Stone tools and conceptual structure

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 202-203
Author(s):  
James Steele
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Premotor Area ◽  
Conceptual Structures

AbstractUnderstanding how conceptual structures inform stone tool production and use would help us resolve the issue of a pongid-hominid dichotomy in brain organisation and cognitive ability. Evidence from ideational apraxia suggests that the planning of linguistic and manipulative behaviours is not colocalized in homologous circuits. An alternative account in terms of the evolutionary expansion of the whole prefrontal-premotor area may be more plausible.

Experimental and Archaeological Verification of an Index of Retouch for Hafted Bifaces

2006 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Andrefsky
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Data Set ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Projectile Points

The relative amount of retouch on stone tools is central to many archaeological studies linking stone tool assemblages to broader issues of human social and economic land-use strategies. Unfortunately, most retouch measures deal with flake and blade tools and few (if any) have been developed for hafted bifaces and projectile points. This paper introduces a new index for measuring and comparing amount of retouch on hafted bifaces and projectile points that can be applied regardless of size or typological variance. The retouch index is assessed initially with an experimental data set of hafted bifaces that were dulled and resharpened on five occasions. The retouch index is then applied to a hafted biface assemblage made from tool stone that has been sourced by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). Results of both assessments show that the hafted biface retouch index (HRI) is effective for determining the amount of retouch and the degree to which the hafted bifaces have been curated.

scholarly journals Habitual Stone-Tool Aided Extractive Foraging in White-Faced Capuchins, Cebus Capucinus

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan J Barrett ◽  
Claudio M Monteza-moreno ◽  
Tamara DOGANDŽIĆ ◽  
Nicolas Zwyns ◽  
Alicia IBÁÑEZ ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
National Park ◽  
Resource Limitation ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Cebus Capucinus ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Extractive Foraging ◽  
First Case ◽  
One Year

ABSTRACTHabitual reliance on tool use is a marked behavioral difference between wild robust (genus Sapajus) and gracile (genus Cebus) capuchin monkeys. Despite being well studied and having a rich repertoire of social and extractive foraging traditions, Cebus sp have rarely been observed engaging in tool use and have never been reported to use stone tools. In contrast, habitual tool use and stone-tool use by Sapajus is widespread. We discuss factors which might explain these differences in patterns of tool use between Cebus and Sapajus. We then report the first case of habitual stone-tool use in a gracile capuchin: a population of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) in Coiba National Park, Panama who habitually rely on hammerstone and anvil tool use to access structurally protected food items in coastal areas including Terminalia catappa seeds, hermit crabs, marine snails, terrestrial crabs, and other items. This behavior has persisted on one island in Coiba National Park since at least 2004. From one year of camera trapping, we found that stone tool use is strongly male-biased. Of the 205 unique camera-trap-days where tool use was recorded, adult females were never observed to use stone-tools, although they were frequently recorded at the sites and engaged in scrounging behavior. Stone-tool use occurs year-round in this population, and over half of all identifiable individuals were observed participating. At the most active tool use site, 83.2% of days where capuchins were sighted corresponded with tool use. Capuchins inhabiting the Coiba archipelago are highly terrestrial, under decreased predation pressure and potentially experience resource limitation compared to mainland populations– three conditions considered important for the evolution of stone tool use. White-faced capuchin tool use in Coiba National Park thus offers unique opportunities to explore the ecological drivers and evolutionary underpinnings of stone tool use in a comparative within- and between-species context.

Neanderthal behaviour and stone tool function at the Middle Palaeolithic site of La Quina, France

Antiquity ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 78 (301) ◽  
pp. 547-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic

Neanderthal diet is explored by examining stone tools found at the site of La Quina for residues and microwear. The Neanderthal people are found to be using their scrapers for working plants and woods as well as meat.

