Normativity refers to the human conformity to the behavioural modes of a society, which underpins... more Normativity refers to the human conformity to the behavioural modes of a society, which underpins diverse aspects of our behaviour, including symbolism, co-operation, and morality. It has its developmental basis in overimitation, the uniquely human bias towards replicating the intentional actions of a demonstrator, regardless of their causal relevance. Using evidence from stone tool technology, we suggest that both overimitation and normativity have their evolutionary origins in the Acheulean archaeological period. Overimitation can be seen in arbitrary biases in Acheulean tool-making; while normativity is evident in geographically and temporally restricted sub-types of Acheulean tools, which do not appear to be functional specializations. We argue that normativity would have conferred particular advantages for the Acheulean niche of co-operative hunting of mega-herbivores and living in large groups, through co-ordinating hunting strategies, promoting equitable sharing, and enforcing the punishment of free-riders.
Culture History and Convergent Evolution: Can we detect Populations in Prehistory?, 2020
This chapter examines the issue of whether the
Acheulean is a genuine homologous cultural entity,... more This chapter examines the issue of whether the Acheulean is a genuine homologous cultural entity, descended via a chain of social reproduction from a common ‘ancestor’, or whether it was a technological phase that was repeatedly independently invented. An anecdotal experiment is used to determine the relative ease of inventing biface knapping from scratch, versus transmitting it with one bout of social observation. Handaxe and cleaver elongation is compared between East African and Indian Acheulean assemblages to determine if there are systematic differences that might reflect different lineages of social transmission. The age of the first appearance of the Acheulean in various parts of the world is modelled to determine if spread from a single source or independent inventions best fits the timing of its distribution. The issue of whether Pleistocene bifaces from East Asia are homologous with the Acheulean or were independently invented is examined by comparing the extent of bifacial shaping between East Asian and western Acheulean assemblages. The chapter concludes with the following contentions. Acheulean bifaces are hard to invent, or even emulate, but easy to imitate. Pleistocene East Asian bifaces are an example of parallelism; that is, not de novo independent invention, but invention from the same Oldowan substrate as the Acheulean. The western Acheulean is however a coherent cultural entity that seems to have spread from a single source region, and with regionally consistent variations suggesting it was maintained through social transmission
The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the
subsequent warming and sea-level r... more The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound implications for human behavior across much of the world. In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much of Wallacea.
Acheulean technology and landscape use at Dawadmi, central Arabia, 2018
Despite occupying a central geographic position, investigations of hominin populations in the Ara... more Despite occupying a central geographic position, investigations of hominin populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Lower Palaeolithic period are rare. The colonization of Eur-asia below 55 degrees latitude indicates the success of the genus Homo in the Early and Middle Pleistocene, but the extent to which these hominins were capable of innovative and novel behavioural adaptations to engage with mid-latitude environments is unclear. Here we describe new field investigations at the Saffaqah locality (206±76) near Dawadmi, in central Arabia that aim to establish how hominins adapted to this region. The site is located in the interior of Arabia over 500 km from both the Red Sea and the Gulf, and at the headwaters of two major extinct river systems that were likely used by Acheulean hominins to cross the Peninsula. Saffaqah is one of the largest Acheulean sites in Arabia with nearly a million artefacts estimated to occur on the surface, and it is also the first to yield stratified deposits containing abundant artefacts. It is situated in the unusual setting of a dense and well-preserved landscape of Acheulean localities, with sites and isolated artefacts occurring regularly for tens of kilometres in every direction. We describe both previous and recent excavations at Saffaqah and its large lithic assemblage. We analyse thousands of artefacts from excavated and surface contexts, including giant andesite cores and flakes, smaller cores and retouched artefacts, as well as handaxes and cleavers. Technological assessment of stratified lithics and those from systematic survey, enable the reconstruction of stone tool life histories. The Acheulean hominins at Dawadmi were strong and skilful, with their adaptation evidently successful for some time. However, these biface-makers were also technologically conservative, and used least-effort strategies of resource procurement and tool transport. Ultimately, central Arabia was depopulated, likely in the face of environmental deterioration in the form of increasing aridity.
African Middle Stone Age (MSA) populations used pigments, manufactured and wore personal ornament... more African Middle Stone Age (MSA) populations used pigments, manufactured and wore personal ornaments, made abstract engravings, and produced fully shaped bone tools. However, ongoing research across Africa reveals variability in the emergence of cultural innovations in the MSA and their subsequent development through the Later Stone Age (LSA). When present, it appears that cultural innovations manifest regional variability, suggestive of distinct cultural traditions. In eastern Africa, several Late Pleistocene sites have produced evidence for novel activities, but the chronologies of key behavioral innovations remain unclear. The 3 m deep, well-dated, Panga ya Saidi sequence in eastern Kenya, encompassing 19 layers covering a time span of 78 kyr beginning in late Marine Isotope Stage 5, is the only known African site recording the interplay between cultural and ecological diversity in a coastal forested environment. Excavations have yielded worked and incised bones, ostrich eggshell beads (OES), beads made from seashells, worked and engraved ocher pieces, fragments of coral, and a belemnite fossil. Here, we provide, for the first time, a detailed analysis of this material. This includes a taphonomic, archeozoological, technological, and functional study of bone artifacts; a technological and morphometric analysis of personal ornaments; and a technological and geochemical analysis of ocher pieces. The interpretation of the results stemming from the analysis of OES beads is guided by an ethnoarcheological perspective and field observations. We demonstrate that key cultural innovations on the eastern African coast are evident by 67 ka and exhibit remarkable diversity through the LSA and Iron Age. We suggest the cultural trajectories evident at Panga ya Saidi were shaped by both regional traditions and cultural/demic diffusion.
