Nuts, nut cracking, and pitted stones at Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel

Abstract

The Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (Israel) has revealed a unique association of edible nuts with pitted hammers and anvils. Located in the Dead Sea rift, on the boundary between the Arabian and African plates, the site dates to the Early-Middle Pleistocene, oxygen isotope stage 19. In a series of strata, seven species of nuts, most of which can be cracked open only by a hard hammer, were uncovered. Five of the species are extant terrestrial nuts, and two are aquatic nuts now extinct in the Levant. In addition, the site yielded an assemblage of pitted hammers and anvils similar in pit morphology to those used by chimpanzees and contemporary hunter-gatherers. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a site has offered both paleobotanical and lithic evidence of plant foods eaten by early hominins and technologies used for processing these foods. The evidence also sheds light on the structure of the community: ethnographic analogies suggest that mixedgender groups may have been active on the shores of paleoLake Hula.

Functional mastery of percussive technology in nut-cracking and stone-flaking actions: experimental comparison and implications for the evolution of the human brain

“…Stone tool use to crack open bones would have been an essential technique in the Oldowan hominin repertoire. Pitted stones that could have been used for bone and nut cracking or for bipolar stone flaking are found in Oldowan levels at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania) and also at Melka Kunture (Ethiopia), although the nut-cracking function is not yet directly attested for sites older than Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (Israel), where nut remains have been found in association with stones with surface pitting, and which dates to oxygen isotope stage 19 (ca 780 000 BP; [44]). …”

4,300-Year-old chimpanzee sites and the origins of percussive stone technology

“…The maximum length, three-dimensional volume, and total mass of stone products can help elucidate the agency that generated them. A review of hammer metrics from early sites (9,10,25) indicates that the hominin hand accommodates hammerstone up to 12 cm in maximum length, often Ͻ8 cm. Hominin hammers typically weigh Ͻ400 g, and even anvils, the largest component of this bimodal technology, on average, reach a maximum weight of 1,000 g, but often weigh much less.…”

Stone tool analysis and human origins research: Some advice from uncle Screwtape

“…Since early hominins also used stones to pulverize nuts and seeds, 23 functional cutting edges are clearly the derived component of early hominin lithic technology. The oldest evidence of the use of stone tool edges to cut things now dates to 3.5 Ma.…”