Gestures During Knapping: A Two-perspective Approach to Pleistocene Technologies

Cueva-Temprana, Arturo; Lombao, Diego; Morales, Juan Ignacio; Geribàs, Núria; Mosquera, Marina

doi:10.1080/01977261.2019.1587255

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The continuous adaptation of knapping methods to raw material characteristics might indicate incapacity to impose blank preparation, hierarchical reduction, and control of expected outcomes regardless of the natural constrains of the rocks, a feature later seen in Acheulean assemblages (Sánchez-Yustos, 2021). In spite of the shared operative (Cueva-Temprana et al, 2019) and artifactual (Gallotti and Mussi, 2015;Sánchez-Yustos et al, 2018) bases suggestive of a "gradual transition" (Duke et al, 2021;Sánchez-Yustos, 2021) from the Oldowan to the Acheulean, it has been said (Faisal et al, 2010;Stout et al, 2015) that distinct biological and neurological systems separate them (Isaac, 1969;Wynn, 1989;Sánchez-Yustos, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oldowan Technology Amid Shifting Environments ∼2.03–1.83 Million Years Ago

et al. 2022

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The Oldowan represents the earliest recurrent evidence of human material culture and one of the longest-lasting forms of technology. Its appearance across the African continent amid the Plio-Pleistocene profound ecological transformations, and posterior dispersal throughout the Old World is at the foundation of hominin technological dependence. However, uncertainties exist concerning the degree to which the Oldowan constitutes an environment-driven behavioral adaptation. Moreover, it is necessary to understand how Oldowan technology varied through time in response to hominin ecological demands. In this study, we present the stone tool assemblage from Ewass Oldupa, a recently discovered archeological site that signals the earliest hominin occupation of Oldupai Gorge (formerly Olduvai) ∼2.03 Ma. At Ewass Oldupa, hominins underwent marked environmental shifts over the course of a ∼200 kyr period. In this article, we deployed an analysis that combines technological and typological descriptions with an innovative quantitative approach, the Volumetric Reconstruction Method. Our results indicate that hominins overcame major ecological challenges while relying on technological strategies that remained essentially unchanged. This highlights the Oldowan efficiency, as its basic set of technological traits was able to sustain hominins throughout multiple environments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oldowan Technology Amid Shifting Environments ∼2.03–1.83 Million Years Ago

et al. 2022

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“…This 'primordial gestural core' is composed of five gestural variables and has been present/identified in the knapping sequences of three tools: choppers, chopping tools and handaxes. Adopting such a smallest unit of knapping approach focusing on manual gesture can provide a productive basis for comparing different techniques performed throughout the Pleistocene (Cueva-Temprana et al, 2019).…”

Section: Lambros Malafourismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some of the ‘design imperatives’ (Wynn & Gowlett, 2018) and interactive parameters of the striking movement (e.g. kinetic energy/energetic efficiency, angle of blow and point of percussion) have been studied in detail for some time (Bril et al, 2010; Cueva-Temprana et al, 2019; Lycett & Eren, 2019; Mateos et al, 2019; Pargeter et al, 2019; Rein et al, 2014). What remains less understood, however, is the cognitive status of those shifting interactional dynamics connecting biomechanical features, anatomical constraints and skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does thinking relate to tool making?

Malafouris

2020

Adaptive Behavior

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How the boundaries of the mind should be drawn with respect to action and the material world is a core research question that cognitive archaeology shares with contemporary cognitive sciences. The study of hominin technical thinking, as in the case of stone tool making, is a good way to bring that question to the fore. This article argues that archaeologists who study lithic artefacts and their transformations over the course of human evolution are uniquely well positioned to contribute to the ongoing debate about the marks of the mental. Adopting the material engagement approach, I propose to replace the internalist vision of mentality, that is, the vision of a brain-bound mind that is using the body to execute and externalise preconceived mental plan through the stone, with an ecological-enactive vision of participatory mentality where bodily acts and materials act together to generate rather than merely execute thought processes. I argue that the latter participatory view changes the geography of the cognitive and offers a better description for the continuity of mind and matter that we see in the lithic record.

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“…A key aspect of these technological approaches is in underlining the importance of manual gestures and knapping actions in lithic reduction (Forestier 1992;Pelegrin 1993;Texier and Roche 1995;Roche et al 1999). Knappers need to flexibly apply different manual gestures along the knapping sequence to Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany effectively navigate the changing interactions among different functional parameters, including configurations of the striking platform and various force application variables like the hammer striking speed and angle (Roussel et al 2009;Geribàs et al 2010;Rein et al 2013;Vernooij et al 2015;Baena et al 2017;Cueva-Temprana et al 2019). Some studies of modern knappers suggest that these gestural skills and "know-hows" may be acquired through learning and practice, highlighting the significance of cultural transmission in hominin stone tool making (Lycett 2013;Morgan et al 2015;Lycett et al 2016;Pargeter et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Importantly, variation in the angle of blow has been shown to be one of the main parameters that separate novice from expert knappers (Vernooij et al 2015). For instance, experimental studies carried out by Geribàs et al (2010) and Cueva-Temprana et al (2019) both showed that novices tend to prefer striking the hammer in a more direct angle of blow, while experts can effectively control different striking angles to achieve a desired result (Geribàs et al 2010;Rein et al 2013;Cueva-Temprana et al 2019). The importance of controlling the angle of blow also varies with the knapping strategy and goals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying knapping actions: a method for measuring the angle of blow on flakes

Reeves

Lin

et al. 2022

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Stone artifacts are critical for investigating the evolution of hominin behavior—they are among our only proxies for hominin behavior in deep time. Hominin cognition and skill are often inferred by reconstructing the technical decisions hominins made throughout the knapping process. However, despite many advancements in understanding how hominins knapped, some of the key factors involved in past flake production cannot be easily/readily derived from stone artifacts. In particular, the angle at which the knapper strikes the hammer against the core to remove the flake, or the angle of blow, is a key component of the knapping process that has up to now remained unmeasurable on archeological assemblages. In this study, we introduce a new method for estimating the angle of blow from the ventral surface of flakes. This method was derived from a controlled experiment that explicitly connects fracture mechanics to flake variability. We find that a feature of the flake’s bulb of percussion, what we call the bulb angle, is a measurable indicator of the angle of blow. Our experimental finding is further validated in two additional datasets from controlled and replicative knapping experiments. These results demonstrate the utility of continuing to link flake variation with technical decision-making to fracture mechanics. In addition, they also provide a useful and relatively simple means to capture a currently invisible aspect of hominin stone tool production behavior.

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Gestures During Knapping: A Two-perspective Approach to Pleistocene Technologies

Cited by 12 publications

References 47 publications

Oldowan Technology Amid Shifting Environments ∼2.03–1.83 Million Years Ago

Oldowan Technology Amid Shifting Environments ∼2.03–1.83 Million Years Ago

How does thinking relate to tool making?

Quantifying knapping actions: a method for measuring the angle of blow on flakes

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