![]() In 1990, Ndesokia studied the archaeological composition of Olpiro and Ngaloba beds at Locality 16. Unfortunately, the reported stone tools assemblages were not fully studied. Instead, an abundance of scatters of artefacts associated with the Ngaloba beds was reported to exist in most of the site ( Hay, 1987). Consequently, the Laetoli beds were investigated by Harris and Leakey (Harris, 1979), but they found no traces of tools or foreign materials predating the Oldowan. Given her knowledge of archeostratigraphy, she was of the opinion that because the Laetoli beds were older than Olduvai, the area might harbor stone tools predating the Early Stone Age deposit at Olduvai ( Leakey and Harris, 1987 Harrison, 2011). ![]() Mary Leakey’s 1974–75 field season was aimed at collecting fossil remains and to intensively search for stone tools ( Leakey and Harris, 1987 Clarke, 1978). The Leakeys being occupied with research at Olduvai, could not subject the area to the intensive investigation until 1974 when Mary Leakey was able to turn her attention to the area ( Leakey, 1984, 1979, 1978). In 1935, Louis and Marry Leakey visited Laetoli and collected some fossil vertebrates and terrestrial gastropods, which were sent to and housed at the Natural History Museum in London ( Leakey, 1987a Harrison, 2011 Leakey and Harris, 1987). The archeological significance of the Laetoli area was first recorded in 1938–39 by Kohl Larsen, who collected and reported bifacial implements and hominin fossil remains ( Kohl-Larsen, 1943). In addition to the hominin and animal footprints, the area has yielded several hominid fossil remains and stone tools ( Harrison, 2011, 2002, 1997, 1981 Harris, 1985 Magori and Day, 1983 Su and White, 2015 White, 1980). The hominid footprint, discovered by the late Mary Leakey in the 1970s, subsequent to a recent discovery by one of the authors, is unique and the oldest evidence for early human bipedal locomotion dating to 3.6 Mya ( Masao et al., 2016 Leakey, 1984, 1987a, 1987b, 1987c Leakey and Hay, 1979 Leakey et al., 1978 Drake and Curtis, 1987). Laetoli is a well-known palaeontological locality in northern Tanzania whose outstanding record includes not only the earliest hominid footprints in the world, but also offers evidence of human cultural and biological evolution.
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