Stone Tools

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
Old World ◽  
Material Culture Studies ◽  
History Of

The focus of this article is stone tools. The history of stone tool research is linked integrally to the history of archaeology and the study of the human past, and many of the early developments in archaeology were connected with the study of stone artefacts. The identification of stone tools as objects of prehistoric human manufacture was central to the development of nineteenth-century models of prehistoric change, and especially the Three Age system for Old World prehistory. This article draws on concepts derived from interdisciplinary material culture studies to consider the role of the artefact after being discarded. It suggests that it is impossible to understand the meaning or efficacy of stone tools without understanding their ‘afterlives’ following abandonment. This article aims to complement contemporary metrical studies of the identification of stone tools and the description of their production. A brief history of the stone tools is explained and this concludes the article.

The Stories Stones Tell of Language and Its Evolution

2019 ◽  
pp. 304-318
Author(s):  
Shelby S. Putt
Keyword(s):  
Language Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Relationship ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Motor Tasks ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Cognitive Operations ◽  
Pars Opercularis ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques

Language origins remain shrouded in mystery. With little remaining from our earliest ancestors, language evolution researchers have turned to stone tools to learn about ancestral language capacities, as discussed in this chapter. Because inferior frontal areas of the brain, once thought specific to language, are now known to participate during manual motor tasks as well, technological-origin hypotheses propose that tool-making was a potential cause or contributor to the evolution of language. Cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques to monitor regional brain activation patterns associated with tool-making processes are helping to investigate the potential evolutionary relationship between language and tool-making. These experiments have identified one area in the left dorsal pars opercularis portion of Broca’s area where language and stone tool-making functions rely on similar cognitive operations. A more general motor origin for language seems likely in other inferior frontal areas of the brain. Clearly, stone tools have stories to tell if we know how to listen.

Evolution of Cognitive Archaeology through Evolving Cognitive Systems

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Original Work ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Productive Research ◽  
Tool Technology

Tom Wynn’s original work that looked at the evolution of stone tool technology using Piaget’s developmental sequence was the beginning of productive research into the evolution of hominin and human cognition. In this chapter, I evaluate those beginnings and discusses recent attempts to provide a more satisfactory understanding of changes in stone tool technologies, including work by Philip Barnard and William McGrew, subsequent work by Tom Wynn, and my own work with various collaborators. It suggests that some of the previous understandings of cognitive evolution were shaped by the fact that approaches to stone tools were largely determined in the nineteenth century. I propose some new ways of looking at stone tools and the sort of story that allows for more productive models of the evolution of human cognition.

scholarly journals Habitual stone-tool-aided extractive foraging in white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 181002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan J. Barrett ◽  
Claudio M. Monteza-Moreno ◽  
Tamara Dogandžić ◽  
Nicolas Zwyns ◽  
Alicia Ibáñez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
National Park ◽  
Resource Limitation ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Cebus Capucinus ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Extractive Foraging ◽  
Marine Snails ◽  
First Case

Habitual reliance on tool use is a marked behavioural difference between wild robust (genus Sapajus ) and gracile (genus Cebus ) capuchin monkeys. Despite being well studied and having a rich repertoire of social and extractive foraging traditions, Cebus sp. rarely use tools and have never been observed using stone tools. By contrast, habitual tool use by Sapajus is widespread. We review theory and discuss factors which might explain these differences in patterns of tool use between Cebus and Sapajus . We then report the first case of habitual stone tool use in a gracile capuchin: a population of white-faced capuchins ( Cebus capucinus imitator ) in Coiba National Park, Panama who habitually rely on hammerstone and anvil tool use to access structurally protected food items in coastal areas including Terminalia catappa seeds, hermit crabs, marine snails, terrestrial crabs and other items. This behaviour has persisted on one island in Coiba National Park since at least 2004. From 1 year of camera trapping, we found that stone tool use is strongly male-biased. Of the 205 camera trap days where tool use was recorded, adult females were never observed to use stone tools, although they were frequently recorded at the sites and engaged in scrounging behaviour. Stone tool use occurs year-round in this population; over half of all identifiable individuals were observed participating. At the most active tool use site, 83.2% of days where capuchins were sighted corresponded with tool use. Capuchins inhabiting the Coiba archipelago are highly terrestrial, under decreased predation pressure and potentially experience resource limitation compared to mainland populations—three conditions considered important for the evolution of stone tool use. White-faced capuchin tool use in Coiba National Park thus offers unique opportunities to explore the ecological drivers and evolutionary underpinnings of stone tool use in a comparative within- and between-species context.

