The origins of stone tool technology in Africa: a historical perspective

Abstract

The search for the earliest stone tools is a topic that has received much attention in studies on the archaeology of human origins. New evidence could position the oldest traces of stone tool-use before 3.39 Myr, substantially earlier than previously documented. Nonetheless, the first unmistakable evidence of tool-making dates to 2.6 Ma, the period in which Oldowan assemblages first appear in the East African record. However, this is not an unchangeable time boundary, and considerations about the tempo and modo of tool-making emergence have varied through time. This paper summarizes the history of research on the origins of stone knapping in Africa and places the current evidence in a historical perspective.

The origins of the Acheulean: past and present perspectives on a major transition in human evolution

“…The terminology became relatively standardized; the first Pan-African prehistory conference had agreed on the use of the term Chelles-Acheulean for handaxe assemblages, and pre-Chelles-Acheul-which included Oldowan and Kafuan (see [24] for a review of this latter term)-for earlier core and flake industries [27]. This framework was endorsed in research across Africa during subsequent years (e.g.…”

“…In East Africa, the succession of discoveries would also force accommodation of new cultures unknown in Europe; thus, Leakey [23] reported a pebble industry in the lowermost deposits of Olduvai Gorge. While a discussion of the historical roots of the Oldowan is beyond the scope of this paper (see review in [24]), it is relevant here to stress that Louis Leakey presented for the first time a credible (i.e. excluding the Eolithic) technological precursor to the handaxe-bearing culture; this provided a basal limit to the Chellean/Abbevillian-Acheulean, for which previously only the upper boundary (i.e.…”

Culture and cognition in the Acheulian industry: a case study from Gesher Benot Yaʿaqov

“…Clearly, the lack of information should not be interpreted as lack of change, innovation or cognitive ability. The recent discoveries concerning cognitive aspects of the Oldowan Technocomplex [70], which predates the Acheulian [71,72], serve to illustrate the difficulty of obtaining data to assess hominin cognitive abilities.…”

What drives the evolution of hunter–gatherer subsistence technology? A reanalysis of the risk hypothesis with data from the Pacific Northwest

“…First, artefacts linked to the acquisition and processing of food dominate our main source of information about the evolution of hominin culture, the archaeological record. Recent discoveries suggest that hominins have been producing material culture for 3.4 Myr [1,2]. More or less all of the artefacts that have been recovered from the first 3.3 Myr of this time period appear to have been employed in subsistence activities.…”