Acheulean Research Articles

Why are some handaxes symmetrical? Testing the influence of handaxe morphology on butchery effectiveness

The morphology of Acheulean handaxes continues to be a subject of debate amongst Lower Palaeolithic archaeologists, with some arguing that many handaxes are over-engineered for a subsistence function alone. This study aims to provide an empirical foundation for these debates by testing the relationship between a range of morphological variables, including symmetry, and the effectiveness of handaxes for butchery. Sixty handaxes were used to butcher 30 fallow deer by both a professional and a non-professional butcher. Regression analysis on the resultant data set indicates that while frontal symmetry may explain a small amount of variance in the effectiveness of handaxes for butchery, a large percentage of variance remains unexplained by symmetry or any of the other morphological variables under consideration.

Stones of Contention: The Acheulean Handaxe Lethal Projectile Controversy

The function of the Acheulean handaxe is controversial. Several competing usage theories are currently being debated amongst paleoanthropologists. One such hypothesis is the lethal projectile theory. Past experimentation has indicated that the handaxe could have been used as a lethal projectile thrown from a distance to hunt prey. Ibis actualistic study augments such experimentation. The latest argument posed by Whittaker and McCall opposing the utility of the lethal projectile theory indicates vastly different results from O'Brien's experimentation, which was notable for finding that a majority of thrown handaxes landed point or edge first. Whittaker and McCall's study found that a significant proportion of impacts were flat-face landings.This study increases the data set, using three separate handaxe replicas. It results in an edge/point landing percentage that is comparable to O'Brien's results and suggests that O'Brien's findings are representative of the past situation, although functional hypotheses that support the handaxe as a general utility tool are not discounted. While the evidence produced by this study is equivocal, it generally supports the efficacy of throwing as a function for the Acheulean handaxe.

L'émergence des identités culturelles au Paléolithique inférieur : le cas de l'Italie

The rise of cultural identities in the Lower Palaeolithic: the case of Italy. The coexistence of different human groups in the period dated between 600 and 300 Ka is evidenced by different cultural traditions. These are described as follows: (1) a ‘Tayacian’ group, characterised by small lithic industry, by the presence of dihedral ventral surface, by a high carinal index, by an often-raised Quina-type retouch and by a variable percentage of denticulates and scrapers, while handaxes are rare, if not absent (Loreto di Venosa, Visogliano A couches 46–40, Visogliano B); (2) a ‘denticulate’ group found exclusively in Visogliano A, layers 39–37; (3) a ‘Clactonian’ group characterised by large, thick, but rarely carinated flakes, a large number of scrapers, few denticulates; the handaxes are rare or absent (east side of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia); (4) an ‘Acheulean’ group, in which different subgroups can be distinguished, relying upon the number of handaxes as well as the characters of the flake industry. In Latium and in Notarchirico di Venosa, flakes are small and often carinated; Early Acheulean handaxes from Gargano and the Adriatic area are accompanied by large, massive flakes (mainly scrapers). To cite this article: R. Grifoni, C. Tozzi, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) .

The emergence of a symbolic behaviour: the sepulchral pit of Sima de los Huesos, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain

Sima de los Huesos is one of the most complex Pleistocene sites at Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). This pit has yielded a number of 28 hominids dated around 400 kyr. This is the most complete collection of Middle Pleistocene Homo heidelbergensis around the world. Sima de los Huesos was never a hominid occupation place, since no traces of habitation has been discovered, nor a carnivores net, because there are not herbivores remains. However, it contains a large variety of carnivores, such as foxes, large felidae, wolfs, mustelids, and bears. The presence of these specimens may be explained as several events of natural falling, hibernation and catastrophic death, particularly clear for the bears' case. This may be supported by the fact that all these specimens are present along the whole sedimentary sequence. On the contrary, human remains are mostly concentrated inside a quite discrete sedimentary level, which cannot be explained by any kind of catastrophic nor attritional event, according with the age's profile. The recent finding of an Acheulean handaxe at the Sima de los Huesos cave site casts light on the evolution of human behaviour during the Middle Pleistocene. It is a finely flaked quartzite handaxe, which is associated with the hominid assemblage. The particular nature of the deposit involving its taphonomy, palaeontology, and technology points to a symbolic meaning both of the tool and the human accumulation. This would support the hypothesis of human mortuary practices performed at the Sima around 400 kyr ago. This discovery allows us to extend human complex behaviour and symbolism of mortuary rituals 300 kyr earlier than broadly heretofore accepted. To cite this article: E. Carbonell, M. Mosquera, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) .

