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Definition of olduvai gorge in English English dictionary
- Archaeological site in the eastern Serengeti Plains, northern Tanzania. It is a steep-sided ravine about 30 mi (48 km) long and 295 ft (90 m) deep. Deposits exposed in the sides of the gorge cover a time span from 2,100,000 to 15,000 years ago and have yielded the remains of more than 50 hominids as well as the most complete sequence of stone-tool industries. The site first came to public notice when Louis Leakey (see Leakey family), after nearly 30 years of work, uncovered the remains of the first specimens of Australopithecus found outside southern Africa. Remains of Homo habilis and H. erectus have since been found. See also stone-tool industry; Oldowan industry
- a gorge in northeastern Tanzania where anthropologists have found some of the earliest human remains