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Early Hominid Bone Tools from Drimolen, South Africa
Abstract
The earliest use of bone tools is a topic of ongoing debate that concerns the criteria used to identify utilised or minimally modified bone tools, and if verified, the implications for hominid adaptation and cognition. Here we present the first description of 22 possible bone tools from the early hominid site of Drimolen (Gauteng Province, South Africa), dated ∼1.5–2 Mya. We compare the results of a taphonomic, morphometric and microscopic analysis of these pieces with those obtained from the study of faunal assemblages modified by a variety of non-human agents, and experimentally modified bones. None of the naturally modified assemblages contained pieces bearing the wear pattern observed on specimens from Drimolen and on bones experimentally used in digging activities. Fourteen pieces from Drimolen bear a pattern comparable to one previously described on early hominid bone tools from Sterkfontein and Swartkrans. This suggests that Drimolen bone tools were involved in a similar, if not exactly the same, task. Other common features include favoured bone types, fracture patterns, and the length and position of the worn area. Larger bone tools known from Swartkrans are absent at Drimolen, perhaps due to less availability of large mammal bones. The association of a high number of Paranthropus remains with bone tools at Drimolen, and the exceedingly low number of stone tools at the site supports the hypothesis that Paranthropus robustus used these bone tools. Based on implement-assisted termite foraging strategies amongst chimpanzees, we have inferred similar social and cultural behaviours for early hominids. Gorillas were recently proposed as a model for P. robustus social structure due to the high degree of sexual dimorphism observed. According to female aggregation practices present in both models, one can speculate that if P. robustus was the user of the bone tools, the foraging activity in which they were used may have been conducted mainly by females.
... From the appearance of early human cultures, human groups used bones as a raw material for making tools. Osseous artefacts are present at archaeological sites from the Early Pleistocene in Africa (e.g., Backwell & d'Errico 2004;2008;d'Errico et al. 2022;Pante et al. 2020) and Middle Pleistocene in the Near East and Europe (e.g., Baumann et al. 2020;Biddittu & Segre 1982;Doyon et al. 2021;Patou-Mathis 1999;Rabinovich et al. 2012;Tartar 2012). ...
... Non-anthropic agents can generate alterations that mimic this minimally modified bone industry, including morphologies reminiscent of coetaneous lithic tools: pointed ends, sharp fracture patterns, pseudo-retouching, continuous notches, bone surface modifications, and wear in localised areas, among other things. Modern taphonomy recognises these problems of equifinality with other taphonomic agents (e.g., carnivore action, trampling, abrasion, etc.) that create pseudo-tools (e.g., Backwell & d'Errico, 2004, 2008Behrensmeyer et al. 1986;Blumenschine et al. 1996;Bromage 1984;d'Errico 1993;Domínguez-Rodrigo et al. 2009;Olsen & Shipman 1988;Shipman & Phillips-Conroy 1977;Shipman 1981;Villa & Bartram 1996). ...
... In many of these studies, there was a tendency for individual researchers to develop their own criteria for classifying and technologically analysing bone tools although they did not necessarily explain them in detail (Olsen 1984: 55-99). In addition, yet other studies considered the need to apply an interdisciplinary approach to study this type of artefact (Backwell & d'Errico 2008;d'Errico et al. 2022;Bonnichsen & Sorg 1989;Mateo-Lomba et al. 2020;Pante et al. 2020;Shipman & Rose 1988;Stammers et al. 2023). ...
Since the origins of technology, human groups have used a wide variety of lithic and organic raw materials to make tools. In particular, bone was used as raw material for creating knapped artefacts. Nevertheless, the recognition of these technological elements in the archaeological record has generated some debate, since modern taphonomy has shown that certain non-anthropic agents create modifications that can mimic knapped bone tools. For this reason, the criteria for identifying archaeological bone tools and pseudo-tools have still not been clearly defined. As a contribution to this subject, here we present the results of an experimental programme of intentional anthropic marrow fracturing of fresh and semi-fresh bovine long bones. After marrow removal, some of the diaphyseal fragments obtained were selected to be used directly as tools, while others were slightly retouched. The aim was to describe the bone toolmaking process and the simple and retouched tools obtained experimentally according to technological criteria. The technological analysis approach was based on an adaptation of the Logical Analytical System (LAS), which uses structural categories within an operative chain rather than techno-typological features. LAS has been widely used to analyse Pleistocene lithic assemblages and is here applied for the first time to the study of bone industry. The results allow us to present new analytical criteria with which to describe simple and retouched bone tools from a holistic perspective, combining technological and taphonomic terminology. Our intention is to improve the criteria for differentiating intentional retouching in bone tools from other modifications to bone remains generated by non-anthropic agents. The final goal of this study is to further the interdisciplinary study of minimally modified bone tools, proposing a technological method for studying knapped bone tools.
... The makers and users of Early Stone Age (ESA) bone tools are currently unknown, with indications that multiple species, including at least Homo erectus and Paranthropus robustus, may have developed or acquired the technology (Backwell and d 'Errico, 2004;Backwell and d'Errico, 2008). Although ESA bone tools have been identified in both East and South Africa, there are clear differences between the bone technology found in these two geographic regions. ...
... Although ESA bone tools have been identified in both East and South Africa, there are clear differences between the bone technology found in these two geographic regions. South African bone tools consist of weathered bone splinters used in unmodified form or occasionally shaped through grinding and implemented in foraging activities such as termite extraction (d' Errico et al., 2001;Backwell and d'Errico, 2008), while those from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania were intentionally knapped in a manner that mimics lithic manufacture and/ or possibly used as anvils/hammers (Shipman, 1989;Leakey and Roe, 1994;Backwell and d'Errico, 2004). These functional and morphological differences between the bone tool assemblages have been hypothesized to be the result of (1) varying subsistence strategies practiced by hominins in the two regions or (2) distinct cultural traditions linked to multiple hominin species (Backwell and d'Errico, 2004). ...
... One of us (M.P.) has conducted detailed taphonomic analyses of several sites represented in the studied collection, including HWK EE, Juma's Korongo (JK), Wayland's Korongo (WK), and HEB, which is ongoing and unpublished (Pante, 2010(Pante, , 2013Njau et al., 2020). Our analyses also considered published descriptions of comparative collections of bone tools and previously identified examples from both South Africa and Olduvai Gorge , 2004, 2008Backwell, 2003, 2009). ...
The advent of bone technology in Africa is often associated with behavioral modernity that began sometime in the Middle Stone Age. Yet, small numbers of bone tools are known from Early Pleistocene sites in East and South Africa, complicating our understanding of the evolutionary significance of osseous technologies. These early bone tools vary geographically, with those in South Africa indicating use in foraging activities such as termite extraction and those in East Africa intentionally shaped in a manner similar to lithic tool manufacture, leading some to infer multiple hominin species were responsible for bone technology in these regions, with Paranthropus robustus assumed to be the maker of South African bone tools and Homo erectus responsible for those in East Africa. Here, we present on an assemblage of 52 supposed bone tools primarily from Beds III and IV, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, that was excavated by Mary Leakey in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but was only partially published and was never studied in detail from a taphonomic perspective. The majority of the sites from which the tools were recovered were deposited when only H. erectus is known to have existed in the region, potentially allowing a direct link between this fossil hominin and bone technology. Our analysis confirms at least six bone tools in the assemblage, the majority of which are intentionally flaked large mammal bones. However, one of the tools is a preform of the oldest barbed bone point known to exist anywhere in the world and pushes back the initial appearance of this technology by 700 kyr.