In this paper, we look at a situation of long-term continuity to understand the circumstances tha... more In this paper, we look at a situation of long-term continuity to understand the circumstances that mediate against behavioural change. Using newly excavated material from Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, we assess continuity in stone tool technology, as well as pigment and bead use over a span of 44,000 years. The sequence is divided into three occupation phases: a Pleistocene occupation from ~ 44,000 to 15,000 years ago, an early to middle Holocene occupation from ~ 10,000 to 5000 years ago and a Neolithic occupation from ~ 3800 years ago to the recent past. Across these three phases, there are distinct continuities in the way stone tools are made, and the use of red ochre and Oliva beads. We suggest that the unusually high relief topography of the Wallacean Archipelago ensured continuity in several parameters of potential behavioural change, including available environments , proximity to the sea and island size. Given the long-term continuity, the similarities with stone artefacts elsewhere in Wallacea and the early dates for human occupation in Wallacea from this excavation, we suggest that the stone tool technology documented here was introduced by an early dispersing population of Homo sapiens.
The Acheulean stone tools of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis are the longest enduring of a... more The Acheulean stone tools of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis are the longest enduring of all archaeological cultures, lasting for 1.5 million years. Three competing hypotheses have been proposed to explain this longevity: that Acheulean technology lies in a zone of latent, easy to invent solutions to problems that H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis would have encountered; that there was a genetic predisposition among H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis populations to make handaxes, and perhaps other stone tools characteristic of the Acheulean; or that high- fidelity social transmission was an integral part of the behavioural repertoire of H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis. In this chapter, the first two of these hypotheses are critiqued. Experimental and anecdotal evidence from modern stone knappers is reviewed to determine how knapping expertise is acquired. The chapter concludes with reference to archaeological evidence for social transmission in the Acheulean and a model of how knapping expertise is and was acquired.
Acheulean bifaces dominate the archaeological record for 1.5 million years. The meaning behind th... more Acheulean bifaces dominate the archaeological record for 1.5 million years. The meaning behind the often symmetrical forms of these tools is the topic of considerable debate, with explanations ranging from effectiveness as a cutting tool to sexual display. Some, however , question whether the symmetry seen in many Acheulean bifaces is intentional at all, with suggestions that it is merely the result of a bias in hominin perception or an inevitable consequence of bifacial flaking. In this paper we address the issue of intention in biface symmetry. First, we use transmission chain experiments designed to track symmetry trends in the replication of biface outlines. Secondly, we use archaeological data to assess the symmetry of Acheulean bifaces from British, East African and Indian assemblages in relation to reduction intensity; the degree of bifaciality; and the symmetry of four Middle Palaeolithic bifacial core assemblages. Thirdly, we look at specific examples of the reduction sequences that produced symmetrical Acheulean cleavers at the sites of Olorgesailie CL1-1, Isinya, Chirki, Morgaon and Bhimbetka. All three lines of evidence support the notion that symmetry was a deliberately imposed property of Acheulean bifaces and not an epiphenomenon of hominin visual perception or bifacial technology.
The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in hum... more The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in human technological, cultural, and cognitive evolution. However, the majority of research on this transition is currently focused on southern Africa due to a lack of long-term, stratified sites across much of the African continent. Here, we report a 78,000-year-long archeological record from Panga ya Saidi, a cave in the humid coastal forest of Kenya. Following a shift in toolkits ~67,000 years ago, novel symbolic and technological behaviors assemble in a non-unilinear manner. Against a backdrop of a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, localized innovations better characterize the Late Pleistocene of this part of East Africa than alternative emphases on dramatic revolutions or migrations.
Over the 1.5 million year duration of the Acheulean there is considerable variation in biface fin... more Over the 1.5 million year duration of the Acheulean there is considerable variation in biface finesse. It is not clear however, if there is an improvement in biface knapping ability over time, or if variation between sites is largely unrelated to their age. The diversity and duration of the East African Acheulean presents an opportunity to examine this issue. Variables that reflect difficult aspects of biface knapping but that which were likely important goals for Acheulean hominins, were measured in order to assess skill. These variables were refinement (thinness), edge straightness, and symmetry, and were compared across four East African Acheulean sites: Olduvai Gorge, Olorgesailie, Kariandusi, and Isinya. The influence of rock type, blank type, reduction intensity, aberrant scar terminations, and invasive flaking on these variables was assessed. Over relatively short timescales confounding factors, including ones that it was not possible to control for, tend to obscure any temporal signature in biface knapping skill. However over the vast timespan of the Acheulean at Olduvai Gorge, a temporal trend was indeed apparent. Possible factors influencing this trend include the invention of new knapping techniques, the addition of adolescence as a life history stage, and evolving hominin cognition.
A B S T R A C T Stone tool making, observed archaeologically from 3.3 million years ago, involves... more A B S T R A C T Stone tool making, observed archaeologically from 3.3 million years ago, involves complex problem solving and forethought, but the relative complexity of different Palaeolithic technologies remains unknown. Decision making in replicative knapping is here used to explore the degree of behavioural and cognitive complexity involved in five different types of stone tool manufacture (bipolar, discoidal, biface, Levallois and prismatic blade) that represent the evolution of core reduction strategies from the Oldowan through to the Upper Palaeolithic. While some hypothesise that each key transition was marked by an increase in cognitive complexity , such hypotheses remain untested assumptions. Determining the level of behavioural complexity involved in each of these core reduction strategies using problem-solution distance modelling offers a means of detecting significant increases in the level of human cognitive complexity displayed over time. To directly test for differences in complexity among knapping schema, replication experiments were conducted by two highly skilled knappers. Experiments were filmed and the duration of different stages in the sequence was annotated. Hierarchical diagrams were produced showing the organisation of the different actions involved in stone tool knapping. The results show a pattern of increasingly complex behaviour through the sequence of bipolar, dis-coidal, prismatic blade, biface, and Levallois knapping. Neanderthals and their contemporaries, Homo sapiens, employed knapping technologies exhibiting comparably high levels of complexity.
