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Abstract

Acheulean lithic technology is comprised of more than handaxes or other large cutting tools. Artifact assemblages from Member 11' of the Olorgesailie Formation, Kenya, form the basis of our detailed examination of the flake and core component of an Acheulean behavioral system preserved in sediments dating to ~662-625 ka. We contrast what we consider descriptive and explanatory methods of lithic analysis currently in use among researchers studying the African Early Stone Age, and explore here an 'industry-free,' attribute-based analysis for the study of raw material economy. For sites from Member 11' and Member 1 (~990 ka) of the Olorgesailie Formation, we compared the size of transported artifacts, the reduction intensity of flaked pieces, and flake utility (estimated by the ratio of flake cutting edge:thickness). Our results suggest a positive relationship between raw material economy and inferred paleoenvironmental structure, and demonstrate that the analysis of flakes and cores is an important complement to the study of handaxes, cleavers, and other characteristic Acheulean artifacts.This special issue is guest edited by Gilbert B. Tostevin (Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota). This is article #7 of 7. INTRODUCTIONM uch of the current debate on the relative merits of the chaîne opératoire, core reduction, and other approaches to understanding stone tool production has been shaped by analyses of Eurasian Paleolithic sites and assemblages. Data from Africa, particularly in areas distant from the Mediterranean, have often played a peripheral role. However, recent technological analyses of how Oldowan (e

A marine isotope stage 11 coastal Acheulian workshop with associated wood at Amanzi Springs Area 1, South Africa

“…Others have divided the Acheulian into earliest, middle, and younger phases based on the presence or absence of prepared core technology and MSA tools such as blades and points [11,[36][37][38]. From about ~1.2-0.8 Ma onwards, various forms of prepared core technology appear to coincide with the production of large flake blanks for LCT manufacturing [16,37].…”

Lower Paleolithic Winds of Change: Prepared Core Technologies and the Onset of the Levallois Method in the Levantine Late Acheulian

“…Following central paradigms in Paleolithic research, it is generally accepted that Early-Middle Pleistocene technological concepts of stone-tool production and use are roughly correlated with the two major cultural complexes known as the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian and the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian (sometimes referred to as Mode 2 and Mode 3 technologies, e.g., Clark, 1969;Ambrose, 2001;Stout, 2010). The Lower Paleolithic Acheulian Cultural Complex (henceforth Acheulian) is characterized by the production of small, medium and large (over 10 cm) flakes, the manufacture of bifaces, usually known as handaxes or Large Cutting Tools, and sets of core-tools (e.g., chopping tools, cleavers, spheroids/ polyhedrons) and flake-tools (Sharon, 2007;Lycett and Gowlet, 2009;Machin, 2009;Sharon, 2009;Tryon and Potts, 2011;Agam et al, 2015;Shimelmitz, 2015;Sharon et al, 2011;Sharon, 2014;Agam and Barkai, 2018a;Finkel and Barkai, 2018;Goren-Inbar et al, 2018). The Acheulian handaxe appears in a vast geographical range in Africa, Europe and west and east Asia starting at around 1.8 million years ago (Bar-Yosef and Belmaker, 2010;Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen, 2011;Dennel, 2011;Jiménez-Arenas et al, 2011;Lepre et al, 2011;Pappu et al, 2011).…”