... However, evidence at Swartkrans indicates the likelihood of Paranthropus robustus as the predominant user of these tools, especially with respect to the Member 3 deposits where Homo remains are absent, and the highest concentration of bone tools were found (Brain & Shipman 1993;. Moreover, this argument is supported by evidence from Drimolen, which has predominantly yielded bone tool artefacts in association with P. robustus remains (Backwell & d'Errico 2008). Thus, it is plausible that pre-Homo species engaged in the use of bone tools in favor of the use of stone in some cases, such as at Drimolen, which was virtually devoid of stone tools (ibid). ...
... Recently, Lesnik (2010, forthcoming) has corroborated Backwell and d'Errico's results through confocal microscopy and sensitive fractal analysis software, which has confirmed that the usewear patterns on the Swartkrans bone tools resembles those resulting from experimental tools used to perforate and dig in termite mounds. Thus, it seems evident that southern African hominin populations engaged in a subsistence strategy of bone tool use that centered upon termite foraging activities , although these implements may have also been used in other activities including fruit processing (Backwell & d'Errico 2008;). ...
... In addition, analyses of horn cores from Swartkrans and Drimolen revealed oblique tip facets covered by striations oriented perpendicularly in relation to the longitudinal axis of these tools (Figs. 5 & 6). This indicates that they were intentionally re-shaped through grinding motions to sharpen their tips after prolonged use (d 'Errico & Backwell 2003;Backwell & d'Errico 2008), which suggests that an optimal shape for bone tools was preferred based upon their efficiency in termite mound foraging. As such, the nature of the relationship between bone tools and their intended use as subsistence implements implies an intimate knowledge of bone as a raw material, which was selected based upon its suitable properties for shaping and use in termite mound foraging (d 'Errico & Backwell 2003: 1572. ...
... These deposits are now dated to between 1.4 and 0.8 Ma and are associated with Acheulian technology and early Homo (Kuman and Clarke, 2000;Herries and Shaw, 2011). Later work by C. K. Brain and colleagues (1988Brain and colleagues ( , 1989Brain and colleagues ( , 1993 at the South African site of Swartkrans, recovered a further 84 bone tools similar to the one found by Robinson (1959), and work by Andre Keyser at Drimolen Main Quarry (DMQ) identified another 23 (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008). In both of these cases, the bone tools are associated with Paranthropus robustus and early Homo (see discussion; Keyser et al., 2000;Kuman, 2007;Moggi-Cecchi et al., 2010). ...
... DMQ is well known for finds of P. robustus, including the most complete skull of this species ever discovered, DNH 7 (Keyser et al., 2000), as well as around 140 hominin fossils, that also include early Homo (Moggi-Cecchi et al., 2010). DMQ has also yielded a diverse fauna (Adams et al., 2016), and has a small published collection of 14 confirmed bone tools (Fig. 3) (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008). Originally 22 fossils were identified as having a general character of bone tools, however, only 14 ( Fig. 3) (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008) were identified as definitively anthropogenically worked and the remaining eight were defined as pseudo-tools ( Fig. 3D and E) (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008). ...
... DMQ has also yielded a diverse fauna (Adams et al., 2016), and has a small published collection of 14 confirmed bone tools (Fig. 3) (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008). Originally 22 fossils were identified as having a general character of bone tools, however, only 14 ( Fig. 3) (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008) were identified as definitively anthropogenically worked and the remaining eight were defined as pseudo-tools ( Fig. 3D and E) (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008). Since this original announcement of the DMQ bone tools a series of 121 potential bone tools have been identified at DMQ based on overall gross morphology (currently under study by RCS). ...
An apparently unique part of the Earlier Stone Age record of Africa are a series of bone tools dated to between ∼2 and ∼1 Ma from the sites of Olduvai in East Africa, and Swartkrans, Drimolen and Sterkfontein in South Africa. The South and East African bone tools are quite different, with the South African tools having a number of distinct characters formed through utilisation, whereas the East African tools are flaked tools that in some cases mirror stone tool production. The South African bone tools currently consists of 108 specimens from the three sites above. They have been interpreted as being used for digging into homogenous grained soil to access high quality food resources, or as a multi-purpose tools. It has generally been assumed that they were made by Paranthropus robustus, as this species is most often associated with bone tool bearing deposits, especially when high numbers occur. However, early Homo is also found at these sites. Here we report on two fossils from the Paranthopus robustus site of Kromdraai B, which has only yielded one stone tool to date, that have the same characteristic wear patterns as the bone tools identified at other sites. We also describe a small collection (N = 6) of the first stone tools recovered from the bone tool and Paranthropus and early Homo bearing site of Drimolen Main Quarry. These discoveries further increase the association between bone and stone tool technologies in the South African Earlier Stone Age. However, there remains no direct correlation between the occurrence of bone or stone tools and a particular species being found at the different sites. We then review the place of these bone tools within the South African archaeological record. They appear to be a consistent part of the South African record for around a million years or so between <∼2.3 and >∼0.8 Ma. While they change little over this time, they occur with both Oldowan and Acheulian assemblages.
... Recent geochronological work in the Gauteng Malmani suggests a transition occurs betweeñ 2.3 and~1.8 Ma ago from supposedly older sites containing Australopithecus (Malapa, Sterkfontein Member 4) to supposedly younger sites containing Paranthropus and Homo, together with the first bone and stone tools (Gondolin, Kromdraai B, Sterkfontein Member 5, and Swartkrans Member 1) (Fig. 1C) (5,6,9,15,21,(23)(24)(25). At the same time, there was a turnover in other fauna as South African environments became more arid (26)(27)(28)(29). ...
... Discovered in 1992, the Drimolen palaeocave complex (Fig. 1, C and D) is one such site (30). Drimolen has yielded more than 155 hominin specimens (1, 31), together with substantial collections of other fauna (32), bone tools (25), and a small assemblage of Mode 1 stone tools (24). The younger part of the Drimolen system, known as Drimolen Main Quarry (DMQ), is best known for the 1994 discovery of the DNH 7 cranium, the most complete P. robustus skull found to date (1). ...
Dating the Drimolen hominins
Fossil hominins from South Africa are enriching the story of early human evolution and dispersal. Herries et al. describe the geological context and dating of the hominin-bearing infilled cave, or palaeocave, at a site called Drimolen in South Africa (see the Perspective by Antón). They focus on the age and context of a recently discovered Homo erectus sensu lato fossil and a Paranthropus robustus fossil, which they dated to ∼2.04 million to 1.95 million years ago. This makes Drimolen one of the best-dated sites in South Africa and establishes these fossils as the oldest definitive specimens of their respective species ever discovered. The age confirms that species of Australopithecus, Paranthropus , and early Homo overlapped in the karst of South Africa ∼2 million years ago.
Science , this issue p. eaaw7293 ; see also p. 34
... Numerous bone tools are found in Swartkrans member 3 and Drimolen, sites that have yielded numerous specimens of P. robustus. Microscopic and macroscopic wear analyses as well as experimental data suggest that these tools were used for digging into termite mounds [73][74][75] . The scarcity of Homo remains compared to those of P. robustus in sites bearing bone tools suggests that the latter species is most likely to be the tool maker and user [73][74][75] . ...
... Microscopic and macroscopic wear analyses as well as experimental data suggest that these tools were used for digging into termite mounds [73][74][75] . The scarcity of Homo remains compared to those of P. robustus in sites bearing bone tools suggests that the latter species is most likely to be the tool maker and user [73][74][75] . A. sediba is known by two partial skeletons that provide much information on its postcranial morphology. ...