The oldest human groups in the Levant

Between 2.5 and 0.8 Myr, at least four episodes of hominine dispersal from Africa to the Levant are known, each culturally distinct. All have settled on lakes or river banks. The oldest occurrence is Yiron, in the northern portion of the Israeli Rift, with flint artefacts in a fluviatile deposit below a basalt layer dated 2.4 Myr. Yiron was followed by the Ubeidiya group in the central Rift ca. 1.4 Myr, with a Lower Acheulean industry. Somewhat later, the Bizat Ruhama group has settled (1.0 Myr) in the eastern coastal plain, with a small, microlith-size industry. Around 0.8 Myr, newcomers have settled at Gesher Benot Yaaqov (GBY) in the northern Rift, introducing the cleaver tradition. None of the sites yielded human remains. The cultures of Bizat Ruhama and GBY have subsequently disappeared. During the Lower Palaeolithic the Levant remained largely an Acheulean province, probably evolved from Ubeidiya. The Late/Final Acheulean, with developed Levallois technology is the possible ancestor of the Middle Palaeolithic ‘Levallois–Mousterian’. To cite this article: A. Ronen, C. R. Palevol 5 (2006) .

The Spell of Oral History: A Case Study from Northern Igboland

My case study is taken from the northern Igbo of Nigeria and focuses on the village-group of Ihuwe, which name is today rendered as Ihube— thanks to its Anglicization during the period of colonial rule. This not-withstanding, the people still call themselves “Ihuwe,” the form I use in this paper. The Northern Igbo area, especially the area around Awka, Orlu, and Okigwe, is commonly regarded as the heartland of Igbo culture and civilization. Ihuwe, in that portion of old Okigwe Division known today as Okigwe Local Government Area (LGA), lies in a region of southern Nigeria that has been identified as having witnessed human activity from very early times, at least from the period of Acheulean culture. It also lies on the geographically and historically prominent Nsukka-Udi-Okigwe cuesta, which archeology tells us entered the Iron Age quite early in African history, no later than about the eighth century BCE. We are thus dealing with one of the areas of ancient human occupation, as well as an area known for its dense demographic profile. It is these features–early human settlement and occupation with its attendant consequence of severely attenuated oral history, dense demographic profile, and being the cradle land of Igbo culture—that help to define the Northern Igbo and mark them out from the Western, Eastern, Southern, and North-Eastern Igbo, believed to be relatively more recent descendants from them.Perhaps another feature that calls for mention here is their political culture. Although, like their other Igbo kinsmen, they could boast of having evolved only micro-, and therefore weak, states (what social anthropologists of the colonial period refused to refer to as states), they had their own special model of these micro-states.

Exhibitions: exotica and exigencies

Two exhibitions, in England and France, are showing different ways to promote interest in archaeology and history from regions afar. Sudan: ancient treasures is a lavish and elegant show at the British Museum, London. In Auch, Le crépuscule des dieux, on the Americas, is imaginative but penurious. The first raises an ethical worry, the second a couple of technical principles.Sudan displays some 350 exhibits, from an Acheulian handaxe to Medieval inscriptions, all from the Sudan National Museum, celebrating its centenary. Most are clearly arranged in chronological sections, and amplifying the narrative are an effective introduction and sections on goldwork, pottery and burials. The exhibition is completed by photographs of the multinational Meroe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project, which (it is claimed) has enhanced knowledge of the Sudan’s northern Nile. My visit was amidst a steady flow of highly attentive visitors from the world over and an excited but also attentive school party.

