Stone toolmaking difficulty and the evolution of hominin technological skills

Abstract

Stone tools are a manifestation of the complex cognitive and dexterous skills of our hominin ancestors. As such, much research has been devoted to understanding the skill requirements of individual lithic technologies. Yet, comparing skill across different technologies, and thus across the vast timespan of the Palaeolithic, is an elusive goal. We seek to quantify a series of commensurable metrics of knapping skill across four different lithic technologies (discoids, handaxes, Levallois, and prismatic blades). To compare the requisite dexterity, coordination, and care involved in each technology, we analysed video footage and lithic material from a series of replicative knapping experiments to quantify deliberation (strike time), precision (platform area), intricacy (flake size relative to core size), and success (relative blank length). According to these four metrics, discoidal knapping appears to be easiest among the sample. Levallois knapping involved an intricate reduction sequence, but did not require as much motor control as handaxes and especially prismatic blades. Compared with the other Palaeolithic technologies, we conclude that prismatic blade knapping is set apart by being a skill intensive means of producing numerous standardised elongate end-products.

The limestone spheroids of ‘Ubeidiya: intentional imposition of symmetric geometry by early hominins?

“…If symmetry was desired by knappers of Acheulean handaxes, which are symmetrical in three axes, then spheroids, symmetrical in all directions, also fulfil this need. Thus, spheroids also likely required similar levels of skill, forethought and planning to those encountered in handaxe manufacture [69,[71][72][73][74][75].…”

The Proceduralization of Hominin Knapping Skill: Memorizing Different Lithic Technologies

“…To explore the long-term evolution of knapping-skill acquisition, we filmed and subsequently recorded the technical actions and sequences of gestures involved in discoidal, handaxe, Levallois and prismatic blade knapping. This footage was derived from a series of recent experiments in which we filmed an expert knapper (CC) conducting different percussion technologies and collected the resultant flakes (Muller et al 2017; 2022b; Muller & Clarkson 2016; 2022). Each strike, rotation and instance of platform preparation was recorded in sequence by AM.…”

“…Where there was any ambiguity in the actions, the knapper was consulted for clarification. Following the methods outlined in Muller et al (2017; 2022b), the duration of each action was timed to the nearest tenth of a second using the video player timestamp. From these results, we estimated the propensity for proceduralization inherently involved in these technologies by quantifying the repetitiveness and predictability of these sequences.…”

“…Comparing the skill acquisition among different technologies has rarely been attempted, however. Moreover, instead of knapping skill (Muller et al 2022b), we are here interested in whether these technologies lend themselves to proceduralization, and if so, how this proceduralization is achieved.…”

After the Revolution: A Review of 3D Modelling as a Tool for Stone Artefact Analysis

“…Clarkson 2013;Clarkson and Hiscock 2011;Grosman, Smikt and Smilansky 2008) and on Acheulean bifaces (e.g. Grosman, Goldsmith and Smilansky 2011; Herzlinger, Goren-Inbar and Grosman 2017; Muller, Shipton and Clarkson 2022;Clarkson 2015a, 2015b). The influence of these key authors and institutions can be seen in a direct historic citation network of the field (Figure 5).…”