The past two million years of eastern African climate variability is currently poorly constrained, despite interest in understanding its assumed role in early human evolution. Rare palaeoclimate records from northeastern Africa suggest progressively drier conditions or a stable hydroclimate. By contrast, records from Lake Malawi in tropical southeastern Africa reveal a trend of a progressively wetter climate over the past 1.3 million years. The climatic forcings that controlled these past hydrological changes are also a matter of debate. Some studies suggest a dominant local insolation forcing on hydrological changes, whereas others infer a potential influence of sea surface temperature changes in the Indian Ocean. Here we show that the hydroclimate in southeastern Africa (20–25° S) is controlled by interplay between low-latitude insolation forcing (precession and eccentricity) and changes in ice volume at high latitudes. Our results are based on a multiple-proxy reconstruction of hydrological changes in the Limpopo River catchment, combined with a reconstruction of sea surface temperature in the southwestern Indian Ocean for the past 2.14 million years. We find a long-term aridification in the Limpopo catchment between around 1 and 0.6 million years ago, opposite to the hydroclimatic evolution suggested by records from Lake Malawi. Our results, together with evidence of wetting at Lake Malawi, imply that the rainbelt contracted toward the Equator in response to increased ice volume at high latitudes. By reducing the extent of woodland or wetlands in terrestrial ecosystems, the observed changes in the hydroclimate of southeastern Africa—both in terms of its long-term state and marked precessional variability—could have had a role in the evolution of early hominins, particularly in the extinction of Paranthropus robustus.
... 权宜骨器的起源可能与距今300万-260万年的石器制作 [4,5] 、动物屠宰和敲骨吸 髓 [6] 、木材加工 [7,8] 究在揭示古人类适应性方面的重要性 [11] 。近期，多项新发现证明中国在更新世人类扩散 事件和复杂种群互动方面居核心地位 [12][13][14] 。这些证据都强调了探索中国更新世骨器技术 发展轨迹的必要性。需要说明的是，距今4.5万年，规范骨器开始在欧洲 [15][16][17] 、东非与南 非 [18,19] 、黎凡特 [20,21] 、中亚与南亚 [22][23][24][25] 、澳大利亚 [26,27] (距今约240万-180万年) [28] 、Kromdraai B(距今约220万年) [29] 、Drimole Main Qarry (距今约204万-195万年) [30] 和Sterkfontein遗址(距今约170万-140万年) [ 形态具有明显的系统化和标准化特征，如德国Bilzingsleben遗址(距今约37万年) [44] 和意 大利Gastel di Guido遗址(距今约40万年) [45] 。象骨两面器是直立人和早期尼安德特人与 大象之间长期互动的直接证据，即对大象的肉质、脂肪和骨骼的生存依赖。骨修饰器在 MIS 9阶段成为欧洲和黎凡特地区尼安德特人"工具包"中的共同特征，原料通常以马 科、牛科、鹿科动物的肢骨和肋骨碎片为主，这在德国Schöningen遗址 [46,47] 、西班牙 Caune de l'Arago [48] 和Bolomor洞穴 [49] 、法国Cagny l'E pinette和Orgnac 3等遗址 [48] 均有发现。 此外，考古记录还证明权宜骨器的形态和使用磨损呈多样性发展趋势，例如德国 Schöningen遗址中出土的用于加工兽皮的早期平滑器(smoothers/lissoirs/spatulate) [46] 和作 为敲骨吸髓工具的掌跖骨软锤(metapodial hammers) [50] 、意大利Malagrotta和La Polledrara ...
... Por un lado, los primeros hombres presentaban huesos frágiles de baja resistencia mecánica (Ruiz Bremón & San Nicolás Pedraz, 2008); mientras que los huesos de animales como los elefantes presentan cierta dureza y maleabilidad permitiendo su tallado y manipulación para ser utilizados como herramientas (hachas o utensilios para cavar). La figura 1 ilustra las hachas elaboradas a partir de hueso de elefante que datan de inicios de la Era de Piedra (Backwell & D'Errico, 2008;Zutovski & Barkai, 2016). ...
La ciencia y la tecnología avanzan a pasos agigantados, influyendo en la mejora de la humanidad. Sin duda a lo largo de la historia se han utilizado diferentes materiales como los metales, aleaciones, compuestos orgánicos, materiales biocerámicos, entre otros, que han sido empleados para el uso cotidiano de los seres humanos mediante la transformación y manipulación de éstos. Uno de estos materiales es un biocerámico que forma parte de la constitución de diversos organismos, este es la hidroxiapatita, misma que se encuentra en los huesos de humanos y animales vertebrados. Desde que se tuvo conocimiento de su existencia se ha estudiado con el propósito de ayudar a remediar padecimientos óseos, aunque no ha sido su único uso. En el presente artículo se exponen las características de la hidroxiapatita, dónde se encuentra y sus aplicaciones.
... 1.8-1 mya) in South Africa where research has suggested that cf. Paranthropus were using bone tools to forage for termites (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008;Backwell and d'Errico, 2001;Hanon et al., 2021). Throughout the Lower and Middle Paleolithic across Eurasia there are isolated examples of the use of animal bones to produce both handaxes and simple bone flakes (Villa, 1990;Gaudzinski et al., 2005;Villa et al., 2005;Anzidei et al., 2012;Santucci et al., 2016), while also using hard animal tissue including bone, teeth and antler as retouchers (Roberts and Parfitt, 1999;Smith, 2012;Abrams et al., 2014;Hutson et al., 2015;Julien et al., 2015;Romandini et al., 2015;Van Kolfschoten et al., 2015;Daujeard et al., 2018;Parfitt et al., 2022) (Fig. 5). ...
This chapter focuses on the modalities of large fauna exploitation by human groups and their carnivorous competitors throughout the Paleolithic. It highlights the great diversity of hominin-animal interactions throughout human evolution, particularly in Africa and Eurasia. Carnivorous diet gradually increased within human populations, in parallel with the development of hunting capacities. There is evidence of regular animal meat and fat consumption by extinct hominins from 2 Ma onward, with the first occurrence prior to 3 Ma in Eastern Africa. The consumption of meat and fat may have had significant consequences on human evolution in terms of biology, culture and also in terms of energetic cost and benefit. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to present the main aspects, stages and degrees of complexity of hominin-animal relationships during the Paleolithic of the old world. Animals have undoubtedly always represented a major food, technological and symbolism resource for hunter-gatherer groups.
... Like for gorillas, insect feeding was likely an opportunistic behavior influenced by biological and environmental factors whose impact on individuals depended on their age and sex class. In this framework, insect feeding may have been particularly advantageous for female australopithecines (Backwell & d'Errico, 2008). Optimizing insect intake may have been an incentive to develop tools to harvest them, as shown by their bone tools (d 'Errico & Backwell, 2009). ...
Abstract
Objectives
Insectivory likely contributed to survival of early humans in diverse conditions and influenced human cognitive evolution through the need to develop harvesting tools. In living primates, insectivory is a widespread behavior and frequently seasonal, although previous studies do not always agree on reasons behind this. Since western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) diet is largely affected by seasonal variation in fruit availability, we aimed to test three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses (habitat use, frugivory and rainfall) to explain seasonality in termite feeding across age/sex classes in three habituated groups (Nindividuals = 27) in Central Africa.
Materials and Methods
We used 4 years of ranging, scan and continuous focal sampling records of gorillas (Nranging days = 883, Nscans = 12,384; Nhours = 891) in addition to 116 transects recording vegetation and termite mound distribution.
