Generativity, hierarchical action and recursion in the technology of the Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic transition: A perspective from Patpara, the Son Valley, India

Shipton, Ceri; Clarkson, Chris; Pal, J.N.; Jones, Sacha; Roberts, Richard G.; Harris, Clair; Gupta, M. C.; Ditchfield, Peter; Petraglia, Michael D.

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.03.007

Cited by 80 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Likewise Shipton (2013) presented a sophisticated methodology well suited to the assessment of shape and symmetry, but small sample sizes and undated or surface assemblages made identification of evolution and progression in symmetry premature (Hodgson, 2015;McNabb and Cole, 2015). Another paper quoted by Hodgson (2015) is Shipton, et al (2013). Here Hodgson suggests the authors have discovered a seamless transition from the Acheulean into the Middle Palaeolithic, but this is not the case.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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The Acheulean is defined by its iconic tool type, the handaxe, and a suite of other large cutting tools (LCTs). These tools retain information on technical and procedural practices concerned with the manufacture of these butchery tools and carcass processing knives. The Acheulean straddles the period in which more ancient hominin species (H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis) give way to archaic H. sapiens (sensu lato) amongst whom the ancestor of modern humans may be found. The roots of modern behaviour may be present in these handaxe making hominin species, and the handaxes themselves, through proxy data such as bilateral symmetry, may chart hominin cognitive evolution as researchers such as T. Wynn and F. Coolidge (2016), amongst others, have argued. But the search for the earliest consistent application of symmetry, and its persistence thereafter has been hampered by the lack of large datasets, spanning the temporal extent of the Acheulean, and analysed through a single consistent methodology.Our paper has two aims. The first, and in the absence of a large comparative data set of earlier Acheulean handaxes, is to assess the degree to which symmetry is consistently applied to the making of handaxes in the later Acheulean (=<0.5 mya), a time when bilateral planform symmetry should already be an integral component in handaxe making. The dataset we select is the British Acheulean from MIS 13 -MIS 3/4. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time handaxe symmetry has been assessed on a large body of British Acheulean handaxes. Our second aim is to present a relatively simple and low tech methodology for the analysis of handaxes

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…The statistical tests demonstrated that Levallois technology involved the most rapid rate of phase changes and the highest hierarchical breadth throughout the sequences. This supports those that have emphasised the complexity of Levallois technology as well as the hypothesis that a major component of the Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic transition was an increase in hierarchical behaviour and cognition (Ambrose 2001;Eren and Lycett 2012;Kandel et al 2016;Moore 2010;Schlanger 1996;Shipton et al 2013b;Wynn and Coolidge 2004;2010b).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…The significantly more durable and widespread lithic record offers a less taphonomically biased signature for complex behaviour and cognition. A key task for those conducting experimental knapping has been to find components of lithic technology that correlate with aspects of behaviour and cognition (Eren and Lycett 2012;Mahaney 2014;Moore 2010;Pelegrin 1990;Shipton et al 2013b;Shipton and Nielsen 2015;Shipton 2013;Shipton et al 2009). …”

Section: Recent Applications Of Experimental Knappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This leads to the hypothesis that discoidal knapping will require greater behavioural complexity than bipolar knapping, a technology that involves a more expedient system of flake removals. In terms of Acheulean biface technology, much literature has highlighted the symmetry and seeming imposition of form involved (Cole 2015;Goren-Inbar 2011;Gowlett 1988;Machin et al 2007;Shipton et al 2013b;Stout 2002;Stout et al 2008;Wynn 2002), leading to the hypothesis that Acheulean biface technology will be more behavioural complex than the preceding technologies. Meanwhile, the hierarchical tasks involved in Levallois knapping (establishing the upper hemisphere, lower hemisphere and final platform) and prismatic blade knapping (platform and core face maintenance) result in the hypothesis that these technologies should exhibit greater behavioural complexity than the other three under investigation (Ambrose 2001;Gowlett 1984;Moore 2010;Shipton et al 2013b;White et al 2011;Wynn and Coolidge 2010a).…”

Section: Hypothesis Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Levallois technology for example, the faceting of a striking platform is a subordinate task undertaken in order to achieve the overarching goal of creating a strong, high angled platform from which to strike a large flake from a carefully shaped core face (Boëda 1995;Shipton et al 2013b). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of experimental knapping in empirically testing key themes in the evolution of lithic technology: reduction intensity, efficiency and behavioural complexity

Muller¹

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Experimental knapping has complimented and stimulated lithic analyses for over a century.Throughout this period, the discipline has witnessed an increase in the scientific rigour and theoretical grounding with which these studies are conducted. This thesis charts these key trends and in doing so establishes a best-practice model of experimental knapping, the veracity of which is in turn tested using four new lithic experiments. These case-studies employ experimental knapping to advance our understanding of flake platform measurement, reduction intensity, technological efficiency, and behavioural complexity.The first case-study, Chapter 3, offers a more accurate and precise calliper-based method of flake platform measurement that relies on simple geometric approximations of platform shape rather than the inflexible and unreliable existing method of multiplying platform width by thickness. In Chapter 4, a new reduction intensity metric for backed blades, a hitherto overlooked tool-type, is developed and tested on the backed blades from an early Neolithic site in Turkey. This new metric allows a reconstruction of the raw material consumption patterns at the site, finding that the backed blades These four case-studies, coupled with a consideration of existing knapping experiments, allow an understanding of how experimental knapping is embedded in the broader archaeological research process, and ultimately tests the efficacy of a best-practice model of experimental knapping. This model identifies the initial scope, methodological control, and breadth of interpretations as the key variables dictating the validity of an experiment. While knapping experiments may differ markedly in their scope and control, they do not necessarily vary in their validity. Instead, it is the interplay of these variables that dictates the validity of experimentation. Within this best-practice model, lithic experiments are most robust when the scale of the initial scope, methodological control and ensuing interpretations are congruent, and when they involve explicit and falsifiable hypothesis testing.iii

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A Decade of Paleoanthropology in the Indian Subcontinent (2005–2015)

Chauhan¹

2016

A Companion to South Asia in the Past

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Generativity, hierarchical action and recursion in the technology of the Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic transition: A perspective from Patpara, the Son Valley, India

Cited by 80 publications

References 38 publications

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

The role of experimental knapping in empirically testing key themes in the evolution of lithic technology: reduction intensity, efficiency and behavioural complexity

A Decade of Paleoanthropology in the Indian Subcontinent (2005–2015)

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