stone tools and fossils of hominids found in and around Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, an area often referred to as "The Cradle of Mankind". Acheulian stone tools were found there by Louis Leakey in 1931, after he had correctly identified the rocks brought back by Hans Reck to Germany from his 1913 Olduvai expedition as stone tools. More importantly in 1931 Louis Leakey discovered older more primitive stone tools in Olduvai Gorge—these were the first examples of the oldest human technology ever discovered in Africa, subsequently known throughout the world as Oldowan after Olduvai Gorge. The first hominid skull in Olduvai Gorge was discovered by Mary Leakey in 1959, and named Zinj or Nutcracker Man, the first example of Paranthropus boisei, and is thought to be over 1.8 million years old. Other finds including Homo Habilis fossils were subsequently made. At nearby Laetoli the oldest known hominid footprints, the Laetoli footprints, were discovered by Mary Leakey in 1978, and estimated to be about 3.6 million years old and probably made by Australopithecus afarensis. The oldest hominid fossils ever discovered in Tanzania also come from Laetoli and are the 3.6 to 3.8 million year old remains of Australopithecus afarensis—Louis Leakey had found what he thought was a baboon tooth at Laetoli in 1935 (which was not identified as afarensis until 1979), a fragment of hominid jaw with three teeth was found there by Kohl-Larsen in 1938–39, and in 1974–75 Mary Leakey recovered 42 teeth and several jawbones from the site.

Reaching back about 10,000 years, Tanzania is believed to have been populated by hunter-gatherer communities, probably Khoisan speaking people. Between three and six thousand years ago, they were joined by Cushitic-speaking people who came from the north, into which the Khoisan peoples were slowly absorbed. Cushitic peoples introduced basic techniques of agriculture, food production, and later, cattle farming.

About 2000 years ago, Bantu-speaking people began to arrive from western Africa in a series of migrations. These groups brought and developed ironworking skills and new ideas of social and political organization. They absorbed many of the Cushitic peoples who had preceded them, as well as most of the remaining Khoisan-speaking inhabitants. Later, Nilotic pastoralists arrived, and continued to immigrate into the area through to the 18th century.

One of Tanzania's most important archeological sites is Engaruka in the Great Rift Valley which includes an irrigation and cultivation system.