Results
Depending on the age/sex classes, we found support for all three hypotheses. Time spent in termite-rich vegetation positively impacted termite consumption in all age/sex classes, but subadults. Lengthier travels increased termite feeding in females but decreased it in subadults. Frugivory decreased termite consumption in adults. Daily rainfall had a positive effect on termite feeding and foraging in silverbacks and juveniles, but a negative effect in subadults. For females, rainfall had a positive effect on termite feeding, but a negative effect for termite foraging.
Discussion
In great apes, seasonal insectivory seems to be multifactorial and primarily opportunistic with important differences among age/sex classes. While insectivory has potentials to be traditional, it likely played a crucial role during primate evolution (including ours), allowing diet flexibility in changing environments.
... Other than some (potential) bone excavating tools from the early Pleistocene of South Africa (Backwell & d'Errico, 2008;d'Errico & Blackwell, 2003), there is little to no preserved evidence of organic tools from the pre-Oldowan and Oldowan periods. Generally, the organic tool repertoire of early hominins is predicted to have been similar to that of living primate species (Ambrose, 2001;Bandini et al., 2022;Haslam et al., 2009;Hovers, 2012;Rolian & Carvalho, 2017;Toth & Schick, 2009 (Bandini & Tennie, 2017Bandini et al., 2020Bandini et al., , 2021Reindl et al., 2016;Sterelny & Hiscock, in press;Westergaard & Suomi, 1993, 1995a. ...
This preprint is a proceedings paper invited by the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte (EN. The Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology, and Prehistory) and has since been published by the publication "Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte".
Abstract: Culture is often defined as behaviour and/or behavioural products (artefacts) that are ‘influenced by social learning’. This approach can be described as the ‘broad’ definition of culture - it allows the study of culture throughout the animal kingdom, where culture is indeed common. The best-known cases of such minimal culture concern the cultures of non-human great apes (apes) - in particular, the uneven distribution of behaviour and tool use across populations of wild apes. However, human behaviours and artefacts are not only influenced by social learning, but often entirely depend on social learning: Great apes do not dance to arbitrary - but precisely copied - dance steps, apes have no language and apes do not create social and/or physical tools that could no longer be spontaneously reinvented on the spot by naïve apes. Human cultures therefore go beyond the minimal culture definition - they are characterised in particular by the fact that they require a special kind of social learning, namely the cultural transmission of the ‘know-how’ on which they are based. Helped by this special type of learning, humans, and (among contemporary apes) only humans, have produced things and behaviours that can be described as ‘culture-dependent know-how’. The social transmission of know-how enabled the cultural evolution of know-how. This paper argues that the available data strongly suggest that apes are far from having sufficient spontaneous capacity for such social transmission of know-how. The resulting question, however, is when in prehistory the cultural behaviour of humans and apes can be distinguished and how this could even possible be done. The latest data from our research group suggest a surprisingly late occurrence of culture-dependent know-how.
... Mya; D'Errico, Backwell 2003Backwell , 2009, and Drimolen (ca. 1.5-2 Mya; Backwell, D'Errico 2008) in Southern Africa. More commonly, ground bone artefacts have been reported at Middle Palaeolithic sites, for example, at El Mnasra in Northern Africa and Sibudu Cave in Southern Africa (D'Errico et al. 2012), the open-air site of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt in Germany (Gaudzinski 1999), Pech-de-l'Azé I (Pech I), and Abri Peyrony in France (Soressi et al. 2013). ...
This article presents the results of an experimental program, and traceological analyses of bone tools that were ground using various stone materials. Using multifaceted characterisation and classification of traces, we show that distinctive micro-wear patterns (e.g., striations, polish) are associated with different grinding techniques and corresponding stone materials. At the same time, we underline that it is not possible to distinguish between the different stone materials used during the grinding process. The results of our study highlight the potential for microscopic wear analysis in determining the origin of micro-wear traces on archaeological bone tools.
... The first tipping point occurs between 2.0 and 1.5 Ma, a period at which the first occurrences of the use of bone appear simultaneously in the South and East African archaeological records. In South Africa, a number of sites attests to the use of mostly unmodified bone fragments as digging implements by Australopithecus robustus (Brain and Shipman, 1993;Backwell and d'Errico, 2001;Backwell and d'Errico, 2008;d'Errico and Backwell, 2003;Val and Stratford, 2015;Stammers et al., 2018;Hanon et al., 2021). Meanwhile, in East Africa, occupation layers at Olduvai Bed I and II yielded numerous bone fragments bearing evidence of intentional shaping. ...
The origin and development of bone technologies in China are reviewed in the light of recent discoveries and compared to trends emerging from the European and African archaeological records. Three categories of osseous tools are targeted: 1) unmodified bone fragments bearing traces of use in technological activities; 2) bone fragments modified to a variable extent with techniques generally used in stone technologies; 3) osseous fragments entirely shaped with techniques fit for the manufacture of formal bone tools. Early evidence of bone technologies in China are sporadically found in contexts dated between 1.8 and 1.0 Ma. By the late MIS6–early MIS5, bone tools are well-integrated in the technological systems of Pleistocene populations and the rules guiding their use appear increasingly standardized. In addition, the first evidence for the use of osseous material in symbolic activities emerges in the archaeological record during this period. Finally, between 40 and 35 ka, new manufacturing techniques and products are introduced in Late Palaeolithic technological systems. It is first apparent in the manufacture of personal ornaments, and followed by the production and diversification of formal bone tools. By that time, population dynamics seem to become materialized in these items of material culture. Despite regional specificities, the cultural trajectories identified for the evolution of bone technologies in China seem entirely comparable to those observed in other regions of the world.
... When osseous technology is concerned, and leaving aside bone retouchers, which have received much attention [e.g., 31-34, 36-39, 106-108 and references therein], the identification of expedient bone tools still heavily relies on the presence of use wear associated with flaking scars on both archaeological [42, [53][54][55] and experimental specimens [56], accidental fracture and crushing of the working edges and surfaces [51,52,109], or a combination of these factors [6,7,9,110]. Faunal remains bearing only flake scars, however, have been somewhat overlooked. ...
Activities attested since at least 2.6 Myr, such as stone knapping, marrow extraction, and woodworking may have allowed early hominins to recognize the technological potential of discarded skeletal remains and equipped them with a transferable skillset fit for the marginal modification and utilization of bone flakes. Identifying precisely when and where expedient bone tools were used in prehistory nonetheless remains a challenging task owing to the multiple natural and anthropogenic processes that can mimic deliberately knapped bones. Here, we compare a large sample of the faunal remains from Lingjing, a 115 ka-old site from China which has yielded important hominin remains and rich faunal and lithic assemblages, with bone fragments produced by experimentally fracturing Equus caballus long bones. Our results provide a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria that can help zooarchaeologists and bone technologists distinguish faunal remains with intentional flake removal scars from those resulting from carcass processing activities. Experimental data shows marrow extraction seldom generates diaphyseal fragments bearing more than six flake scars arranged contiguously or in interspersed series. Long bone fragments presenting such characteristics can, therefore, be interpreted as being purposefully knapped to be used as expediency tools. The identification, based on the above experimental criteria, of 56 bone tools in the Lingjing faunal assemblage is consistent with the smaller size of the lithics found in the same layer. The continuity gradient observed in the size of lithics and knapped bones suggests the latter were used for tasks in which the former were less or not effective.
... However, bone flakes are only rarely recognized as (possible) tools at Paleolithic archaeological sites (Breuil, 1932(Breuil, , 1938Dart, 1957Dart, , 1960Kitching, 1963;Mason et al., 1958;Wheat and Scott, 1979), with most scholars seemingly disregarding such possibilities more recently. However, bone 'core' tools (i.e., flaked or broken bones used as tools) are recognized as a form of tool from the early Pleistocene, albeit following the advent of knapped stone technology (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008;Brain and Shipman, 1993;Brain, 1967;Brain et al., 1988;d'Errico and Backwell, 2003;Pante et al., 2020;Robinson, 1959;Sano et al., 2020;Stammers et al., 2018). ...
