The oldest handaxes in Europe: fact or artefact?

Jiménez‐Arenas, Juan Manuel; Santonja, Manuel; López, María Carmen López; Palmqvist, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.07.020

Cited by 87 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…Moreover, the recent discovery of la Boella [40] and Estrecho del Quípar [41] in Spain suggests pushing the starting point of European bifacial technology close to the 1 Ma mark (but see [42] for a critique of the chronology). Unfortunately, unlike la Noira, all of these other assemblages are too small for a statistically significant characterization of the industry.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High handaxe symmetry at the beginning of the European Acheulian: The data from la Noira (France) in context

et al. 2017

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In the last few decades, new discoveries have pushed the beginning of the biface-rich European Acheulian from 500 thousand years (ka) ago back to at least 700 ka, and possibly to 1 million years (Ma) ago. It remains, however, unclear to date if handaxes arrived in Europe as a fully developed technology or if they evolved locally from core-and-flake industries. This issue is also linked with another long-standing debate on the existence and behavioral, cognitive, and social meaning of a possibly chronological trend for increased handaxe symmetry throughout the Lower Paleolithic. The newly discovered sites can provide a link between the much older Acheulian in Africa and the Levant and the well-known assemblages from the later European Acheulian, enabling a rigorous testing of these hypotheses using modern morphometric methods. Here we use the Continuous Symmetry Measure (CSM) method to quantify handaxe symmetry at la Noira, a newly excavated site in central France, which features two archaeological levels, respectively ca. 700 ka and 500 ka old. In order to provide a context for the new data, we use a large aggregate from the well-known 500 ka old site of Boxgrove, England. We show that handaxes from the oldest layer at la Noira, although on average less symmetric than both those from the younger layers at the same site and than those from Boxgrove, are nevertheless much more symmetric than other early Acheulian specimens evaluated using the CSM method. We also correlate trends in symmetry to degree of reduction, demonstrating that raw material availability and discard patterns may affect observed symmetry values. We conclude that it is likely that, by the time the Acheulian arrived in Europe, its makers were, from a cognitive and motor-control point of view, already capable of producing the symmetric variant of this technology.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High handaxe symmetry at the beginning of the European Acheulian: The data from la Noira (France) in context

et al. 2017

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“…Additionally, the chronostratigraphy of the site has been highly criticized (Jim enez-Arenas et al, 2011).…”

Section: Technocomplexes Between~16 And~08 Mamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Lower/early Middle Pleistocene small débitage productions in Western Europe: New data from Isernia La Pineta t.3c (Upper Volturno Basin, Italy)

Gallotti

Peretto

2015

Quaternary International

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“…The low precision of existing radiometric results and broader reliance on relative dating techniques have made it difficult to correlate different sites and sections within the Guadix-Baza basin. Additional problems, such as the relatively low temporal resolution of the palaeomagnetic datasets, the unsuitability of some of the deposits in the basin for palaeomagnetism analysis due to remagnetisation effects, and confusion regarding the Plio-Pleistocene biostratigraphic succession, have also resulted in uncertainty over existing chronological schemes (e.g., Gibert et al, 2006;Agustí et al, 2007;Jim enez-Arenas et al, 2011;Oms et al, 2011). Consequently, there remains a need to develop a more reliable, numerical dating framework for the Guadix-Baza sedimentary record using widely applicable techniques that provide coverage over Early to Middle Pleistocene timescales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extended-range luminescence chronologies suggest potentially complex bone accumulation histories at the Early-to-Middle Pleistocene palaeontological site of Huéscar-1 (Guadix-Baza basin, Spain)

Demuro

Arnold

Parés

et al. 2015

Quaternary International

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The oldest handaxes in Europe: fact or artefact?

Cited by 87 publications

References 96 publications

High handaxe symmetry at the beginning of the European Acheulian: The data from la Noira (France) in context

High handaxe symmetry at the beginning of the European Acheulian: The data from la Noira (France) in context

The Lower/early Middle Pleistocene small débitage productions in Western Europe: New data from Isernia La Pineta t.3c (Upper Volturno Basin, Italy)

Extended-range luminescence chronologies suggest potentially complex bone accumulation histories at the Early-to-Middle Pleistocene palaeontological site of Huéscar-1 (Guadix-Baza basin, Spain)

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