The Pleistocene fauna (other than Primates) from Asbole, lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia, and its environmental and biochronological implications

The Asbole area in the Lower Awash Valley yielded a diverse fauna of large and small mammals, associated with an Acheulean industry. The most notable forms are a potentially new species of herpestid, a large collection of Kolpochoerus majus, and the earliest known Bos in Africa. Biochronologically, this fauna belongs to the earliest Middle Pleistocene, and is roughly contemporaneous with the Bodo site further south. Paleoenvironmentally, the fauna suggests a mosaic of landscapes among which humid environments, grasslands and forests, are predominant. La région d’Asbole dans la basse vallée de l’Awash a livré une faune diversifiée de grands et petits Mammifères associée à une industrie acheuléenne. Les formes les plus remarquables sont une mangouste d’une espèce probablement nouvelle, une importante collection de Kolpochoerus majus, et le plus ancien Bos connu en Afrique. La biochronologie permet de la placer au tout début du Pléistocène moyen, et elle serait donc à peu près contemporaine du site de Bodo un peu plus au sud. Cette faune témoigne d’une mosaïque de milieux parmi lesquels les environnements humides, prairies et forêts, semblent dominer.

Acheulean Culture in Peninsular India: An Ecological Perspective (review)

Acheulean Culture in Peninsular India: An Ecological Perspective (review)

Small mid-Pleistocene hominin associated with East African Acheulean technology.

Hominin fossils from the African mid-Pleistocene are rare despite abundant Acheulean tools in Africa and apparently African-derived hominins in Eurasia between 1.0 and 0.5 million years ago (Ma). Here we describe an African fossil cranium constrained by 40Ar/39Ar analyses, magnetostratigraphy, and sedimentary features to 0.97 to 0.90 Ma, and stratigraphically associated with Acheulean handaxes. Although the cranium represents possibly the smallest adult or near-adult known between 1.7 and 0.5 Ma, it retains features observed in larger Homo erectus individuals, yet shows a distinct suite of traits indicative of wide population variation in the hominins of this period.

Identification of MIS 11 Interglacial tufa deposit in the Somme valley (France): new results from the Saint-Acheul fluvial sequence

Recently a new cleaned profile at Saint-Acheul in the Somme valley (type section for the Lower Palaeolithic Acheulean industry), has provided an opportunity to undertake malacological analysis and ESR dating on a tufa deposit at the top of the fluvial sequence. The context of the basal alluvial sheet within the terrace system of the Middle Somme valley allows attribution of the fluvial deposits of Saint-Acheul to the Garenne Formation (Formation V of the system), which has been previously allocated to MIS 12 and 11. The upper part of the Saint- Acheul sequence (slope deposits) is mainly composed of Upper Saahan loess, overlain by Upper Pleistocene deposits and soils, separated from the fluvial beds by erosion and a long hiatus. The Upper Pleistocene succession includes an arctic brown soil horizon (the so-called «Sol de Saint Acheul»), representing the results of pedogenesis throughout the Weichselian Middle Pleniglacial (MIS 3). Chronostratigraphic interpretation of the underlying fluvial deposits is now consolidated by an ESR age determination on quartz (403 ± 73 kyrs BP), consistent with a MIS 11 allocation. Malacofaunas recovered from the tufa deposit are rich and diversified (60 taxa) and the presence of no less than 23 forest species point unequivocally to climatic optimum conditions. Fluvial taxa are represented by 17 aquatic species of slow-flowing water. Terrestrial habitats consist of open-grassland, as demonstrated by the strong development of Pupilla, Vallonia and Trichia species, and of wooded areas. Among the forest molluscs several species are out of their modern ranges (Platyla polita, Ena montana, Ruthenica filograna, Clausilia pumila, Macrogastra ventricosa, Perforatella bidentata, P. incarnata, H. limbata). Most noteworthy of all is the occurrence of the extinct Zonitid Retinella (Lyrodiscus) skertchlyi. These species belong to the particular «Lyrodiscus biome» recognised in several tufa deposits from north-west Europe, all allocated to MIS 11. Finally, these results reinforce the interpretation of the Somme terraces system as a model of river response to Milankovitch cycles during the Pleistocene.