Several hundred Middle Palaeolithic (MP) archaeological sites have now been identified in the Ara... more Several hundred Middle Palaeolithic (MP) archaeological sites have now been identified in the Arabian Peninsula. However, the study of lithic raw material properties and related procurement behaviours is still in its infancy. Here we describe raw material procurement and early stage lithic reduction at MP sites in the Jubbah palaeolake basin, in the Nefud Desert, northern Saudi Arabia. We describe the sites identified during our surveys, and we use petrographic studies to demonstrate that MP assemblages were mostly produced from differing forms of ferru-ginous quartzite. These raw materials do not substantially vary in composition, although they are not identical in terms of factors such as grain size and the proportion of iron oxide. We then describe the lithic technology at these sites, with a particular focus on the largest assemblage identified, Jebel Katefeh-12 (JKF-12), which provides detailed information on lithic reduction at a quartzite source. Analyses from this site are then considered together with data from other MP sites in the Jubbah basin, where similar raw material was used. The results indicate that factors such as initial clast size/shape and reduction intensity play important roles in influencing aspects of morphological and technological variability. Our results suggest that incursions of MP populations into northern Arabia were probably temporally limited, as might be expected in a marginal and generally arid region. MP raw material procurement sites provide a highly visible signal of these ephemeral incursions, providing information on the ways that human populations adapted to the challenging conditions of the Saharo-Arabian arid belt.
The transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Palaeolithic represents a critical threshold in h... more The transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Palaeolithic represents a critical threshold in human evolution when archaic behaviour patterns gave way to the Levallois stone tool technology that characterizes later Pleistocene hominins including Homo neanderthalen-sis and early Homo sapiens. This article examines that transition through a comparative perspective on handaxes and cleavers (collectively referred to here as bifaces) from the site of Bhimbetka in central India. The Bhimbetka bifaces are compared to those from Patpara, another transitional assemblage in central India, as well as non-transitional Indian Acheulean assemblages. Bhimbetka and Patpara share unusually refined bifaces. While this refinement is attributed to invasive flaking at Patpara, at Bhimbetka it appears to be related to the ability to strike large thin flake blanks. These both have consequences for biface symmetry, with Patpara handaxes being particularly symmetrical in profile, while Bhimbetka cleavers are particularly symmetrical in section. Unlike Patpara, most of the Bhimbetka bifaces have not undergone resharpening. However, cleavers from the two sites do share unusually high rates of damage on their bits and the occasional use of cleavers as notches. It is argued that, while the transition at the two sites occurred independently, it was underpinned by the same cognitive pattern: an increased capacity for hierarchical organization.
Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave in the
Mafia Archipe... more Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave in the
Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania, to collect new bioarchaeological and material culture
data relating to the site’s occupation and the nature of early subsistence and longdistance
trade in the region. Our findings suggest that occupation of the cave began
during the Middle Iron Age (MIA, seventh to tenth centuries AD), as indicated by the
presence of local Early Tana Tradition (ETT)/Triangular Incised Ware (TIW) pottery
in the lowest layers above bedrock, as well as small quantities of imported ceramics
and glass beads also dating from the mid- to the late first millennium AD. Small
assemblages of faunal and botanical remains, including introduced African crops
(pearl millet, sorghum, baobab and possibly cowpea) were found in association with
these finds, indicating that these MIA communities practised a mixed economy of
fishing, domestic livestock keeping and agriculture. In addition, the presence of cotton
suggests they may have also been producing fibres or textiles, most likely for local
use, but possibly also for long distance trade. Although some quartz artefacts were
recovered, we found no evidence of any pre-Iron Age LSA culture at the cave,
contrary to previous claims about the site.
The Pleistocene archaeological record of the Arabian Peninsula is increasingly recognized as bein... more The Pleistocene archaeological record of the Arabian Peninsula is increasingly recognized as being of great importance for resolving some of the major debates in hominin evolutionary studies. Though there has been an acceleration in the rate of fieldwork and discovery of archaeological sites in recent years, little is known about hominin occupations in the Pleistocene over vast areas of Arabia. Here we report on the identification of five new Middle Palaeolithic sites from the Nejd of central Arabia and the southern margins of the Nefud Desert to the north. The importance of these sites centers on their diversity in terms of landscape positions, raw materials used for lithic manufacture, and core reduction methods. Our findings indicate multiple hominin dispersals into Arabia and complex subsequent patterns of behavior and demography.
Stone adzes are found throughout the Pacific islands and documenting their diversity is critical ... more Stone adzes are found throughout the Pacific islands and documenting their diversity is critical to understanding relationships between past human populations. The adze typology devised by Roger Duff half a century ago is the standard across New Zealand and the rest of Polynesia. Here we describe the different types in the Duff system and analyse 148 adzes from the Wairau Bar site, which has a high diversity of complete adzes and is the assemblage that Duff used as the basis of his system. We use Principal Components Analysis of morphometric variables to test the empirical basis of the Duff system — an analytical exercise that should have applicability to typological systems elsewhere. Our results show different Duff types clustering separately to an extent, but there are issues of ambiguity in assigning types. Duff emphasized cross-section shape and the elaboration of the tang. We propose a new classification system that emphasizes technological and functional features of the adzes. There is considerable agreement between Duff's system and ours, as different manufacturing methods create different cross-section shapes, and functional modifications are often related to the adze tang. We describe four main manufacturing methods with functional elaborations, resulting in nine different adze types that are represented by at least 3 specimens each at Wairau Bar. Examples of each of these adze types are illustrated. We also note the presence of 'stitched' edges on some adzes likely resulting from fine punch work. The Wairau Bar adzes are some of the finest examples of knapping skill known anywhere in the world and suggest a high level of craft specialization.
