Stone Tools, Style, and Social Identity: an Evolutionary Perspective on the Archaeological Record

This essay introduces a special issue focused on 4E cognition (cognition as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended) in the Lower Palaeolithic. In it, we review the typological and representational cognitive approaches that have dominated the past 50 years of paleoanthropology. These have assumed that all representations and computations take place only inside the head, which implies that the archaeological record can only be an “external” product or the behavioral trace of “internal” representational and computational processes. In comparison, the 4E approach helps us to overcome this dualist representational logic, allowing us to engage directly with the archaeological record as an integral part of the thinking process, and thus ground a more parsimonious cognitive archaeology. It also treats stone tools, the primary vestiges of hominin thinking, as active participants in mental life. The 4E approach offers a better grounding for understanding hominin technical expertise, a crucially important component of hominin cognitive evolution.

Download Full-text

Living Lithics: ethnoarchaeology in Highland Papua New Guinea

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00092619 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 77 (297) ◽

pp. 555-566 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Paul Sillitoe ◽

Karen Hardy

Keyword(s):

Papua New Guinea ◽

Direct Evidence ◽

New Guinea ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Ethnographic Research ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Joint Work ◽

Men And Women

This paper represents the joint work of two very different specialists. The fieldwork was undertaken by Sillitoe as part of his ethnographic research in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the interpretative work was done by an archaeologist, Hardy. The work described here represents some of the last direct evidence from users of stone tools. It shows how procurement, manufacture, use, storage and the relative roles of men and women in the process was dependant on what other materials were available – material often sadly elusive in the archaeological record. Discard did not reflect use, but was often guided by the thoughtful wish to avoid cut feet.

Download Full-text

Elongation as a factor in artefacts of humans and other animals: an Acheulean example in comparative context

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2013.0114 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 368 (1630) ◽

pp. 20130114 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

J. A. J. Gowlett

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Capuchin Monkeys ◽

Middle Palaeolithic ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Upper Palaeolithic ◽

Satisfactory Outcome ◽

New Caledonian Crows ◽

Selection For ◽

Individual Variables

Elongation is a commonly found feature in artefacts made and used by humans and other animals and can be analysed in comparative study. Whether made for use in hand or beak, the artefacts have some common properties of length, breadth, thickness and balance point, and elongation can be studied as a factor relating to construction or use of a long axis. In human artefacts, elongation can be traced through the archaeological record, for example in stone blades of the Upper Palaeolithic (traditionally regarded as more sophisticated than earlier artefacts), and in earlier blades of the Middle Palaeolithic. It is now recognized that elongation extends to earlier Palaeolithic artefacts, being found in the repertoire of both Neanderthals and more archaic humans. Artefacts used by non-human animals, including chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys and New Caledonian crows show selection for diameter and length, and consistent interventions of modification. Both chimpanzees and capuchins trim side branches from stems, and appropriate lengths of stave are selected or cut. In human artefacts, occasional organic finds show elongation back to about 0.5 million years. A record of elongation achieved in stone tools survives to at least 1.75 Ma (million years ago) in the Acheulean tradition. Throughout this tradition, some Acheulean handaxes are highly elongated, usually found with others that are less elongated. Finds from the million-year-old site of Kilombe and Kenya are given as an example. These findings argue that the elongation need not be integral to a design, but that artefacts may be the outcome of adjustments to individual variables. Such individual adjustments are seen in animal artefacts. In the case of a handaxe, the maker must balance the adjustments to achieve a satisfactory outcome in the artefact as a whole. It is argued that the need to make decisions about individual variables within multivariate objects provides an essential continuity across artefacts made by different species.

Download Full-text

Operationalizing niche construction theory with stone tools

10.31235/osf.io/yk5cd ◽

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.

Download Full-text

A sexual division of labour at the start of agriculture? A multi-proxy comparison through grave good stone tool technological and use-wear analysis

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0249130 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. e0249130

Author(s):

Alba Masclans ◽

Caroline Hamon ◽

Christian Jeunesse ◽

Penny Bickle

Keyword(s):

Interpersonal Violence ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Division Of Labour ◽

Stone Tool ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Sexual Division ◽

Wear Analysis ◽

Use Wear ◽

Grave Good ◽

East West

This work demonstrates the importance of integrating sexual division of labour into the research of the transition to the Neolithic and its social implications. During the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, when migration led to the dispersal of domesticated plants and animals, novel tasks and tools, appear in the archaeological record. By examining the use-wear traces from over 400 stone tools from funerary contexts of the earliest Neolithic in central Europe we provide insights into what tasks could have been carried out by women and men. The results of this analysis are then examined for statistically significant correlations with the osteological, isotopic and other grave good data, informing on sexed-based differences in diet, mobility and symbolism. Our data demonstrate males were buried with stone tools used for woodwork, and butchery, hunting or interpersonal violence, while women with those for the working of animal skins, expanding the range of tasks known to have been carried out. The results also show variation along an east-west cline from Slovakia to eastern France, suggesting that the sexual division of labour (or at least its representation in death) changed as farming spread westwards.

