Editing Lower Paleolithic (section)

{{Short description|Earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic}}
[[Image:Biface Cintegabelle MHNT PRE 2009.0.201.1 V2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Four views of an Acheulean handaxe]]
{{Paleolithic|lower}}
<mapframe text="Selected Lower Paleolithic sites from the [https://www.roceeh.uni-tuebingen.de/roadweb ROAD database] (CC BY-SA 4.0 ROCEEH)" width="400", height="300">
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{{Human history and prehistory}}
The '''Lower Paleolithic''' (or '''Lower Palaeolithic''') is the earliest subdivision of the [[Paleolithic]] or Old [[Stone Age]]. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the [[Lomekwi|first evidence]] for [[stone tool]] production and use by [[Hominini|hominin]]s appears in the current [[archaeological record]],<ref name="Harmand 2015">{{cite journal|last1=Harmand|first1=Sonia|title=3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya|journal=Nature|date=21 May 2015|volume=521|issue=7552|pages=310–315|doi=10.1038/nature14464|display-authors=etal|pmid=25993961|url=https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8697F75/download|bibcode=2015Natur.521..310H|s2cid=1207285}}</ref> until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the [[Oldowan]] ("mode 1") and [[Acheulean]] ("mode 2") [[Lithic technology|lithics]] industries.

In African archaeology, the time period roughly corresponds to the '''Early Stone Age''', the earliest finds dating back to 3.3 million years ago, with [[Lomekwi]]an stone tool technology, spanning Mode 1 stone tool technology, which begins roughly 2.6 million years ago and ends between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago, with Mode 2 technology.<ref name="Harmand 2015" /><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/tools/early-tools|title = Early Stone Age Tools|date = 2014-09-29|access-date = 2014-09-30|website = What does it mean to be human?|publisher = Smithsonian Institution}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to Most Recent Foragers|url = https://archive.org/details/firstafricansafr00barh|url-access = limited|last1 = Barham|first1 = Lawrence|publisher = Cambridge|year = 2008|isbn = 978-0-521-61265-4|location = New York|pages = [https://archive.org/details/firstafricansafr00barh/page/n37 16]|last2 = Mitchell|first2 = Peter}}</ref>

The [[Middle Paleolithic]] followed the Lower Paleolithic and recorded the appearance of the more advanced [[Prepared-core technique|prepared-core]] tool-making technologies such as the [[Mousterian]]. Whether the earliest [[control of fire]] by hominins dates to the Lower or to the Middle Paleolithic remains an open question.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/lower-paleolithic |title=Lower Paleolithic |publisher=Dictionary com |access-date=December 30, 2016 |archive-date=July 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716190953/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/lower-paleolithic |url-status=dead }}</ref>