The means by which hominins invented lithic cutting technology is currently unknown. However, the origin of stone knapping is frequently associated with nut-cracking, whereupon hominins are assumed to have accidentally produced flakes and/or transferred a percussive motion to stone cobbles. Here, we consider whether bone flakes produced during marrow acquisition might have inadvertently produced the first ever cutting tools, and whether such a hypothesis is archaeologically testable. Bone and stone flakes were compared during an experimental butchery activity and an examination of resulting cut marks was undertaken. Use of bone flakes leaves visible cut marks, which are quantitatively and qualitatively distinct from those produced by stone flakes. Accordingly, hominins could have used the expediently manufactured bone flakes during butchery, possibly even utilizing bone flakes prior to the invention of stone flakes. Indeed, this scenario is more parsimonious compared with more commonly considered alternatives. Moreover, our results indicate this scenario is archaeologically testable.
... Although their use was likely ubiquitous throughout hominin evolution, their archaeological visibility depends on serendipitous discoveries in rare circumstances. Yet, from such discoveries, we can document a long and varied record of organic tools from bone digging implements in South Africa at 2.3 Mya (Backwell and d'Errico 2008;Stammers et al. 2018), to in Indonesian H. erectus shell tools at 500 ka (Joordens et al. 2015), and wooden spears (~300 ka) and digging sticks (~170 ka) used by Neanderthals (Aranguren et al. 2018;Milks et al. 2019). Taphonomy thus largely obscures a major component of hominin tool use. ...
We develop a framework to differentiate the technological niches of co-existing hominin species by reviewing some theoretical biases influential in thinking about techno-behaviours of extinct hominins, such as a teleological bias in discussing technological evolution. We suggest that some stone-tool classification systems underestimate technological variability, while overestimating the complexity of the behaviours most commonly represented. To model the likely technological niches of extinct populations, we combine ecological principles ( i.e. competitive exclusion) with physical anthropology and the archaeological record. We test the framework by applying it to the co-existence of Homo naledi and Homo sapiens during the late Middle Pleistocene in southern Africa. Based on our analysis, we suggest that tool use was probably not an essential part of H. naledi ’s niche, but that technology occasionally provided caloric benefits. In contrast, tool use was a structural part of the H. sapiens way of life. We provide reasoning for our interpretation that the latter population is associated with more sophisticated reduction strategies and the development of prepared core technology. The method also has applicability to cases such as the co-existence of different toolmakers during the Earlier Stone Age (ESA) in East Africa and the co-existence of Neanderthals and H. sapiens in Eurasia.
... However, the perishable nature of the potential wooden tools used makes the direct identification of this behaviour in the early hominin archaeological record increasingly difficult. The use of other materials as digging tools such as bones for termite foraging has been documented in the South African sites of Swartkrans, dated to 1.8-1 Ma d'Errico, 2001, 2005), and Drimolen, with a chronology of 2-1.5 Ma (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008). The fact that a tool using primate species, capuchin monkeys, use stones as digging tools, opens up the potential for their use and identification in the archaeological record. ...
Bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) from Serra da Capivara National Park (Brazil), perform the widest range of activities using stone tools of all the non-human tool-using primates. The behaviours behind this range of tool-use have been closely documented, but little is known about the characteristics of the tools themselves. Here we redress this imbalance and adopt an archaeological perspective to the analysis of capuchin pounding tools. We apply, for the first time, systematic microscopic techniques to the analysis of capuchin stone tools used for digging, cracking cashew nuts and seed processing to characterise their damage patterns combined with residue spatial distribution and micro-remains analysis. This work presents a standardized methodology for future primate archaeological use-wear studies as well as forming a reference collection which can be used to identify different activities within the primate archaeological record. Furthermore, understanding the archaeologically visible traces of primate percussive behaviours represents an initial step in developing a methodology to investigate if similar activities were practiced by early hominins and to help identify these activities in the Plio-Pleistocene archaeological record.
... The flaked large mammal bones from Olduvai Gorge Beds I and II (∼1.9 to 1.3 Mya) (52,53), reported by Mary Leakey in 1971 (3), indeed seem to have been intentionally modified (54,55). In South Africa, since the report of a single smoothed pointed metapodial shaft fragment from Sterkfontein Member 5 West (∼1.7 to 1.4 Mya) (56), numerous bone shaft fragments and horn cores from Swartkrans (∼1.8 to 1.0 Mya) and Drimolen (∼2.0 to 1.8 Mya) are now considered to have been used for digging in termite nests or tuber extraction; these were infrequently shaped by grinding and not by flaking (57)(58)(59)(60). ...
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 considerable technological progression between ∼1.75 and <1.0 Mya. Technological analysis of the bone tool indicates intensive anthropogenic shaping. Edge damage, polish, and striae patterns are consistent with use in longitudinal motions, such as in butchering. The discovery of this bone handaxe shows that advanced flaking technology, practiced at Konso on a variety of lithic materials, was also applied to bone, thus expanding the known technological repertoire of African Early Pleistocene Homo .
... The first evidence of the use of bone elements as tools by human groups for the development of specific activities comes from Africa in the Early Pleistocene (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008;d'Errico and Backwell, 2009). However, the evidence is not continuous, nor does it appear throughout the archaeological record, since it is not found in Europe and the Middle East until the Middle Pleistocene (Patou-Mathis, 1999;Zutovski and Barkai, 2016) and in subsequent chronologies in East Asia (Doyon et al., 2018). ...
Bone artefacts have been widely studied because they can be difficult to identify in ancient chronologies. Taphonomical and zooarchaeological studies have demonstrated problems of equifinality of biotic and/or abiotic agents that create pseudo-tools: marrow fracturing of green bone by hominins and carnivores, trampling, etc. In particular, minimally elaborated bone tools are especially subject to the problems of identification of bone artefacts, as the criteria for characterizing their patterns of elaboration are not clearly defined.
The aim of this study is to experimentally reconstruct the manufacture and use of minimally elaborated bone artefacts in order to evaluate their potential as tools involved in different activities, and to study the resulting use-wear traces. To achieve this goal, bovid long bones were experimentally broken via direct percussion on an anvil to extract the marrow and obtain blanks. Unmodified fragments were used in different tasks: scraping hide and wood, sawing wood, and cutting flesh. Another set of bone blanks were retouched to shape bone tools, which were then used in the same activities. This latter process was sequentially performed and recorded.
Thus, using techniques supported by experimentation and microscopy, this study presents the use-wear analysis on minimally elaborated bone tools. The operative chain of used bones and knapped bone tools and their effects on the formation of different traces is explored. Further technological and taphonomical studies will complete our understanding about these processes, proving new clues for the study of hominin subsistence strategies.
... Since the development of Semenov's pioneering work on use-wear analyses during the 1930s and the later generalization of this methodology published in English as Prehistoric Technology (Semenov, 1964), studies in use-wear have developed a rich trajectory combining multiple experimental approaches for the analysis of archaeological materials. Nowadays, an increasing array of studies about use-wear identification and description are available for wood, bone, and shell tools (Backwell and d'Errico, 2008;Cuenca Solana, 2013;Rios-Garaizar et al., 2018), although most of the available information is devoted to the study of stone tools. ...
