Abstract
BackgroundReconstructing the dispersal patterns of extinct hominins remains a challenging but essential goal. One means of supplementing fossil evidence is to utilize archaeological evidence in the form of stone tools. Based on broad dating patterns, it has long been thought that the appearance of Acheulean handaxe technologies outside of Africa was the result of hominin dispersals, yet independent tests of this hypothesis remain rare. Cultural transmission theory leads to a prediction of a strong African versus non-African phylogeographic pattern in handaxe datasets, if the African Acheulean hypothesis is to be supported.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere, this prediction is tested using an intercontinental dataset of Acheulean handaxes and a biological phylogenetic method (maximum parsimony). The analyses produce a tree consistent with the phylogeographic prediction. Moreover, a bootstrap analysis provides evidence that this pattern is robust, and the maximum parsimony tree is also shown to be statistically different from a tree constrained by stone raw materials.Conclusions/SignificanceThese results demonstrate that nested analyses of behavioural data, utilizing methods drawn from biology, have the potential to shed light on ancient hominin dispersals. This is an encouraging prospect for human palaeobiology since sample sizes for lithic artefacts are many orders of magnitude higher than those of fossil data. These analyses also suggest that the sustained occurrence of Acheulean handaxe technologies in regions such as Europe and the Indian subcontinent resulted from dispersals by African hominin populations.
Highlights
Understanding the dispersal patterns of Plio-Pleistocene hominins is a major research focus in palaeoanthropology (e.g. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10])
It has long been thought that the appearance of Acheulean handaxes outside of Africa is the result of hominin dispersals from that continent into Eurasia
Such thinking is based largely on the fact that the oldest examples of Acheulean handaxes appear in Africa, yet crucially, formal and independent tests of this hypothesis remain rare
Summary
Understanding the dispersal patterns of Plio-Pleistocene hominins is a major research focus in palaeoanthropology (e.g. [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]). Since the oldest known examples of handaxe technology are known from eastern and southern Africa, it is a widely held assumption within palaeoanthropology that their appearance in more distant regions of the Old World is due to the dispersal of African populations who took knowledge of this technology with them [7,11,16,17]. While such a scenario is broadly consistent with the available chronological data, formal and independent tests of this hypothesis remain rare. Cultural transmission theory leads to a prediction of a strong African versus non-African phylogeographic pattern in handaxe datasets, if the African Acheulean hypothesis is to be supported
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
