Lake Ndutu is a seasonal soda lake in the Serengeti, adjacent to Lake Masek and the Main Gorge at Olduvai.
Lake Ndutu is a seasonal soda lake in the Serengeti, adjacent to Lake Masek and the Main Gorge at Olduvai. During September and October 1973, Amini Aza Mturi and the Tanzanian Department of Antiquities conducted an excavation of the exposed flats of the western shoreline of Lake Ndutu. The excavation site was approximately 140 m2 (1,500 sq ft) in area and had considerable amounts of lithic and faunal material on the surface; the Ndutu cranium was found on the first occupational floor of the site.Amini Aza Mturi’s excavation found 270 lithic and faunal materials in the first occupational floor of the excavation site, of which 20 were definitive tools. The tools were mainly spheroids and hammerstones, with six flakes (three regular flakes, two triangular, one rectangular).Amini Aza Mturi noticed the absence of Acheulean tools during his excavation, despite the cranial features of the skull being associated with the Acheulean industry. However, hand axes were later discovered d...