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

Torre, Ignacio de la

doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0245

Cited by 93 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…However, the Acheulean is also defined by technological practices associated with the manufacture of LCTs, such as the making of large flake blanks often from cores with a prepared surface (Sharon, 2007), and marginal thinning, commonly with a soft hammer or billet to impose deliberate shape on the LCT (Newcomer, 1971). Good introductions to handaxes are present in a number of references (de la Torre, 2016;Emery, 2010;Goren-Inbar and Sharon, 2006;Machin, 2009;Newcomer, 1971). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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The Acheulean is defined by its iconic tool type, the handaxe, and a suite of other large cutting tools (LCTs). These tools retain information on technical and procedural practices concerned with the manufacture of these butchery tools and carcass processing knives. The Acheulean straddles the period in which more ancient hominin species (H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis) give way to archaic H. sapiens (sensu lato) amongst whom the ancestor of modern humans may be found. The roots of modern behaviour may be present in these handaxe making hominin species, and the handaxes themselves, through proxy data such as bilateral symmetry, may chart hominin cognitive evolution as researchers such as T. Wynn and F. Coolidge (2016), amongst others, have argued. But the search for the earliest consistent application of symmetry, and its persistence thereafter has been hampered by the lack of large datasets, spanning the temporal extent of the Acheulean, and analysed through a single consistent methodology.Our paper has two aims. The first, and in the absence of a large comparative data set of earlier Acheulean handaxes, is to assess the degree to which symmetry is consistently applied to the making of handaxes in the later Acheulean (=<0.5 mya), a time when bilateral planform symmetry should already be an integral component in handaxe making. The dataset we select is the British Acheulean from MIS 13 -MIS 3/4. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time handaxe symmetry has been assessed on a large body of British Acheulean handaxes. Our second aim is to present a relatively simple and low tech methodology for the analysis of handaxes

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…These palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological studies also allow us to explore the relationships between the environmental context and evolutionary change. Uno et al [21] highlight evidence from Turkana showing marked changes around 1.9 Ma, which, as they note, more or less coincides with the appearance of the Acheulean, as described by de la Torre [17]. Fortelius [16] also notes marked changes between 1.87 and 1.5 Ma, and this similarly coincides with a period of evolutionary dynamism.…”

Section: Is There a Pattern To Transitions? Geography And The Role Ofmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…On the one hand, the appearance of stone tools by approximately 3.3 Ma [5] predates the known appearance of Homo by about half a million years and so also predates the expected relationship between expanding brains and technology. On the other hand, the appearance of the Acheulean appears to be close to the first known H. erectus/ergaster [17], and so is suggestive of a relationship. But in both cases there remains room for doubt.…”

Section: Is There a Pattern To Transitions? From Genotype To Extendedmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Perhaps the most striking of these is the centrality of Africa in evolutionary change-the first hominins, the earliest diversification of early hominins [14], the earliest stone tools [5], the earliest Homo [7], the earliest Acheulean [17], the first modern humans [10,11] and the beginnings of modern human behaviour and organization [18,19]. There might be a taphonomic bias in some of the dominance of Africa, but genetics, which is not subject to such a bias, certainly supports it for some of these events.…”

Section: Is There a Pattern To Transitions? Geography And The Role Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Major transitions in human evolution

Foley

Martin

Stringer

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Slightly younger sites are found in Gona (Quade et al, 2008) and Olduvai (Diez-Martin et al, 2015), indicating the rapid spread of the Acheulean across East Africa. Although paleo-ecological factors and evolutionary implications of the Oldowan-Acheulean transition still need to be elucidated, stone tool assemblages suggest that important behavioural and cognitive changes were associated with the emergence of the Acheulean (see a discussion in de la Torre, 2016), and thus technological studies are crucial in order to understand this transition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technological behaviour in the early Acheulean of EF-HR (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)

Torre

Mora

2018

Journal of Human Evolution

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Technological strategies of early humans are discussed in the light of a recently excavated stone tool assemblage from EF-HR, an archaeological site older than 1.33 Ma at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Renewed fieldwork at EF-HR has unearthed a lithic collection containing over 2300 artefacts (including a hundred handaxes in stratigraphic position), which represents one of the largest assemblages for the early Acheulean in eastern Africa. Our technological study shows co-occurrence of two distinctive reduction sequences in the same assemblage, one aimed at obtaining small flakes and the other focused on the production of large, thick, heavy flakes that were then used as blanks for handaxe shaping. Flaking of small cores is expedient and low intensity, and knapping methods are similar to those observed in earlier Oldowan assemblages. Large Cutting Tools (LCTs) show no evidence of planform and biconvex symmetry, and shaping sequences are brief and discontinuous, indicating short use-lives for handaxes. Bifaces are rare and atypical. Recurrent morphotypes are knives, which are poorly-shaped, scraper-like, large-sized handaxes. Despite the apparent expediency of EF-HR handaxe production, a closer inspection of the interplay between debitage and façonnage stages reveals remarkably standardized procedural patterns. Large Cutting Tool blanks were produced following fixed knapping rules resulting in flakes with a specific morphology and mass distribution. Adapted to the idiosyncrasies of each blank, shaping was almost invariably imposed over the same areas in all LCTs and sought to produce morphotypes that, technologically, are remarkably identical to each other. This strongly supports the existence of mental templates and technical rules that were systematically practiced in LCT production at EF-HR, and underscore the structured nature of technological behaviour at the onset of the Acheulean in eastern Africa.

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

Cited by 93 publications

References 87 publications

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

Major transitions in human evolution

Technological behaviour in the early Acheulean of EF-HR (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)

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