With rising sea levels at the end of the Pleistocene, land-bridge or continental islands were for... more With rising sea levels at the end of the Pleistocene, land-bridge or continental islands were formed around the world. Many of these islands have been extensively studied from a biogeographical perspective, particularly in terms of impacts of island creation on terrestrial vertebrates. However, a majority of studies rely on contemporary faunal distributions rather than fossil data. Here, we present archaeological findings from the island of Zanzibar (also known as Unguja) off the eastern African coast, to provide a temporal perspective on island biogeography. The site of Kuumbi Cave, excavated by multiple teams since 2005, has revealed the longest cultural and faunal record for any eastern African island. This record extends to the Late Pleistocene, when Zanzibar was part of the mainland, and attests to the extirpation of large mainland mammals in the millennia after the island became separated. We draw on modeling and sedimentary data to examine the process by which Zanzibar was most recently separated from the mainland, providing the first systematic insights into the nature and chronology of this process. We subsequently investigate the cultural and faunal record from Kuumbi Cave, which provides at least five key temporal windows into human activities and faunal presence: two at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), one during the period of post-LGM rapid sea level rise and island formation, and two in the late Holocene (Middle Iron Age and Late Iron Age). This record demonstrates the presence of large mammals during the period of island formation, and their severe reduction or disappearance in the Kuumbi Cave sequence by the late Holocene. While various limitations, including discontinuity in the sequence, problematize attempts to clearly attribute defaunation to anthropogenic or island biogeographic processes, Kuumbi Cave offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine post-Pleistocene island formation and its long-term consequences for human and animal communities.
Normativity refers to the human conformity to the behavioural modes of a society, which underpins... more Normativity refers to the human conformity to the behavioural modes of a society, which underpins diverse aspects of our behaviour, including symbolism, co-operation, and morality. It has its developmental basis in overimitation, the uniquely human bias towards replicating the intentional actions of a demonstrator, regardless of their causal relevance. Using evidence from stone tool technology, we suggest that both overimitation and normativity have their evolutionary origins in the Acheulean archaeological period. Overimitation can be seen in arbitrary biases in Acheulean tool-making; while normativity is evident in geographically and temporally restricted sub-types of Acheulean tools, which do not appear to be functional specializations. We argue that normativity would have conferred particular advantages for the Acheulean niche of co-operative hunting of mega-herbivores and living in large groups, through co-ordinating hunting strategies, promoting equitable sharing, and enforcing the punishment of free-riders.
Culture History and Convergent Evolution: Can we detect Populations in Prehistory?, 2020
This chapter examines the issue of whether the
Acheulean is a genuine homologous cultural entity,... more This chapter examines the issue of whether the Acheulean is a genuine homologous cultural entity, descended via a chain of social reproduction from a common ‘ancestor’, or whether it was a technological phase that was repeatedly independently invented. An anecdotal experiment is used to determine the relative ease of inventing biface knapping from scratch, versus transmitting it with one bout of social observation. Handaxe and cleaver elongation is compared between East African and Indian Acheulean assemblages to determine if there are systematic differences that might reflect different lineages of social transmission. The age of the first appearance of the Acheulean in various parts of the world is modelled to determine if spread from a single source or independent inventions best fits the timing of its distribution. The issue of whether Pleistocene bifaces from East Asia are homologous with the Acheulean or were independently invented is examined by comparing the extent of bifacial shaping between East Asian and western Acheulean assemblages. The chapter concludes with the following contentions. Acheulean bifaces are hard to invent, or even emulate, but easy to imitate. Pleistocene East Asian bifaces are an example of parallelism; that is, not de novo independent invention, but invention from the same Oldowan substrate as the Acheulean. The western Acheulean is however a coherent cultural entity that seems to have spread from a single source region, and with regionally consistent variations suggesting it was maintained through social transmission
The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the
subsequent warming and sea-level r... more The environmental extremes of the Last Glacial Maximum and the subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound implications for human behavior across much of the world. In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines, shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much of Wallacea.
Acheulean technology and landscape use at Dawadmi, central Arabia, 2018
Despite occupying a central geographic position, investigations of hominin populations in the Ara... more Despite occupying a central geographic position, investigations of hominin populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Lower Palaeolithic period are rare. The colonization of Eur-asia below 55 degrees latitude indicates the success of the genus Homo in the Early and Middle Pleistocene, but the extent to which these hominins were capable of innovative and novel behavioural adaptations to engage with mid-latitude environments is unclear. Here we describe new field investigations at the Saffaqah locality (206±76) near Dawadmi, in central Arabia that aim to establish how hominins adapted to this region. The site is located in the interior of Arabia over 500 km from both the Red Sea and the Gulf, and at the headwaters of two major extinct river systems that were likely used by Acheulean hominins to cross the Peninsula. Saffaqah is one of the largest Acheulean sites in Arabia with nearly a million artefacts estimated to occur on the surface, and it is also the first to yield stratified deposits containing abundant artefacts. It is situated in the unusual setting of a dense and well-preserved landscape of Acheulean localities, with sites and isolated artefacts occurring regularly for tens of kilometres in every direction. We describe both previous and recent excavations at Saffaqah and its large lithic assemblage. We analyse thousands of artefacts from excavated and surface contexts, including giant andesite cores and flakes, smaller cores and retouched artefacts, as well as handaxes and cleavers. Technological assessment of stratified lithics and those from systematic survey, enable the reconstruction of stone tool life histories. The Acheulean hominins at Dawadmi were strong and skilful, with their adaptation evidently successful for some time. However, these biface-makers were also technologically conservative, and used least-effort strategies of resource procurement and tool transport. Ultimately, central Arabia was depopulated, likely in the face of environmental deterioration in the form of increasing aridity.