This paper presents for the first time an experimental protocol for the assessment of use-wear produced when using Precambrian and metamorphic white Naibor Soit quartzite (NQ) flakes. NQ is the most recurrent raw material from the archaeological sites of the Olduvai Gorge during the Early Stone Age (ESA). The objective of this study is to provide a preliminary description of the experimentally produced use-wear traces that can be applied to the analysis of sites like the Acheulean site of Thiongo Korongo (TK, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania) or other sites from Olduvai where NQ was used to tool production.
This experimental protocol incorporates a broad range to tasks including plant processing (underground storage organs [USOs], wood, herbaceous plants, and canes) and carcass processing (butchery and bone processing). The most novel activity of this experimental protocol is the processing of USOs. For this we have replicated different steps of tuber processing including the cutting, peeling, and scraping of five varieties of USOs (Beta vulgaris, Daucus carota, Ipomoea batatas, Pastinaca sativa and Zingiber officinale) with differences in hardness, fibrosity, water content, and peel regularity.
After analysing micro and macro-wear traces traces on the experimental flakes, several criteria for distinguishing between different activities (scraping, cutting, peeling, sawing, cutting, butchery) and the different materials being processed were identified. These criteria are based on the presence, continuity, and morphology of macro-scars along with the presence, distribution, nature, and intensity of different micro traces (micro-scars, attrition, striations, pits, rounding, polish). Additionally, we have identified several processes that limit the formation of traces, including the tendency of some activities to weaken NQ edges and short duration of use.
... Bone tool use has been documented as early as 2 million years ago (mya) in the hominin record [1,2]. These cases represent expedient tools and are recognizable by the wear traces produced during use. ...
Use-wear analysis provides a means of studying traces produced on animal bone during manufacture and use in an effort to reconstruct these processes. Often, these analyses are qualitative and based on experience and expertise. Previous studies have focused on interpreting final traces, but little is known about how these traces develop and change over time. We propose the use of an innovative quantitative method for studying bone surface traces that aims to reduce any unreliable or non-replicable results that can confound more traditional qualitative analyses. We seek to understand the basics of use-wear formation over Time by taking incremental molds of bone specimens subjected to a controlled, mechanical experiment. This study assesses how bone wears during extended use on three Material types (fresh skin, processed leather, or dry bark), from three initial Manufacturing states (unworked, ground with sandstone, or scraped with flint). With data obtained from a confocal disc-scanning microscope, we then apply 3D surface texture analysis using ISO 25178 parameters: surface roughness [Sa], autocorrelation length [Sal], peak curvature [Spc], and upper material ratio [Smr1]. We employ a multilevel multivariate Bayesian model to explain parameter variation under experimental conditions. Our findings show how duration of use strongly affects the transformation of the bone’s surface. Unworked bone is completely distinguishable from bone used for long time intervals and those modified by scraping. Interestingly, material wear does not often produce type-specific traces, but does affect the rate of bone alteration and how it is transformed. Specifically, fresh skin transforms bone at a faster rate than other materials. This novel quantitative and experimental approach enhances our understanding of the use of bone as a raw material for making and using tools and provides a foundation for future exploration of archaeological materials and questions.
... Flakes, cores, and LCTs were the principal flaked stone technologies produced by hominin populations during the Lower Palaeolithic, and were thus likely to have contributed to selective pressures acting on the hominin hand during this period. Although stone-tool related ac- tivities were not the only selective force acting on the hominin hand (e.g., bone tool use, non-modified tool-related activities, arboreal locomotion [Blackwell and d'Errico, 2008;Kivell, 2015;Williams-Hatala et al., 2018]), all three tool types have evidence supporting their use during activities that plausibly would have influenced the survival and reproductive success of Lower Palae- olithic hominins (Key and Lycett, 2017a); although the extent that flake cores were also functional tools is debated (Toth, 1985). ...
The suite of anatomical features contributing to the unique gripping capabilities of the modern human hand evolved alongside the proliferation of Lower Palaeolithic flaked tool technologies across the Old World. Experimental studies investigating their potential co-evolution suggest that the use of flakes, handaxes, and other stone tools is facilitated by manipulative capabilities consistent with the evolutionary trajectory of the hominin hand during this period. Grip analyses have provided important contributions to this understanding. To date, however, there has been no large-scale investigation of grip diversity during flaked stone-tool use, empirical comparative analyses of grip use frequencies, or examination of ergonomic relationships between grip choice and stone tool type and form.
Here, we conduct four experimental studies, using replica Lower Palaeolithic stone tools in a series of actualistic and laboratory-based contexts, to record grip type and frequency of grip use during 1067 stone tool-use events by 123 individuals. Using detailed morphometric data recorded from each tool, we demonstrate how grip choice varies according to the type and form of stone tool used, and how these relationships differ between tool-use contexts. We identify 29 grip types across all tool-use events, with significant differences recorded in their frequency of use dependent on tool type, tool form, and the context of use. Despite the influence of these three factors, there is consistency in the frequent use of a limited number (≤4) of grip types within each experiment and the consistent and seemingly forceful recruitment of the thumb and index finger. Accordingly, we argue that there are deep-rooted, ergonomically-related, regularities in how stone tools are gripped during their use, that these regularities may have been present during the use of stone tools by Plio-Pleistocene hominins, and any subsequent selective pressures would likely have been focused on the first and second digit.
... Although their use was likely ubiquitous throughout hominin evolution, their archaeological visibility depends on serendipitous discoveries in rare circumstances. Yet, from such discoveries, we can document a long and varied record of organic tools from bone digging implements in South Africa at 2.3 Mya (Backwell and d'Errico 2008;Stammers et al. 2018), to in Indonesian H. erectus shell tools at 500 ka (Joordens et al. 2015), and wooden spears (~300 ka) and digging sticks (~170 ka) used by Neanderthals (Aranguren et al. 2018;Milks et al. 2019). Taphonomy thus largely obscures a major component of hominin tool use. ...
A small-brained species of hominin, Homo naledi was discovered in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. It was recently determined to date to the Middle Pleistocene, in contrast with previous suggestions for a much older age. Its date demonstrates that H. naledi co-existed with larger-brained hominins in South Africa’s central interior. Moreover, it is contemporary with the beginning of the Middle Stone Age in the region (characterized by prepared core or mode 3 assemblages). In light of this, its discoverers have explicitly cast it as a potential producer of Middle Stone Age technologies (Berger et al. 2017).
We develop a hypothesis on the ecological and technological niche Homo naledi likely occupied. We briefly review relevant elements H. naledi’s anatomy and their implications for its ecology. We provide an overview of the characteristics of the South African archaeological record contemporary with H. naledi.
We reason from the principle of competitive exclusion and suggest a technological repertoire consisting of simple cores and flakes functioning in a niche focusing on extracted foods is most likely for Homo naledi. We contend that prepared core assemblages were associated with larger-brained populations, fossil remains of which are also known from South Africa’s central interior.
Berger, L.R., Hawks, J., Dirks, P.H.G.M., Elliott, M., Roberts, E.M. (2017). Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa. eLife, 6, e24234.
... Apart from stone tools, possible evidence of tools made of bones have been found originating some 1 -2 million years ago. These tools may have been used by Paranthropus robustus, of genus Australopithecus, see for instance d 'Errico and Backwell (2003), Backwell and d'Errico (2008). Yet another great asset to man have been the usage of cordage, or more specifically, rope. ...
