The earliest archaeology

Early Stone Tools

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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.

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

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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.

images.encarta.msn.com

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www.cwct.co.uk

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.

Hard Hammerlarge cones of force

Soft Hammersmedium cone of force

Scarre 2005:162

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.

Indirect percussionsmall cone of force

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.

Technology changes through time

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.

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

www.ucm.es

www.amonline.net.au

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.

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

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)

www.smm.org

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 Minnesotawww.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

anthro.palomar.edu

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

www.vobs.at

Lower Paleolithic Fossils

• 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

Peking Man: Zhoukoudian 500 – 300 kya

Lower Paleolithic Fossils

• Homo heidelbergensis– 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 Hill300 kya

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.

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)

claudiogutierrez.com

www.vobs.at

www.evolutionnyc.comH. habilis 2.5 – 1.8 mya

H. ergaster 1.8 m – 600 kya

H. heidelbergensis 600 - 300 kya

H. erectus 1 m – 100 kya

H. sapiens H. neanderthalensis

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?