African Middle Stone Age (MSA) populations used pigments, manufactured and wore personal ornament... more African Middle Stone Age (MSA) populations used pigments, manufactured and wore personal ornaments, made abstract engravings, and produced fully shaped bone tools. However, ongoing research across Africa reveals variability in the emergence of cultural innovations in the MSA and their subsequent development through the Later Stone Age (LSA). When present, it appears that cultural innovations manifest regional variability, suggestive of distinct cultural traditions. In eastern Africa, several Late Pleistocene sites have produced evidence for novel activities, but the chronologies of key behavioral innovations remain unclear. The 3 m deep, well-dated, Panga ya Saidi sequence in eastern Kenya, encompassing 19 layers covering a time span of 78 kyr beginning in late Marine Isotope Stage 5, is the only known African site recording the interplay between cultural and ecological diversity in a coastal forested environment. Excavations have yielded worked and incised bones, ostrich eggshell beads (OES), beads made from seashells, worked and engraved ocher pieces, fragments of coral, and a belemnite fossil. Here, we provide, for the first time, a detailed analysis of this material. This includes a taphonomic, archeozoological, technological, and functional study of bone artifacts; a technological and morphometric analysis of personal ornaments; and a technological and geochemical analysis of ocher pieces. The interpretation of the results stemming from the analysis of OES beads is guided by an ethnoarcheological perspective and field observations. We demonstrate that key cultural innovations on the eastern African coast are evident by 67 ka and exhibit remarkable diversity through the LSA and Iron Age. We suggest the cultural trajectories evident at Panga ya Saidi were shaped by both regional traditions and cultural/demic diffusion.
In this paper, we look at a situation of long-term continuity to understand the circumstances tha... more In this paper, we look at a situation of long-term continuity to understand the circumstances that mediate against behavioural change. Using newly excavated material from Asitau Kuru, Timor-Leste, we assess continuity in stone tool technology, as well as pigment and bead use over a span of 44,000 years. The sequence is divided into three occupation phases: a Pleistocene occupation from ~ 44,000 to 15,000 years ago, an early to middle Holocene occupation from ~ 10,000 to 5000 years ago and a Neolithic occupation from ~ 3800 years ago to the recent past. Across these three phases, there are distinct continuities in the way stone tools are made, and the use of red ochre and Oliva beads. We suggest that the unusually high relief topography of the Wallacean Archipelago ensured continuity in several parameters of potential behavioural change, including available environments , proximity to the sea and island size. Given the long-term continuity, the similarities with stone artefacts elsewhere in Wallacea and the early dates for human occupation in Wallacea from this excavation, we suggest that the stone tool technology documented here was introduced by an early dispersing population of Homo sapiens.
The Acheulean stone tools of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis are the longest enduring of a... more The Acheulean stone tools of Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis are the longest enduring of all archaeological cultures, lasting for 1.5 million years. Three competing hypotheses have been proposed to explain this longevity: that Acheulean technology lies in a zone of latent, easy to invent solutions to problems that H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis would have encountered; that there was a genetic predisposition among H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis populations to make handaxes, and perhaps other stone tools characteristic of the Acheulean; or that high- fidelity social transmission was an integral part of the behavioural repertoire of H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis. In this chapter, the first two of these hypotheses are critiqued. Experimental and anecdotal evidence from modern stone knappers is reviewed to determine how knapping expertise is acquired. The chapter concludes with reference to archaeological evidence for social transmission in the Acheulean and a model of how knapping expertise is and was acquired.
Acheulean bifaces dominate the archaeological record for 1.5 million years. The meaning behind th... more Acheulean bifaces dominate the archaeological record for 1.5 million years. The meaning behind the often symmetrical forms of these tools is the topic of considerable debate, with explanations ranging from effectiveness as a cutting tool to sexual display. Some, however , question whether the symmetry seen in many Acheulean bifaces is intentional at all, with suggestions that it is merely the result of a bias in hominin perception or an inevitable consequence of bifacial flaking. In this paper we address the issue of intention in biface symmetry. First, we use transmission chain experiments designed to track symmetry trends in the replication of biface outlines. Secondly, we use archaeological data to assess the symmetry of Acheulean bifaces from British, East African and Indian assemblages in relation to reduction intensity; the degree of bifaciality; and the symmetry of four Middle Palaeolithic bifacial core assemblages. Thirdly, we look at specific examples of the reduction sequences that produced symmetrical Acheulean cleavers at the sites of Olorgesailie CL1-1, Isinya, Chirki, Morgaon and Bhimbetka. All three lines of evidence support the notion that symmetry was a deliberately imposed property of Acheulean bifaces and not an epiphenomenon of hominin visual perception or bifacial technology.
The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in hum... more The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant shift in human technological, cultural, and cognitive evolution. However, the majority of research on this transition is currently focused on southern Africa due to a lack of long-term, stratified sites across much of the African continent. Here, we report a 78,000-year-long archeological record from Panga ya Saidi, a cave in the humid coastal forest of Kenya. Following a shift in toolkits ~67,000 years ago, novel symbolic and technological behaviors assemble in a non-unilinear manner. Against a backdrop of a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, localized innovations better characterize the Late Pleistocene of this part of East Africa than alternative emphases on dramatic revolutions or migrations.
Over the 1.5 million year duration of the Acheulean there is considerable variation in biface fin... more Over the 1.5 million year duration of the Acheulean there is considerable variation in biface finesse. It is not clear however, if there is an improvement in biface knapping ability over time, or if variation between sites is largely unrelated to their age. The diversity and duration of the East African Acheulean presents an opportunity to examine this issue. Variables that reflect difficult aspects of biface knapping but that which were likely important goals for Acheulean hominins, were measured in order to assess skill. These variables were refinement (thinness), edge straightness, and symmetry, and were compared across four East African Acheulean sites: Olduvai Gorge, Olorgesailie, Kariandusi, and Isinya. The influence of rock type, blank type, reduction intensity, aberrant scar terminations, and invasive flaking on these variables was assessed. Over relatively short timescales confounding factors, including ones that it was not possible to control for, tend to obscure any temporal signature in biface knapping skill. However over the vast timespan of the Acheulean at Olduvai Gorge, a temporal trend was indeed apparent. Possible factors influencing this trend include the invention of new knapping techniques, the addition of adolescence as a life history stage, and evolving hominin cognition.
