Acheulean ≈ Acheulean
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Experimental evidence for the co-evolution of hominin tool-making teaching and language Open
Hominin reliance on Oldowan stone tools-which appear from 2.5 mya and are believed to have been socially transmitted-has been hypothesized to have led to the evolution of teaching and language. Here we present an experiment investigating t…
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Cognitive Demands of Lower Paleolithic Toolmaking Open
Stone tools provide some of the most abundant, continuous, and high resolution evidence of behavioral change over human evolution, but their implications for cognitive evolution have remained unclear. We investigated the neurophysiological…
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The origin of early Acheulean expansion in Europe 700 ka ago: new findings at Notarchirico (Italy) Open
Notarchirico (Southern Italy) has yielded the earliest evidence of Acheulean settlement in Italy and four older occupation levels have recently been unearthed, including one with bifaces, extending the roots of the Acheulean in Italy even …
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The acheulean handaxe: More like a bird's song than a beatles' tune? Open
The goal of this paper is to provoke debate about the nature of an iconic artifact—the Acheulean handaxe. Specifically, we want to initiate a conversation about whether or not they are cultural objects. The vast majority of archeologists a…
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The Archaeology of Teaching and the Evolution of<i>Homo docens</i> Open
CITATION: Gärdenfors, P. & Högberg, A. 2017. The Archaeology of Teaching and the Evolution of Homo docens. Current Anthropology, 58(2):188-208. doi:10.1086/691178.
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Early Evidence for Brilliant Ritualized Display: Specularite Use in the Northern Cape (South Africa) between ∼500 and ∼300 Ka Open
Earth pigments figure prominently in debates about signal evolution among later Homo. Most archaeologists consider such behavior to postdate ~300 Ka. To evaluate claims for Fauresmith and Acheulean pigments in South Africa’s Northern Cape …
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The origins of the Acheulean: past and present perspectives on a major transition in human evolution Open
The emergence of the Acheulean from the earlier Oldowan constitutes a major transition in human evolution, the theme of this special issue. This paper discusses the evidence for the origins of the Acheulean, a cornerstone in the history of…
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New Middle Pleistocene hominin cranium from Gruta da Aroeira (Portugal) Open
Significance We describe a recently discovered cranium from the Aroeira cave in Portugal dated to around 400 ka. This specimen is the westernmost Middle Pleistocene cranium of Europe and is one of the earliest fossils from this region asso…
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Lithic Landscapes: Early Human Impact from Stone Tool Production on the Central Saharan Environment Open
Humans have had a major impact on the environment. This has been particularly intense in the last millennium but has been noticeable since the development of food production and the associated higher population densities in the last 10,000…
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Acheulean technology and landscape use at Dawadmi, central Arabia Open
Despite occupying a central geographic position, investigations of hominin populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Lower Palaeolithic period are rare. The colonization of Eurasia below 55 degrees latitude indicates the success of t…
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<span>FLK</span> West (Lower Bed <span>II</span>, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania): a new early Acheulean site with evidence for human exploitation of fauna Open
This paper presents a detailed taphonomic study of the faunal assemblage from FLK West (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania), a site with an Acheulean component that dates to 1.7 Ma. The faunal sample analysed here is distributed in different archaeol…
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Two Acheuleans, two humankinds: From 1.5 to 0.85 Ma at Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopian highlands). Open
The Acheulean is the longest-lasting human cultural record, spanning approximately 1.5 Ma and three continents. The most comprehensive sequences are found in East Africa, where, in largescale syntheses, the Lower Pleistocene Acheulean (LPA…
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Nut Cracking Tools Used by Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Their Comparison with Early Stone Age Percussive Artefacts from Olduvai Gorge Open
We present the results of a series of experiments at the Kumamoto Sanctuary in Japan, in which captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) performed several nut cracking sessions using raw materials from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. We examined capt…
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The Acheulian and Early Middle Paleolithic in Latium (Italy): Stability and Innovation Open
We present here the results of a technological and typological analysis of the Acheulian and early Middle Paleolithic assemblages from Torre in Pietra (Latium, Italy) together with comparisons with the Acheulian small tools of Castel di Gu…
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Chronological variations in handaxes: patterns detected from fluvial archives in north‐west Europe Open
The use of handaxe morphology as a cultural and temporal marker within the Quaternary Lower–Middle Palaeolithic record has had a very chequered history, and abuses in the past have led recent generations of archaeologist to reject it out o…
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A 1.4-million-year-old bone handaxe from Konso, Ethiopia, shows advanced tool technology in the early Acheulean Open
