Prehistory

Contained within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area are some notable prehistoric sites which can be easily visited in a day’s drive from Rhino Lodge. The best-known is Olduvai Gorge, followed by Laetoli.

The Laetoli Footprints

In the western part of the NCA lie the Laetoli beds where hominid footprints are preserved in volcanic rock 3.6 million years old and represent some of the earliest signs of mankind in the world. Muddy ash was deposited by volcanic eruptions and hardened by the sun. There are three separate tracks made by a small-brained, upright-walking, early hominid known as Australopithecus afarensis, a creature about 1.2 to 1.4 metres high. The feet are little different from our own and show that these creatures stood and walked upright with a human-like stride a million years before the invention of stone tools. The footprints themselves are covered up to keep them protected from the elements, but there is a small museum on the site.

Olduvai Gorge

More advanced descendants of Laetoli’s hominids were found about 35 kms to the north-east, buried in layers 100 metres deep at Olduvai Gorge. This is one of the most important sites in the world for the study of human origins and evolution, with human and animal remains dating back as far as 3.5 million years ago. The gorge is named after oldupaai, the Maasai word for the wild sisal plant.

Millions of years ago, the site consisted of a large lake, the shores of which were covered with successive deposits of volcanic ash. Some 500,000 years ago seismic forces diverted a nearby stream, which began to cut down into the sediments, revealing the seven main layers in the walls of the gorge. Based on fossil evidence found at the Olduvai Gorge, it is believed that various hominid species have been occupying the crater continuously for the past three million years of Ngorongoro's existence. Native hunter-gatherers, who initially lived in the vicinity, were replaced by pastoralists a few thousand years ago.

Australopithecus boisei (Nutcracker Man 1.75 million years ago)