A B S T R A C T Stone tool making, observed archaeologically from 3.3 million years ago, involves... more A B S T R A C T Stone tool making, observed archaeologically from 3.3 million years ago, involves complex problem solving and forethought, but the relative complexity of different Palaeolithic technologies remains unknown. Decision making in replicative knapping is here used to explore the degree of behavioural and cognitive complexity involved in five different types of stone tool manufacture (bipolar, discoidal, biface, Levallois and prismatic blade) that represent the evolution of core reduction strategies from the Oldowan through to the Upper Palaeolithic. While some hypothesise that each key transition was marked by an increase in cognitive complexity , such hypotheses remain untested assumptions. Determining the level of behavioural complexity involved in each of these core reduction strategies using problem-solution distance modelling offers a means of detecting significant increases in the level of human cognitive complexity displayed over time. To directly test for differences in complexity among knapping schema, replication experiments were conducted by two highly skilled knappers. Experiments were filmed and the duration of different stages in the sequence was annotated. Hierarchical diagrams were produced showing the organisation of the different actions involved in stone tool knapping. The results show a pattern of increasingly complex behaviour through the sequence of bipolar, dis-coidal, prismatic blade, biface, and Levallois knapping. Neanderthals and their contemporaries, Homo sapiens, employed knapping technologies exhibiting comparably high levels of complexity.
Several hundred Middle Palaeolithic (MP) archaeological sites have now been identified in the Ara... more Several hundred Middle Palaeolithic (MP) archaeological sites have now been identified in the Arabian Peninsula. However, the study of lithic raw material properties and related procurement behaviours is still in its infancy. Here we describe raw material procurement and early stage lithic reduction at MP sites in the Jubbah palaeolake basin, in the Nefud Desert, northern Saudi Arabia. We describe the sites identified during our surveys, and we use petrographic studies to demonstrate that MP assemblages were mostly produced from differing forms of ferru-ginous quartzite. These raw materials do not substantially vary in composition, although they are not identical in terms of factors such as grain size and the proportion of iron oxide. We then describe the lithic technology at these sites, with a particular focus on the largest assemblage identified, Jebel Katefeh-12 (JKF-12), which provides detailed information on lithic reduction at a quartzite source. Analyses from this site are then considered together with data from other MP sites in the Jubbah basin, where similar raw material was used. The results indicate that factors such as initial clast size/shape and reduction intensity play important roles in influencing aspects of morphological and technological variability. Our results suggest that incursions of MP populations into northern Arabia were probably temporally limited, as might be expected in a marginal and generally arid region. MP raw material procurement sites provide a highly visible signal of these ephemeral incursions, providing information on the ways that human populations adapted to the challenging conditions of the Saharo-Arabian arid belt.
The transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Palaeolithic represents a critical threshold in h... more The transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Palaeolithic represents a critical threshold in human evolution when archaic behaviour patterns gave way to the Levallois stone tool technology that characterizes later Pleistocene hominins including Homo neanderthalen-sis and early Homo sapiens. This article examines that transition through a comparative perspective on handaxes and cleavers (collectively referred to here as bifaces) from the site of Bhimbetka in central India. The Bhimbetka bifaces are compared to those from Patpara, another transitional assemblage in central India, as well as non-transitional Indian Acheulean assemblages. Bhimbetka and Patpara share unusually refined bifaces. While this refinement is attributed to invasive flaking at Patpara, at Bhimbetka it appears to be related to the ability to strike large thin flake blanks. These both have consequences for biface symmetry, with Patpara handaxes being particularly symmetrical in profile, while Bhimbetka cleavers are particularly symmetrical in section. Unlike Patpara, most of the Bhimbetka bifaces have not undergone resharpening. However, cleavers from the two sites do share unusually high rates of damage on their bits and the occasional use of cleavers as notches. It is argued that, while the transition at the two sites occurred independently, it was underpinned by the same cognitive pattern: an increased capacity for hierarchical organization.
Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave in the
Mafia Archipe... more Small-scale excavations were recently undertaken at the site of Ukunju Cave in the
Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania, to collect new bioarchaeological and material culture
data relating to the site’s occupation and the nature of early subsistence and longdistance
trade in the region. Our findings suggest that occupation of the cave began
during the Middle Iron Age (MIA, seventh to tenth centuries AD), as indicated by the
presence of local Early Tana Tradition (ETT)/Triangular Incised Ware (TIW) pottery
in the lowest layers above bedrock, as well as small quantities of imported ceramics
and glass beads also dating from the mid- to the late first millennium AD. Small
assemblages of faunal and botanical remains, including introduced African crops
(pearl millet, sorghum, baobab and possibly cowpea) were found in association with
these finds, indicating that these MIA communities practised a mixed economy of
fishing, domestic livestock keeping and agriculture. In addition, the presence of cotton
suggests they may have also been producing fibres or textiles, most likely for local
use, but possibly also for long distance trade. Although some quartz artefacts were
recovered, we found no evidence of any pre-Iron Age LSA culture at the cave,
contrary to previous claims about the site.
The Pleistocene archaeological record of the Arabian Peninsula is increasingly recognized as bein... more The Pleistocene archaeological record of the Arabian Peninsula is increasingly recognized as being of great importance for resolving some of the major debates in hominin evolutionary studies. Though there has been an acceleration in the rate of fieldwork and discovery of archaeological sites in recent years, little is known about hominin occupations in the Pleistocene over vast areas of Arabia. Here we report on the identification of five new Middle Palaeolithic sites from the Nejd of central Arabia and the southern margins of the Nefud Desert to the north. The importance of these sites centers on their diversity in terms of landscape positions, raw materials used for lithic manufacture, and core reduction methods. Our findings indicate multiple hominin dispersals into Arabia and complex subsequent patterns of behavior and demography.