Significance We report a rare example of a 1.4-million-y-old large bone fragment shaped into handaxe-like form. This bone tool derives from the Konso Formation in southern Ethiopia, where abundant early Acheulean stone artifacts show consi…
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A Pleistocene palaeovegetation record from plant wax biomarkers from the Nachukui Formation, West Turkana, Kenya Open
Reconstructing vegetation at hominin fossil sites provides us critical information about hominin palaeoenvironments and the potential role of climate in their evolution. Here we reconstruct vegetation from carbon isotopes of plant wax biom…
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Discovery of circa 115,000-year-old bone retouchers at Lingjing, Henan, China Open
Most Chinese lithic industries dated between 300,000 and 40,000 are characterized by the absence of Levallois debitage, the persistence of core-and-flake knapping, the rarity of prepared cores, their reduction with direct hard hammer percu…
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Early <i>Homo erectus</i> lived at high altitudes and produced both Oldowan and Acheulean tools Open
In Africa, the scarcity of hominin remains found in direct association with stone tools has hindered attempts to link Homo habilis and Homo erectus with particular lithic industries. The infant mandible discovered in level E at Garba IV (M…
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Shaped stone balls were used for bone marrow extraction at Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel Open
The presence of shaped stone balls at early Paleolithic sites has attracted scholarly attention since the pioneering work of the Leakeys in Olduvai, Tanzania. Despite the persistent presence of these items in the archaeological record over…
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BIOCHRONOLOGY OF THE PLEISTOCENE MAMMAL FAUNA FROM PONTE GALERIA (ROME) AND REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE GALERIAN FAUNAS Open
Taking into account the fossil mammal material recently discovered at Cava di Breccia (sands outcropping at Ponte Galeria, Rome), the revised fossils from the area and the updated stratigraphical settings of the Ponte Galeria Formation (Ro…
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Brain expansion in early hominins predicts carnivore extinctions in East Africa Open
While the anthropogenic impact on ecosystems today is evident, it remains unclear if the detrimental effect of hominins on co‐occurring biodiversity is a recent phenomenon or has also been the pattern for earlier hominin species. We test t…
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Filling the gap. Human cranial remains from Gombore II (Melka Kunture, Ethiopia; ca. 850 ka) and the origin of Homo heidelbergensis. Open
African archaic humans dated to around 1,0 Ma share morphological affinities with Homo ergaster and appear distinct in cranio-dental morphology from those of the Middle Pleistocene that are referred to Homo heidelbergensis. This observatio…
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Technological variability during the Early Middle Palaeolithic in Western Europe. Reduction systems and predetermined products at the Bau de l'Aubesier and Payre (South-East France) Open
The study of the lithic assemblages of two French sites, the Bau de l'Aubesier and Payre, contributes new knowledge of the earliest Neanderthal techno-cultural variability. In this paper we present the results of a detailed technological a…
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Handaxe types, colonization waves, and social norms in the British Acheulean Open
The handaxes of north-western Europe are some of the most varied in the Acheulean world, with the meanings of that variation debated since the late nineteenth century. To reassess handaxe form in this region, we performed a 3D morphometric…
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Early Levallois and the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic in central Italy Open
In the second half of the 19th century Pleistocene faunas were discovered in two sites, Sedia del Diavolo and Monte delle Gioie, contained in deposits of the Aniene River in the area of Rome (Latium, Italy). Fieldwork by A.C. Blanc in the …
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The Victoria West: earliest prepared core technology in the Acheulean at Canteen Kopje and implications for the cognitive evolution of early hominids Open
Prepared core technology illustrates in-depth planning and the presence of a mental template during the core reduction process. This technology is, therefore, a significant indicator in studying the evolution of abstract thought and the co…
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The Unknown Oldowan: ~1.7-Million-Year-Old Standardized Obsidian Small Tools from Garba IV, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia Open
The Oldowan Industrial Complex has long been thought to have been static, with limited internal variability, embracing techno-complexes essentially focused on small-to-medium flake production. The flakes were rarely modified by retouch to …
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New excavations at the HWK EE site: Archaeology, paleoenvironment and site formation processes during late Oldowan times at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania Open
This paper reports the results of renewed fieldwork at the HWK EE site (Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania). HWK EE is positioned across the boundary between Lower and Middle Bed II, a crucial interval for studying the emergence of the Acheulean at O…
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The expansion of later Acheulean hominins into the Arabian Peninsula Open
The Acheulean is the longest lasting cultural–technological tradition in human evolutionary history. However, considerable gaps remain in understanding the chronology and geographical distribution of Acheulean hominins. We present the firs…