Stratigraphy, palaeoenvironments and model for the deposition of the Abdur Reef Limestone: context for an important archaeological site from the last interglacial on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea

Stone tools discovered within uplifted marine terraces along the Red Sea coast of Eritrea at the Abdur Archaeological Site, dated to 125±7 ka (the last interglacial, marine isotope stage 5e), show that early humans occupied coastal areas by this time [Walter et al. (2000) Nature 405, 65–69]. In the present paper the stratigraphy, facies types and faunal composition from 25 measured sections of the tool-bearing Abdur Reef Limestone (ARL) are documented in detail and interpreted to provide a palaeoenvironmental context for the stone artefacts and a model for the deposition of the ARL. The ARL represents a complex marine terrace sequence. Erosional surfaces indicative of interrupted sedimentation are locally observed at two levels within the ARL. They subdivide the complex into three subunits, named 5e 1, 5e 2, and 5e 3, representing different stages of the marine isotope stage 5e sea level highstand, comprising six depositional phases ( I– VI) of the ARL. Subunit 5e 1 begins with the initial transgression of the 5e sea level highstand leading to the deposition of widespread lag gravels on which rich oyster beds developed in shallow water (phase I). It further records rapid deepening accompanied by the deposition of low-energy carbonates with scarce corals (phase II), and later shoaling characterised by local development of a fringing reef tract in a sedimented environment (phase III). Subunit 5e 1 is capped locally by a burrowed hardground that is laterally equivalent to depositional discontinuities, interpreted as caused by a globally recognised mid-5e sea level low stand (phase IV). Extensive reef build-up in response to sea level rise and improved conditions for coral growth characterises subunit 5e 2 (phase V). A possible second sea level drop during the 5e highstand is inferred from the oyster-encrusted upper surface of subunit 5e 2. Subunit 5e 3 encompasses restricted coral patches that developed on the upper surface of the underlying subunit during the last stage of the 5e marine high stand (phase VI). Two different toolkits are found in the ARL. One consists of bifacial hand axes and cores of the Acheulian industry, typically associated with the oyster beds encrusted on the transgressive lag deposits. The other consists of Middle Stone Age (MSA)-type obsidian flakes and blades, mainly found in the nearshore and beach environments alongside debris from marine invertebrates and large land mammals. The distribution of these tools suggests that foraging activities of early humans varied with environmental setting. The Abdur Archaeological Site represents a late example of the Acheulian/MSA transition, seen as a benchmark for early modern human behaviour, and is, to date, the earliest well-dated example of early human adaptation to marine food resources.

Homo erectus in East and Southeast Asia, and the questions of the age of the species and its association with stone artifacts, with special attention to handaxe-like tools

Homo ergaster/Homo erectus in Africa and H. erectus in the Old World are securely associated with a toolkit of well-conceived bifacially worked implements of handaxes and cleavers of the Acheulean techno-complex. In India, the abundant handaxe–cleaver assemblages have always been attributed as the work of H. erectus on the basis of comparisons with Africa and the Old World. In 1982, the first cranium of an advanced H. erectus was discovered. In Central Java, many fossil remains of H. erectus have come to light since Dubois found the first skull in 1891. However, it could never be securely established which tools belonged to H. erectus. The Sangiran and Ngandong industries of small flakes have provisionally been connected with late H. erectus soloensis. The Pacitan industry, Java, which has yielded a number of handaxe-like tools, and the so-called handaxes from Cabenge in Sulawesi, have now been established as being of uppermost Pleistocene age, being the work of modern humans. In China and Korea, “handaxes” have been recorded at several truly Early Paleolithic sites, such as Chongokni, Lantian, Bose, and Dingcun. However, these findings are widely dispersed and only indicate that such pointed and sometimes bifacially worked tools are occasional elements within a cobble tool tradition. H. erectus of Zhoukoudian Locality I, on the other hand, is associated with a small flake industry. No Chinese Paleolithic site can be definitely connected with an Acheulean tradition.