Levallois

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Chazan
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
General Level ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Core Technology ◽  
Artifact Analysis ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

Levallois refers to a way of making stone tools that is a significant component of the technological adaptations of both Neanderthals and early modern humans. Although distinctive Levallois artifacts were identified already in the 19th century, a consensus on the definition of the Levallois and clear criteria for distinguishing Levallois from non-Levallois artifacts remain elusive. At a general level, Levallois is one variant on prepared core technology. In a prepared core approach to stone tool manufacture, the worked material (the core) is configured and maintained to allow for the production of detached pieces (flakes) whose morphology is constrained by the production process. The difficulty for archaeologists is that Levallois refers to a particular process of manufacture rather than a discrete finality. The study of Levallois exposes limitations of typological approaches to artifact analysis and forces a consideration of the challenges in creating a solid empirical basis for characterizing technological processes.

scholarly journals PETROLOGY AND PROVENANCE OF THE NATURAL STONE TOOLS FROM Al-DALMAJ ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE, MESOPOTAMIAN PLAIN, IRAQ

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-251
Author(s):  
Aqeel A. Al- Zubaidi ◽  
Varoujan Sissakian ◽  
Hassan K. Jassim
Keyword(s):  
Microscopic Analysis ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Alluvial Plain ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Metamorphic Rocks ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
Floodplain Sediments

Many stone tools were found on a hill south of the Hor Al-Dalmaj which is located in the central part of the alluvial plain of Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The types of rocks from which the studied stone tools were made are not found in the alluvial plain, because it consists of friable sand, silt, and clay. All existing sediments were precipitated in riverine environments such as point bar, over bank, and floodplain sediments. The collected stone tools were described with a magnifying glass (10 x) and a polarized microscope after they were thin sectioned. Microscopic analysis showed that these stone tools are made of sedimentary, volcanic igneous and metamorphic rocks, such as: sandstones, limestones, chert, conglomerate, rhyolite, basalt, mica schist, and quartzite. The current studied stone tools were used by ancient humans as pestles, querns, scrapers, and knives. The present study showed that these tools were transported from outside the alluvial plain of Mesopotamia. A stone tool at the archaeological site of Al-Dalmaj indicates that there were some trade routes that connected this site with its surrounding; in addition to the economic, and that might occurred cultural exchanges during the Neolithic Period.

scholarly journals Operationalizing niche construction theory with stone tools

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radu Iovita ◽  
david braun ◽  
Matthew Douglass ◽  
Simon Holdaway ◽  
Sam C. Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Niche Construction Theory ◽  
Dual Inheritance Theory ◽  
Dual Inheritance

One of the greatest difficulties with evolutionary approaches in the study of stone tools (lithics) has been finding a mechanism for tying culture and biology in a way that preserves human agency and operates at scales that are visible in the archaeological record. The concept of niche construction, whereby organisms actively construct their environments and change the conditions for selection, could provide a solution to this problem. In this review, we evaluate the utility of niche construction theory (NCT) for stone tool archaeology. We apply NCT to lithics both as part of the ‘extended phenotype’ and as residuals or precipitates of other niche-constructing activities, suggesting ways in which archaeologists can employ niche construction feedbacks to generate testable hypotheses about stone tool use. Finally, we compare NCT to other prominent evolutionary approaches, such as human behavioral ecology and dual-inheritance theory, concluding that NCT has several advantages.

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