This chapter presents an introduction to the archaeological and historical aspects of various uses of rope and techniques of making rope. There are two main types of rope, laid rope and braided rope, where the former one is in focus in this chapter. Mathematical and physical properties of rope and how to adapt these properties when making rope are discussed. The focus of these properties lies on those that fulfill the requirements put on rope made for decorative purposes with some additional comparison with rope made for practical use. A laid rope may be described as a helical structure due to its spiral shape. That is, each strand of the rope can be seen as a symmetrical circular helix, with the helix curve as a central line within a rod or a tube of diameter dt, forming a strand. A rope of n strands is denoted as n-helix. This view can be used in studying some of the properties of rope. A rope is perhaps even better described as a super helix, which is a structure where each of the strands in themselves consists of parts (yarn) that are twisted like helices. The basic idea with rope is rather simple, and its structure may at first look primitive, but the mathematical models needed to fully capture the properties and characteristics are indeed rather complex. However, for the modern rope maker, equations based on approximations for calculating, for instance, diameter and length, are more than sufficient.
The impact of the depositional environment on bone artifacts is a crucial aspect of traceological research related to prehistoric osseous tools. The conditions in which bone artifacts are deposited significantly influence their preservation and the visibility of manufacturing and use-wear traces. Various factors such as soil composition, climate, burial depth, microbial activity and taphonomic processes (e.g., scavenging, water transport, and plant roots), can alter the state of bone artifacts. These processes may introduce additional wear or modify existing traces. This study presents the preliminary results of a taphonomical research examining the impact of different soils and post-depositional changes (mainly plant roots and fungi) on the preservation and visibility of cultural modifications on bones. Thus, an experiment was conducted where specially prepared modern bone pieces with various manufacturing traces on their surfaces were deposited outdoors in five types of soil for periods of 3 and 6 years. The study’s findings provide numerous interesting observations and insights into the preservation of various types of manufacturing stigmata and the bones themselves, emphasizing the need for further in-depth research in this field. Furthermore, the presented findings may be helpful in taphonomic, traceological and forensic science research.
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Osseous industry has been observed at an increasing number of Neanderthal sites. Bone fragments were used for practical purposes, and a range of bone shaping techniques were employed. The variability of bone tools observed in different assemblages reflects considerable functional diversity. However, no bone spear points have been reported from these contexts. A comprehensive analysis of a bone spear point from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Abric Romaní (Barcelona, Spain) is presented. Through an interdisciplinary, multi-technique, and multi-scale approach combining technology, taphonomy, and functional analysis, compelling evidence for manufacture, use, and hafting was uncovered. The specimen exhibits clear signs of intentional knapping. The presence of microscopic linear impact marks, an impact fracture at the tip and potential internal stress fractures indicate its use as a spear. Furthermore, the observed wear pattern and a morphological adjustment of the trabecular tissue support the hafting hypothesis. Abric Romaní contributes to our understanding of Neanderthal hunting behaviour and the significance of composite bone tools in their technological repertoire 50,000 years ago. This discovery highlights the flexibility and adaptability of Neanderthal technology, providing evidence of bone technology that is sometimes obscured in the archaeological record and offering valuable insights into their hunting strategies during the Middle Palaeolithic.
Primates employ different tools and techniques to overcome the challenges of obtaining underground food resources. Humans and chimpanzees are known to tackle this problem with stick tools and one population of capuchin monkeys habitually uses stone tools. Although early hominids could have used stones as digging tools, we know little about when and how these could be useful. Here, we report a second primate population observed using stone tools and the first capuchin monkey population to habitually use the ‘stick-probing’ technique for obtaining underground resources. The bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) from Ubajara National Park, Brazil, use ‘hands-only’ and ‘stone-digging’ techniques for extracting underground storage organs and trapdoor spiders. Males also use ‘stick-probing’ and ‘stone-stick’ techniques for capturing trapdoor spiders. Tool use does not increase success in obtaining these resources. Stone-digging is less frequent in this population than in the only other known population that uses this technique. Females use stones in a lower proportion of their digging episodes than males in both populations. Ecological and cultural factors potentially influence technique choice and sex differences within and between populations. This population has a different pattern of underground food exploration using tools. Comparing this population with others and exploring the ecological and cultural factors under which capuchin monkeys employ different tools and techniques will allow us to better understand the pressures that may have shaped the evolution of those behaviors in primates.
Processing of osseous materials was an important component of the repertoire of technological innovations throughout the Palaeolithic. The study of hard animal materials assemblages therefore provides crucial information regarding hominin adaptational ranges and cultural evolution. In contrast to the wide array of studies published on this topic in western and central Europe, the Palaeolithic osseous industries from Romania received comparatively limited attention. The organic industry recovered from Cotu Miculinți, a Late Glacial Maximum (LGM) site located in the Prut Valley (northeastern Romania), provides a case at point. The present study proposes a throughout reassessment of the collection of osseous artifacts from this site, covering several key aspects – raw materials, chaîne opératoire, and the functionality of the assemblage – in an attempt of setting the site’s osseous industry into the wider context of LGM cultural adaptations in the area east of the Carpathians.
The results of our analysis reveal an assemblage predominantly made of reindeer antler and document a standardization of the technical transformation scheme, by use of both segmentation and extraction. This resulted in the production of two types of blanks: segmentation produced massive pieces that were transformed into hammers or perforated batons, and extraction by grooving led to standardized rods on flat blanks used to produce barbed points or smoothers. The finished pieces were used in domestic activities (processing of hides, bark, and wood) and for hunting. The assemblage of osseous artifacts from Cotu Miculinți displays many features in common with contemporaneous sites in the area, in particular Cosăuți (Moldova), which is strongly indicative for a similar cultural and adaptive background.
Since the launch of the Journal of Human Evolution fifty years ago, the archaeology of human origins and the evolution of culture have witnessed major breakthroughs with the identification of several new archaeological sites whose chronology has been slowly pushed back until the discovery of the earliest evidence of stone tool making at Lomekwi 3 (West Turkana, Kenya), at 3.3 Ma. Parallel to these discoveries , the study of wild primates, especially chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), allowed the development of models to understand key aspects of the behavior of extinct hominin species. Indeed, chimpanzees possess an impressive diversity of tool-aided foraging behaviors, demonstrating that technology (and culture) is not exclusive to humans. Additionally, current research has also shown that wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) and long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) also rely on stone percussive foraging behaviors. The investigation of these primates is boosting new interpretative models to understand the origins of stone flaking and the archaeological signature left by these primates. This review aims to present an examination of the state-of-the-art and the current advances made in the study of the earliest hominin technology and primate percussive behaviors. Overall, we argue that while it has been shown that extant primates can generate unintentional flakes, early hominins exhibited skills in the production and use of flakes not identified in primates. Nonetheless, we stand up to continue developing interdisciplinary approaches (i.e., primate archaeology) to study extant primates, as these endeavors are essential to move forward toward a detailed understanding of the technological foraging behaviors beyond the genus Homo. Finally, we discuss future challenges for the study of the emergence of stone technology.
Understanding the role of expedient osseous tools in past technological systems remains a central question in research on the cultural evolution of our lineage. Often, these tools are interpreted as objects used in hide processing activities based on use-wear patterns documented on their surface. However, traditional use-wear analyses are essentially qualitative and fail to capture the diversity of hide processing techniques and processes documented in the ethnographic literature. In addition, use-wear patterns produced while flaying skin and cutting meat can sometime be confounded with those that develop while processing hide. Here, we report an experimental study that aims to overcome these limitations. We use unretouched expedient bone tools in one flaying, five fleshing and two meat cutting activities. The use-wear patterns are studied qualitatively under SEM at 100x, 200x, 500x and 800x lens magnifications, and with confocal microscopy at 50x lens magnification. We also perform flexible discriminant analyses (FDA) to infer the function of the bone tool from surface textural parameters. Our results suggest that FDA and morphometric data on the striations may be combined to infer the function of expedient bone tools with high accuracy.