Stone adzes are found throughout the Pacific islands and documenting their diversity is critical ... more Stone adzes are found throughout the Pacific islands and documenting their diversity is critical to understanding relationships between past human populations. The adze typology devised by Roger Duff half a century ago is the standard across New Zealand and the rest of Polynesia. Here we describe the different types in the Duff system and analyse 148 adzes from the Wairau Bar site, which has a high diversity of complete adzes and is the assemblage that Duff used as the basis of his system. We use Principal Components Analysis of morphometric variables to test the empirical basis of the Duff system — an analytical exercise that should have applicability to typological systems elsewhere. Our results show different Duff types clustering separately to an extent, but there are issues of ambiguity in assigning types. Duff emphasized cross-section shape and the elaboration of the tang. We propose a new classification system that emphasizes technological and functional features of the adzes. There is considerable agreement between Duff's system and ours, as different manufacturing methods create different cross-section shapes, and functional modifications are often related to the adze tang. We describe four main manufacturing methods with functional elaborations, resulting in nine different adze types that are represented by at least 3 specimens each at Wairau Bar. Examples of each of these adze types are illustrated. We also note the presence of 'stitched' edges on some adzes likely resulting from fine punch work. The Wairau Bar adzes are some of the finest examples of knapping skill known anywhere in the world and suggest a high level of craft specialization.
With rising sea levels at the end of the Pleistocene, land-bridge or continental islands were for... more With rising sea levels at the end of the Pleistocene, land-bridge or continental islands were formed around the world. Many of these islands have been extensively studied from a biogeographical perspective, particularly in terms of impacts of island creation on terrestrial vertebrates. However, a majority of studies rely on contemporary faunal distributions rather than fossil data. Here, we present archaeological findings from the island of Zanzibar (also known as Unguja) off the eastern African coast, to provide a temporal perspective on island biogeography. The site of Kuumbi Cave, excavated by multiple teams since 2005, has revealed the longest cultural and faunal record for any eastern African island. This record extends to the Late Pleistocene, when Zanzibar was part of the mainland, and attests to the extirpation of large mainland mammals in the millennia after the island became separated. We draw on modeling and sedimentary data to examine the process by which Zanzibar was most recently separated from the mainland, providing the first systematic insights into the nature and chronology of this process. We subsequently investigate the cultural and faunal record from Kuumbi Cave, which provides at least five key temporal windows into human activities and faunal presence: two at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), one during the period of post-LGM rapid sea level rise and island formation, and two in the late Holocene (Middle Iron Age and Late Iron Age). This record demonstrates the presence of large mammals during the period of island formation, and their severe reduction or disappearance in the Kuumbi Cave sequence by the late Holocene. While various limitations, including discontinuity in the sequence, problematize attempts to clearly attribute defaunation to anthropogenic or island biogeographic processes, Kuumbi Cave offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine post-Pleistocene island formation and its long-term consequences for human and animal communities.
The question "How common is convergence?" remains unanswered and may be unanswerable. Our example... more The question "How common is convergence?" remains unanswered and may be unanswerable. Our examples indicate that even the minimum detectable levels of convergence are often high, and we conclude that at all levels convergence has been greatly underestimated.-Moore and Willmer (1997: 1) Convergence in stone-tool technology, much like in biology, was likely a recurring phenomenon throughout the last three million years of human evolution, where functional and economic constraints exerted strong selection on tool size and form as well as other characteristics of technological systems. Some of the best examples of convergent stone working include the Nubian Levallois method (Will, Mackay, and Phillips 2015); overshot flaking of Solutrean and Palaeoindian points (Eren, Patten, O'Brien, and Meltzer 2013b; chapter 1, this volume); fluting on Palaeoindian and southern Arabian points (Crassard 2009); ground-edge axe technology in Pleistocene Australasia, Japan, and multiple Neolithic societies (Clarkson et al. 2015; Hiscock, O'Connor, Balme, and Maloney 2016; Takashi 2012); pressure blade technology in Mesoamerica and Eurasia (Crabtree 1968; Pelegrin 2003); and punch flaking on Danish and Polynesian adzes (Shipton, Weisler, Jacomb, Clarkson, and Walter 2016; Stueber 2010). Likewise, countless more or less identical tool forms appear around the globe in different times and places as the product of seemingly independent invention to meet local needs, be they burins, end scrapers , blades, or discoidal cores. The question is not whether convergence took place, but whether it was common and widespread or took place only under exceptional circumstances. There are many reasons for thinking it was the former, but providing compelling evidence for independent origins without contact between regions, as well as deriving robust evolutionary explanations, are ongoing challenges for archeology. Multiple lines of evidence are required to test such arguments, and these might typically involve experimentation, modeling selective environments, and developing appropriate means of analyzing archeological and environmental data to determine the context of autochthonous development rather than cultural transmission from other populations.
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Papers by Ceri Shipton
Acheulean is a genuine homologous cultural entity, descended via a chain of social reproduction from a common ‘ancestor’, or whether it was a technological phase that was repeatedly independently invented. An anecdotal experiment is used to determine the relative ease of inventing biface knapping from scratch, versus transmitting it with one bout of social observation. Handaxe and cleaver elongation is compared between East African and Indian Acheulean assemblages to determine if there are systematic differences that might reflect different lineages of social transmission. The age of the first appearance of the Acheulean in various parts of the world is modelled to determine if spread from a single source or independent inventions best fits the timing of its distribution. The issue of whether Pleistocene bifaces from East Asia
are homologous with the Acheulean or were independently
invented is examined by comparing the extent of bifacial
shaping between East Asian and western Acheulean assemblages. The chapter concludes with the following contentions. Acheulean bifaces are hard to invent, or even emulate, but easy to imitate. Pleistocene East Asian bifaces are an example of parallelism; that is, not de novo independent invention, but invention from the same Oldowan substrate as the Acheulean. The western Acheulean is however a coherent cultural entity that seems to have spread from a single source region, and with regionally consistent variations suggesting it was
maintained through social transmission
subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound
implications for human behavior across much of the world.