Cultural continuity and its implications on human evolution: A study from eastern Indian

Evidence of human evolution in India is mainly limited to cultural remains. Despite lack of proper absolute chronology a developmental pattern is established. Present work focuses on a specific region in the state of Orissa, located on eastern plateau region. So far no human fossil remain has been found from this area but there is enough cultural evidence to postulate evolutionary sequence. The earliest cultural remain, rich in Acheulian tradition, is found from the lower gravel bed, dated c. 0.3 myr B.P. on the basis of Toba ash. Then onward cultural evidences are found constantly from subsequent beds. Size diminution and refinement of technology is the hallmark for progress. Celts and polishing grinding technology is generally considered as the final phase of Stone Age technology. Findings from the region indicate continuation of the Stone Age tradition for a long time even into the recent past. The earliest metal finding is brass. This alloy is not only persisting in the region but even the technology of making brass objects is the same today. The tribal communities, the indigenous people living in the area, bear a legacy of behavioural strategy for survival. It appears that in the areas, life continued without a break from prehistory to present day in a processual manner. A similar situation is found in Africa, where as a result of comprehensive work the process of continuity is properly understood. In India, lack of absolute dates is the major hindrance for this kind of work. An attempt is made here to understand the behaviour, ecology and other related factors responsible for cultural continuity in the studied area.

A Figurine from the African Acheulian

A Figurine from the African Acheulian

Three Roots of Human Recency

Conceptions of human antiquity have changed dramatically over time, with recent evidence (and opinion) pointing to the relative recencyca. 105 years agoof language, kindled fire, compoundtool use, and a number of other presumed signs of human symbolic intelligence. A concomitant change has been the dehumanizing of early hominids, a transformation visible in the separate sciences of archaeology, paleontology, and molecular anthropology. Understandings of humanity have changed in response to discoveries in these fields but also in response to struggles over how to understand race, brutality, and the oldest tools (Acheulean handaxes, for example). Conceptions of hominid and racial diversity have often been intertwined, and one impact of racial liberalism after World War II seems to have been a delay in the recognition of fossil hominid diversity, in consequence of fears of excluding one or another nowextinct hominid from the Family of Man. Racial resonances still complicate theories of human origins, as evidenced in the tendency to celebrate the exodus from Africa (Out of Africa: Thank God!). Temporal compression can be seen as a cultural artifact, and different conceptions of evidentiary prudence can be found in debates over the humanness of early hominids. Given the inherent arbitrariness in saying when they became us, the question When did humans become human? must also be seen as, among other things, a moral one.

La grotte Marcel Clouet à Cognac (Charente)

The Marcel Clouet Cave in Cognac (Charente) is a small cavity, more a shelter than a true cave, in the Cretaceous limestone cliffs along the Antenne, a tributary of the Charente River. The site suffered from a number of clandestine excavations before the work of C. Burnez, who was then followed by one of us (A.D.). The material recovered in stratigraphic context represents both Middle and Upper Paleolithic. The former is an example of Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA), while the latter includes Aurignacian (probably early) and Perigordian (probably Châtelperronian Gravettian), as well as some Solutrean objects recovered outside of stratigraphic context. It is important to note that this is one of only a few Charentian rockshelter sites, which has yielded an example of MTA.

Paléoenvironnements pléistocènes et peuplements paléolithiques dans le bassin de la Somme (nord de la France)

