Stone Tool Forms and Functions: A Morphometric Analysis of Modern Humans' Stone Tools From Song Terus Cave (Java, Indonesia)

Archaeometry ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Borel ◽  
R. Cornette ◽  
M. Baylac
Keyword(s):  
Morphometric Analysis ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Song Terus

Problems in the Stone Age of South-east Asia Revisited

2007 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 39-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. G. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Homo Erectus ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
The World ◽  
Out Of Africa

In the 13 years since ‘Problems in the Stone Age of Southeast Asia’ was published, there has been a number of significant developments. There remains a lack of early cultural material despite the possibility that first occupation of the area may date back as far as 1.8 Myrs. It seems that the first hominins in the region were essentially ‘alithic’ in their adaptation, making the reconstruction of their behaviour extremely difficult. There is also a question as to which hominin was first ‘Out of Africa’ and into Asia and a suggestion that Homo erectus is, in fact, an Asian species that may have migrated west. This has important implications for interpretations of the significance of the so-called ‘Movius Line’. By the time stone tool use does appear regularly in the record, modern humans are present but it is still hard to identify the kinds of directional changes that are associated with the Late Pleistocene elsewhere in the world. The question of when humans were able to exploit tropical forests in the region is also one that recent work explores. The recent discoveries from Flores of stone tools that appear to pre-date the arrival of modern humans, and a possibly associated ‘dwarf’ hominin, Homo floresiensis, all require re-appraisal of the nature of human activity in the region.

Middle Palaeolithic Scraper Morphology, Flaking Mechanics and Imposed Form: Revisitng Bisson's ‘Interview with a Neanderthal’

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilliane F. Monnier
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Middle Palaeolithic ◽  
Production Rules ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Anatomically Modern Humans

Bisson (2001) proposes that imposition of form in Middle Palaeolithic scrapers can be recognized when the rules for scraper manufacture, which are based upon functional considerations, are known. He derives these ‘scraper production rules’ on the basis of experiments with novice flintknappers, and finds that they apply to Neanderthal-manufactured Mousterian scrapers. He interprets the violation of these rules in scrapers from Skhul Cave as evidence that anatomically modern humans imposed form on their stone tools, and therefore had mental templates. This study provides evidence that the ‘scraper production rules’ are not, in fact, the rules according to which Neanderthals made their tools. Instead, they reflect flaking mechanics and elements of Bisson's experimental design rather than any functional considerations taken into account during scraper manufacture. Furthermore, methodological flaws in Bisson's analysis of Middle Palaeolithic artefacts undermine his arguments that archaeological scrapers either follow or violate the rules. These problems render untenable his conclusion that Neanderthals did not have mental templates and that they lacked flexibility and innovation in stone-tool making.

Cognitive Changes and the Emergence of Modern Humans in Europe

1991 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Mellars
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Cognitive Changes

Explicitly symbolic behaviour is usually seen as the hallmark of the behavioural transition from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe. It is suggested here that this new symbolic component is reflected not only in art and personal ornamentation, but also in the design and form of stone tools, and perhaps also in features such as the organization of living structures. All these new features could be argued to reflect the emergence of typically Upper Palaeolithic ‘culture’ and technology. Whether these features can be correlated directly with the transition from archaic to modern skeletal forms remains more problematic; and whether the changes need reflect any significant shift in the neurological capacities for behaviour and cognition is equally controversial.

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.

Mode 3 Technologies and the Evolution of Modern Humans

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Foley ◽  
Marta Mirazón Lahr
Keyword(s):  
Strong Association ◽  
Middle Stone Age ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
African Origin ◽  
Biological Models ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Archaeological Interpretation ◽  
Mode 3 ◽  
Tool Technology

The origins and evolution of modern humans has been the dominant interest in palaeoanthropology for the last decade, and much archaeological interpretation has been structured around the various issues associated with whether humans have a recent African origin or a more ancient one. While the archaeological record has been used to support or refute various aspects of the theories, and to provide a behavioural framework for different biological models, there has been little attempt to employ the evidence of stone tool technology to unravel phylogenetic relationships. Here we examine the evidence that the evolution of modern humans is integrally related to the development of the Upper Palaeolithic and similar technologies, and conclude that there is only a weak relationship. In contrast there is a strong association between the evolution and spread of modern humans and Grahame Clark's Mode 3 technologies (the Middle Stone Age/Palaeolithic). The implications of this for the evolution of Neanderthals, the multiple pattern of human dispersals, and the nature of cognitive evolution, are considered.

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.

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