Stone Tools in Early Archaeology - Crafting History

1. Early Stone Tools The earliest archaeology www.shadowspastaf.com

2. Artifacts • Any object that owes any of its attributes to human activity—usually a discrete object. • Stone tools are the earliest artifacts, why? • How might the preservation equation matter here? P = MCDST.

4. The basics: how are stone tools made? • All stone tools come from a source rock known as a core. • Flint knapping is the process of making stone tools from cores. • Cores are of particular kinds of rock. • Fine grained • Few inclusions • Hard, but not brittle • Chert, obsidian, quartz homepage.ntlworld.com

5. Percussion • Flakes are generally removed from cores via percussion (hitting) the core with a hammer. • Hard-hammer percussion produces large flakes. • Soft-hammer percussion produces finer, smaller flakes. • Indirect percussion produces long-thin flakes called blades. • Blades are flakes that are twice as long as they are wide.

6. images.encarta.msn.com Hard Hammer large cones of force www.geocities.com Principle of conchoidal fracture: A cone of force is propelled from the hammer through the rock causing it to fracture in predictable ways: requires fined-grained rock w/ few inclusions. www.cwct.co.uk

7. Soft Hammers medium cone of force

8. Indirect percussion small cone of force Lithic Reduction Strategy: Flakes of all sizes & shapes can be removed from the core. Flakes = thin, sharp slivers of stone removed from a core during the knapping process. The smaller the cone of force, the smaller the flakes & the more controlled the knapping. Scarre 2005:162

9. Archaeological Chronology • We now begin to divide prehistory by cultural period. • The periods are chunks of time that correspond to different kinds of tool technology. • Previously the entire focus was on fossils; now it is on tools & fossils.

10. Technology changes through time

11. An Outline of Chronology • Basal Paleolithic: 2.5 – 1.8 mya • Lower Paleolithic: 1.8 m – 250 kya • Middle Paleolithic: 250 – 40 kya • Upper Paleolithic: 40 – +/- 10 kya • Mesolithic: starts & ends at different times in different places. • Neolithic: starts & ends at different times in different places.

12. The Basal Paleolithic Period • 2.5 – 1.8 mya • Oldowan tools • Olduvai Gorge • Stone tools: cores & flakes • Faunal remains • Giraffes, hippos, antelopes, elephants • Cutmarks: at least 1 elephant was butchered • Hunters or scavengers? www.liv.ac.uk

13. www.amonline.net.au www.ucm.es

14. www.amnh.org www.erin.utoronto.ca Microscopically, cutmarks from sharp stone flakes are V-shaped in profile. The key is to find several parallel marks with V-shaped profiles in areas where limbs or flesh would have been removed from skeletons.

15. Basal Paleolithic Fossils • Homo habilis • The tool maker & user? • Brain size 600 to 800 cc • Robust australopithecines • Still around during the Basal Paleolithic • Could they have made the tools? claudiogutierrez.com

17. Lower Paleolithic Period • 1.8 m – 250 kya • Acheulean handaxe tools • “the Swiss army knife of the Lower Paleolithic • More refined than previous tools • Peninj (Tanzania), Ubeidiya (Israel), 1.4 mya • Outside of Africa • Zhoukoudian (China), Schoningen (Germany)

18. Acheulean Handaxe “An icon of the Lower Paleolithic period [1.8 million to 250,000 years ago], the distinctive tear-drop shaped Acheulean handaxe (pronounced ash-oo-lee`an) has been called the Swiss Army knife of the era. The handaxe was an all-purpose tool that was used for a multitude of tasks that included cutting meat, sawing, drilling holes, digging, and other tasks. Acheulean handaxes have been found over much of Europe, Africa, and Asia; from the British Isles to southern Africa, and from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal) to China.“ Science Museum of Minnesota www.smm.org www.smm.org Object: Acheulean HandaxeAccession: A70:11:11Dimensions: 12.9 cm long x 7.4 cm wide x 2.9 cm thickCollected: Southwestern France, Dordogne regionMaterials: FlintPeriod: Lower PaleolithicAge: approximately 500,000 - 200,000 years old

19. anthro.palomar.edu

20. www.vobs.at Lower Paleolithic Fossils • Homo ergaster • 1.8 m – 600 kya • East African Rift Valley • 600 – 910 cc brain size • Tools = late Olduwan & early Acheulean • Homo ergaster is restricted primarily (??) to Africa

21. Lower Paleolithic Fossils Peking Man: Zhoukoudian 500 – 300 kya • Homo erectus • 1.0 m – 100 kya • Asia & Southeast Asia • 810 – 1250 cc brain size • Tools = Acheulean • Homo erectus is outside of Africa. • H. erectus evolved out of H. ergaster & became extinct by 100 kya. www.evolutionnyc.com

22. Lower Paleolithic Fossils • Homoheidelbergensis • 600 – 300 kya • Africa & Europe • 1225 – 1300 cc brain size • Tools: Late Acheulean • Evolved out of H. ergaster & led to H. sapiens & Neanderthals. Rhodesian Man: Broken Hill 300 kya

23. Summary of Lower Paleolithic • H. ergaster is hypothesized to have evolved from H. habilis between 1.8 & 1.6 mya. • H. erectus evolved out of H. ergaster in Asia around 1 mya. • H. heidelbergensis evolved from H. ergaster in Africa by 600 kya. • H. heidelbergensis evolved into H. sapiens & Neanderthals between 400 & 250 kya.

24. Two Important Concepts • Anagenesis: evolution of a new species in the same place without branching. Non-branching evolution. • H. ergaster (Africa) into H. heidelbergensis (Africa) • Cladogenesis: evolution of a new species resulting from a population splitting into a new area. Branching evolution. • H. ergaster (Africa) into H. erectus (Asia)

25. H. sapiens H. neanderthalensis H. heidelbergensis 600 - 300 kya H. erectus 1 m – 100 kya H. ergaster 1.8 m – 600 kya H. habilis 2.5 – 1.8 mya www.evolutionnyc.com www.vobs.at claudiogutierrez.com

26. Important questions • When did humans move outside of Africa? • What evidence do we have for movement outside of Africa? • Which species moved outside of Africa, H. habilis, H ergaster, H. erectus?