Download Full-text

Broken Bones, Bone Expediency Tools, and Bone Pseudotools: Lessons from the Blast Zone around Mount St. Helens, Washington

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/280021 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 315-333 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

R. Lee Lyman

Keyword(s):

Stone Tools ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Bone Tools ◽

Broken Bones ◽

Patterns Of Use ◽

Use Wear ◽

Blast Zone ◽

Mount St Helens ◽

The Way

Criteria for recognizing technological and use-wear modifications have been used to identify “bone expediency tools” by archaeologists who analyze bone assemblages recovered from sites where butchering of animals took place. These criteria are here reviewed and then used to identify bone pseudotools in cervid bone assemblages completely formed by non-human processes and recovered from the blast zone around the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington. The procedures for identifying stone tools and bone tools share similar strengths and weaknesses that seem to originate with the logical criteria used for recognizing modifications to the objects under study. Less equivocal inferential identifications of bone objects as “tools” can be facilitated by turning to the problem of constructing testable hypotheses about the way patterns of use-wear modifications to bone tools can be expected to appear in the archaeological record.

Download Full-text

Hafting and Retooling: Effects on the Archaeological Record

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/280285 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 47 (4) ◽

pp. 798-809 ◽

Cited By ~ 145

Author(s):

Lawrence H. Keeley

Keyword(s):

Spatial Analysis ◽

Social Group ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Archaeological Evidence ◽

Distributional Effects ◽

Methods Of Analysis

Hafting has long been recognized by archaeologists as a process affecting stone tools. However, the effects of this process on the archaeological record have been virtually ignored. Hafting affects the final typological form of tools because hafted tools are usually more extensively and intensively worked than their unhafted counterparts. Ethnoarchaeological and some recent archaeological evidence indicates that functionally equivalent but typologically diverse hafted and unhafted tools may be in use at the same site. Because hafted tools are disposed of as a consequence of the “retooling” of hafts, the context of their disposal may not be equivalent to the context of their use. But, unhafted tools appear to be disposed of more often at or near the focus of use. Indifference to the hafted/unhafted distinction then may seriously distort inferences based upon intrasite spatial analysis. It is also argued that hafting is a strategy that will be differentially employed by any social group at different sites according to circumstances, thereby contributing to interassemblage variability. Finally, some methods of analysis are suggested that will allow the typological and distributional effects of hafting and retooling to be taken into account by lithic analysts.

Download Full-text

Bigger is Better: Comments on Kuhn's Formal Approach to Mobile Tool Kits

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/281842 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 581-590 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Toby A. Morrow

Keyword(s):

Stone Tools ◽

Transport Cost ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Potential Utility ◽

Mass Ratio ◽

Formal Approach ◽

Erroneous Conclusion ◽

Current Thinking ◽

Alternative Formula ◽

Lithic Tools

Kuhn (1994) argues that small lithic tools provide an optimal means of reducing the weight of mobile tool kits while maximizing potential utility. This assertion contradicts much of the current thinking about mobility and the organization of lithic technology and is at odds with the archaeological record. A flaw in Kuhn's equation for calculating the utility/mass ratio of retouched tools leads him to this erroneous conclusion. Problems with Kuhn's utility/mass ratio equation are described and an alternative formula is offered. The corrected formula indicates that larger stone tools maximize utility at a lower transport cost. Experimental evidence for additional advantages of larger stone tools is also provided.

Download Full-text

Manual restrictions on Palaeolithic technological behaviours

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.5399 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e5399 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Alastair J.M. Key ◽

Christopher J. Dunmore

Keyword(s):

Temporal Trends ◽

Stone Tool ◽

Archaeological Record ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Pressure Data ◽

Soft Or ◽

Significant Relationships ◽

Manual Pressure ◽

Technological Developments ◽

Production Techniques

The causes of technological innovation in the Palaeolithic archaeological record are central to understanding Plio-Pleistocene hominin behaviour and temporal trends in artefact variation. Palaeolithic archaeologists frequently investigate the Oldowan-Acheulean transition and technological developments during the subsequent million years of the Acheulean technocomplex. Here, we approach the question of why innovative stone tool production techniques occur in the Lower Palaeolithic archaeological record from an experimental biomechanical and evolutionary perspective. Nine experienced flintknappers reproduced Oldowan flake tools, ‘early Acheulean’ handaxes, and ‘late Acheulean’ handaxes while pressure data were collected from their non-dominant (core-holding) hands. For each flake removal or platform preparation event performed, the percussor used, the stage of reduction, the core securing technique utilised, and the relative success of flake removals were recorded. Results indicate that more heavily reduced, intensively shaped handaxes with greater volumetric controls do not necessarily require significantly greater manual pressure than Oldowan flake tools or earlier ‘rougher’ handaxe forms. Platform preparation events do, however, require significantly greater pressure relative to either soft or hard hammer flake detachments. No significant relationships were identified between flaking success and pressure variation. Our results suggest that the preparation of flake platforms, a technological behaviour associated with the production of late Acheulean handaxes, could plausibly have been restricted prior to the emergence of more forceful precision-manipulative capabilities than those required for earlier lithic technologies.

Download Full-text