This paper represents a synthetic overview of the main results of the CNRS Programme " Palaeoenvironments and Hominids ". This project focused on the study of interactions between human occupation and environmental modification, between 500 and 10 kyrs BP, based on multidisciplinary and diachronic studies of key sites in the Somme Basin. The main analytic results concern ESR, TL-IRSL and 14C dates, which reinforce the chrono-stratigraphical interpretation of the various Palaeolithic sites. At the same time, bioclimatic analyses of fluvial sediments (palynology, malacology, analysis of Coleoptera), combined with the measurement of δ13C variations of organic carbon, and of the low-field magnetic susceptibility in loess and fossil soils, allowed the restitution of the various Pleistocene environments, and especially of the full Interglacials, to be refined. The main conclusions of the synthesis of archaeological, chronostratigraphical and environmental data are the following. 1) The earliest human occupations in the Somme Basin are no older than 500-450 kyrs BP and are straight away represented by well evolved Acheulean industries (beginning of MIS 12, according to the data from modern excavations). 2) During the last climatic cycle, human occupation of the Somme Basin was clearly discontinuous and strongly influenced by climatic and environmental modifications: maximum during the Early-Glacial, some occupations during the Lower and Middle Maximum Glaciations, rare occurrences around 23-24 kyrs (14C), total abandonment of the area between 23 and 13 kyrs, then reoccupation with the beginning of the Lateglacial climatic improvement. 3) Although the data are less numerous, the model of the last climatic cycle seems to apply during the Middle Pleistocene for the end of the Saalian (occupation at the end of MIS 7 or at the transition MIS7/MIS6, and desertion of the area during the cold maximum of MIS 6). 4) Finally, between 500/450 and 200 kyrs human settlements mainly occurred during periods of climatic transition (Early or Lateglacial). From a general point of view, the human occupation of the Somme Basin during the Middle Pleistocene was therefore discontinuous and strongly influenced by climatic and environmental factors.

40Ar/39Ar dating of the Kapthurin Formation, Baringo, Kenya

The40Ar/39Ar radiometric dating technique has been applied to tuffs and lavas of the Kapthurin Formation in the Tugen Hills, Kenya Rift Valley. Two variants of the40Ar/39Ar technique, single-crystal total fusion (SCTF) and laser incremental heating (LIH) have been employed to date five marker horizons within the formation: near the base, the Kasurein Basalt at 0·61±0·04Ma; the Pumice Tuff at 0·543±0·004Ma; the Upper Kasurein Basalt at 0·552±0·015Ma; the Grey Tuff at 0·509±0·009Ma; and within the upper part of the formation, the Bedded Tuff at 0·284±0·012Ma. The new, precise radiometric age determination for the Pumice Tuff also provides an age for the widespread Lake Baringo Trachyte, since the Pumice Tuff is the early pyroclastic phase of this voluminous trachyte eruption.These results establish the age of fossil hominids KNM-BK 63-67 and KNM-BK 8518 at approximately 0·510–0·512Ma, a significant finding given that few Middle Pleistocene hominids are radiometrically dated. The Kapthurin hominids are thus the near contemporaries of those from Bodo, Ethiopia and Tanzania. A flake and core industry from lacustrine sediments in the lower part of the formation is constrained by new dates of 0·55–0·52Ma, a period during which the Acheulian industry, characterized by handaxes, is known throughout East Africa. Points, typical of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), are found in Kapthurin Formation sediments now shown to date to between 0·509±0·009Ma and 0·284±0·012Ma. This date exceeds previous estimates for the age of the MSA elsewhere in East Africa by 49ka, and establishes the age of Acheulian to MSA transition for the region. Evidence of the use of the Levallois technique for the manufacture of both small flakes and biface preforms, the systematic production of blades, and the use and processing of red ochre also occurs in this interval. The presence of blades and red ochre at this depth is important as blades signify a high degree of technical competence and red ochre suggests symbolic behavior.

Woodworking activities by early humans: a plant residue analysis on Acheulian stone tools from Peninj (Tanzania)

The emergence of the Acheulian stone tool industry, between 1·7 and 1·5m.y.a., constitutes one of the earliest evidences of complex behavior in the process of human evolution. The major technological breakthrough with the Acheulian industry was the beginning of the manufacture of bifacially shaped heavy-duty tools. Handaxes made with a predetermined form and a high degree of symmetry are the main characteristic of the Acheulian tradition. The tools are shaped through a long knapping sequence with a remarkable increase in the technical skills of the makers, compared with the older Oldowan tradition, implying a high degree of planning and foresight. Until recently, the function of these early bifacial tools remained unknown. A large number of these artefacts were found at Peninj in Tanzania, and phytolith analyses on handaxes have yielded for the first time unambiguous evidence of their function as woodworking tools.