In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines,
shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between
islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau
Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and
greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and
middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of
southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these
shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to
neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term
occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the
Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that
there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much
of Wallacea.
Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania, to collect new bioarchaeological and material culture
data relating to the site’s occupation and the nature of early subsistence and longdistance
trade in the region. Our findings suggest that occupation of the cave began
during the Middle Iron Age (MIA, seventh to tenth centuries AD), as indicated by the
presence of local Early Tana Tradition (ETT)/Triangular Incised Ware (TIW) pottery
in the lowest layers above bedrock, as well as small quantities of imported ceramics
and glass beads also dating from the mid- to the late first millennium AD. Small
assemblages of faunal and botanical remains, including introduced African crops
(pearl millet, sorghum, baobab and possibly cowpea) were found in association with
these finds, indicating that these MIA communities practised a mixed economy of
fishing, domestic livestock keeping and agriculture. In addition, the presence of cotton
suggests they may have also been producing fibres or textiles, most likely for local
use, but possibly also for long distance trade. Although some quartz artefacts were
recovered, we found no evidence of any pre-Iron Age LSA culture at the cave,
contrary to previous claims about the site.
importance for resolving some of the major debates in hominin evolutionary studies. Though there has been
an acceleration in the rate of fieldwork and discovery of archaeological sites in recent years, little is known
about hominin occupations in the Pleistocene over vast areas of Arabia. Here we report on the
identification of five new Middle Palaeolithic sites from the Nejd of central Arabia and the southern
margins of the Nefud Desert to the north. The importance of these sites centers on their diversity in terms
of landscape positions, raw materials used for lithic manufacture, and core reduction methods. Our
findings indicate multiple hominin dispersals into Arabia and complex subsequent patterns of behavior
and demography.
Acheulean is a genuine homologous cultural entity, descended via a chain of social reproduction from a common ‘ancestor’, or whether it was a technological phase that was repeatedly independently invented. An anecdotal experiment is used to determine the relative ease of inventing biface knapping from scratch, versus transmitting it with one bout of social observation. Handaxe and cleaver elongation is compared between East African and Indian Acheulean assemblages to determine if there are systematic differences that might reflect different lineages of social transmission. The age of the first appearance of the Acheulean in various parts of the world is modelled to determine if spread from a single source or independent inventions best fits the timing of its distribution. The issue of whether Pleistocene bifaces from East Asia
are homologous with the Acheulean or were independently
invented is examined by comparing the extent of bifacial
shaping between East Asian and western Acheulean assemblages. The chapter concludes with the following contentions. Acheulean bifaces are hard to invent, or even emulate, but easy to imitate. Pleistocene East Asian bifaces are an example of parallelism; that is, not de novo independent invention, but invention from the same Oldowan substrate as the Acheulean. The western Acheulean is however a coherent cultural entity that seems to have spread from a single source region, and with regionally consistent variations suggesting it was
maintained through social transmission
subsequent warming and sea-level rise into the Holocene had profound
implications for human behavior across much of the world.
In northern New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines,
shell adzes appear during this period alongside contact between
islands. In this paper we present new data from the site of Asitau
Kuru, Timor-Leste, to show that the creation of shell adzes and
greater inter-island connectivity also characterizes the early and
middle and early Holocene in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago of
southern Wallacea. We suggest that one of the functions of these
shell adzes was in making dugout canoes enabling regular access to
neighboring islands; the import of exotic stone materials; long-term
occupation of very small islands; and, with new hook and line technology, the capture of more fish. This evidence predates the
Neolithic in the region and corroborates a linguistic hypothesis that
there was a pre-Austronesian interaction sphere covering much
of Wallacea.
Mafia Archipelago, Tanzania, to collect new bioarchaeological and material culture
data relating to the site’s occupation and the nature of early subsistence and longdistance
trade in the region. Our findings suggest that occupation of the cave began
during the Middle Iron Age (MIA, seventh to tenth centuries AD), as indicated by the
presence of local Early Tana Tradition (ETT)/Triangular Incised Ware (TIW) pottery
in the lowest layers above bedrock, as well as small quantities of imported ceramics
and glass beads also dating from the mid- to the late first millennium AD. Small
assemblages of faunal and botanical remains, including introduced African crops
(pearl millet, sorghum, baobab and possibly cowpea) were found in association with
these finds, indicating that these MIA communities practised a mixed economy of
fishing, domestic livestock keeping and agriculture. In addition, the presence of cotton
suggests they may have also been producing fibres or textiles, most likely for local
use, but possibly also for long distance trade. Although some quartz artefacts were
recovered, we found no evidence of any pre-Iron Age LSA culture at the cave,
contrary to previous claims about the site.
importance for resolving some of the major debates in hominin evolutionary studies. Though there has been
an acceleration in the rate of fieldwork and discovery of archaeological sites in recent years, little is known
about hominin occupations in the Pleistocene over vast areas of Arabia. Here we report on the
identification of five new Middle Palaeolithic sites from the Nejd of central Arabia and the southern
margins of the Nefud Desert to the north. The importance of these sites centers on their diversity in terms
of landscape positions, raw materials used for lithic manufacture, and core reduction methods. Our
findings indicate multiple hominin dispersals into Arabia and complex subsequent patterns of behavior
and demography.