The earliest archaeology

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Early Stone Tools

• The earliest archaeology

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Artifacts

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

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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.

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Hard Hammer large cones of force
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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.
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Soft Hammers medium cone of force
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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 2005162
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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.

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Technology changes through time
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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.

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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?

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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.
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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?

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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)

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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-leean) 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
A701111Dimensions 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
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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

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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.

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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 Hill 300 kya
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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.

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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)

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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?