Several taphonomic processes can alter the surface of archaeological bone in a manner that may cause them to superficially resemble bone tools used as digging implements. Under close examination, however, the resultant microwear is usually quite distinct. While many experiments have been done to document the effects of fluvial processes on bone surface alteration, there are many mass soil movement process whose microwear effects have not yet been properly investigated and which could conceivably produce microwear similar to digging implements. One example, which pertains to the Cradle of Humankind landscape, is soil creep. We present the results of an experiment that assesses the resultant microwear on stationary bones occasioned by artificially accelerated soil creep processes. We show that the passage of saturated sediments over stationary bones produces rounding and pitting, and does not resemble microwear occasioned either by fluvial transport or experimental digging in sediments. Although there is room to test additional variables, we conclude that the purported bone tools from the Cradle of Humankind sites were not affected by soil creep processes, at least not to the extent that they caused surface alterations.
The spoken word does not fossilize. Despite this, scientists have long sought to unearth the origins of language within the human lineage. One of the lines of evidence they have pursued is functional brain areas, such as Broca's and Wernicke's areas, which are associated with speech production and comprehension, respectively. Sulcal layout of Broca's area clearly differs between humans and our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, enabling its homolog in fossil hominins to be deemed more chimpanzee-like (i.e., closer to the ancestral form) or more human-like (i.e., derived form) with relative ease. Yet, no such differences have been found for Wernicke's area. This study compares sulcal and gyral organization of Wernicke's area across extant human brains (n=4), extant chimpanzee brains (n=5) and fossil hominin endocasts (n=4). Some chimpanzee brains had indications of leftward Wernicke's area asymmetry in the form of a shorter Sylvian fissure and/or caudal superior temporal gyral bulging in the left hemisphere. Overlap between the superior and middle temporal sulci in human but not chimpanzee brains may be due to a relatively larger Wernicke's area in humans. Fragmentation of the main body of the superior temporal sulcus exclusively in human left hemispheres was ascribed to a leftward Wernicke's area asymmetry in this species. Endocast examination found that, while Paranthropus robustus exhibit human-like overlap between the superior and middle temporal sulci, Australopithecus africanus do not, although they do exhibit chimpanzee-like caudal superior temporal gyral bulging. Such findings signal, albeit loosely, a more human-like Wernicke's area in Paranthropus than Australopithecus.
The exceptional survival of Middle Pleistocene wooden spears at Schöningen (Germany) and Clacton-on-Sea (UK) provides tantalizing evidence for the widespread use of organic raw materials by early humans. At Clacton, less well-known organic artefacts include modified bones that were identified by the Abbé Henri Breuil in the 1920s. Some of these pieces were described and figured by Hazzledine Warren in his classic 1951 paper on the flint industry from the Clacton Channel, but they have been either overlooked in subsequent studies or dismissed as the product of natural damage. We provide the first detailed analysis of two Clactonian bone tools found by Warren and a previously unrecognized example recovered in 1934 during excavations directed by Mary Leakey. Microscopic examination of percussion damage suggests the bones were used as knapping hammers to shape or resharpen flake tools. Early Palaeolithic bone tools are exceedingly rare, and the Clacton examples are the earliest known organic knapping hammers associated with a core-and-flake (Mode 1) lithic technology. The use of soft hammers for knapping challenges the consensus that Clactonian flintknapping was undertaken solely with hard hammerstones, thus removing a major technological and behavioural difference used to distinguish the Clactonian from late Acheulean handaxe (Mode 2) industries.
Humans evolved in the dynamic landscapes of Africa under conditions of pronounced climatic, geological and environmental change during the past 7 million years. This book brings together detailed records of the paleontological and archaeological sites in Africa that provide the basic evidence for understanding the environments in which we evolved. Chapters cover specific sites, with comprehensive accounts of their geology, paleontology, paleobotany, and their ecological significance for our evolution. Other chapters provide important regional syntheses of past ecological conditions. This book is unique in merging a broad geographic scope (all of Africa) and deep time framework (the past 7 million years) in discussing the geological context and paleontological records of our evolution and that of organisms that evolved alongside our ancestors. It will offer important insights to anyone interested in human evolution, including researchers and graduate students in paleontology, archaeology, anthropology and geology.
Fully shaped, morphologically standardized bone tools are generally considered reliable indicators of the emergence of modern behavior. We report the discovery of 23 double-beveled bone tools from ~ 80,000-60,000-year-old archaeological layers at Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We analyzed the texture of use-wear on the archaeological bone tools, and on bone tool replicas experimentally used in debarking trees, processing rabbit pelts with and without an ochre compound, digging in sediment in and outside a cave, and on ethnographic artefacts. Debarking trees and digging in humus-rich soil produce use-wear patterns closely matching those observed on most Sibudu tools. This tool type is associated with three different Middle Stone Age cultural traditions at Sibudu that span 20,000 years, yet they are absent at contemporaneous sites. Our results support a scenario in which some southern African early modern human groups developed and locally maintained specific, highly standardized cultural traits while sharing others at a sub-continental scale. We demonstrate that technological and texture analyses are effective means by which to infer past behaviors and assess the significance of prehistoric cultural innovations.
The main goal of this paper is to present an overview of hypotheses concerning early Homo specimens and to discuss the definition of the genus Homo in the light of recent discoveries. For some authors, all the specimens attributed to early Homo belong to one unique species. For others, this group (Homo habilis sensu lato) is heterogeneous and could be splitted into two groups: H. habilis and Homo rudolfensis. Some researchers have also proposed to put the species habilis and rudolfensis into the genera Australopithecus or Kenyanthropus. Therefore, two scenarios concerning first humans seem to emerge. An emergence of the genus Homo, as early as 2.8 Ma, with Homo sp. specimens and the species H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, another at 1.9 Ma with Homo ergaster. According to the recent archaeological and paleoanthropological discoveries, these criteria often considered to be crucial for the definition of the genus Homo, as the cranial capacity, the humanlike manipulative abilities, the habitual erect posture and bipedal gait, the language ability and the capacity to make tools are now obsolete.
Carnivores have long been identified as one of the most important taphonomical agents of the Plio-Pleistocene hominin-bearing caves of South Africa. Cooper's D is an eroded cave deposit dated between 1.3 and 1.0 Ma and has yielded an abundant and diverse large mammal faunal assemblage. It has been previously argued that brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea) were the main accumulator agent. However, more recently the involvement of hominins has also been identified in the accumulation of at least a part of the assemblage. In this paper, we first describe the composition of the carnivore paleoguild from Cooper's D, which permits to highlight an important taxonomic diversity. The completeness indexes indicate good retention of bone material in our analysis. The carnivore ravaging index pointed out the relative moderate impact of carnivores in the destruction of the bone assemblage. Through skeletal part representation, mortality profiles and bone surface modifications, we argue that large felids, and especially leopards, can in fact be identified as the most probable main taphonomic agents. Moreover, we confirmed the involvement of hyenids but also canids in the accumulation and modification of the assemblage. Based on the multiple carnivore taphonomic signal, we proposed that the cave was not used as a carnivore den on a regular basis. Thus, we argue that Cooper's D faunal assemblage is the result of the independent accumulations of both hominins and carnivores.
Evidence of the consumption of meat through hunting or scavenging by Early Pleistocene hominins is scarce, particularly in South Africa. Moreover, the interpretations of taphonomic evidence are subject to an important discussion commonly called the 'hunting-vs-scavenging debate.' Until today, only the Swartkrans Members 1e3 site has yielded a butchered bone assemblage large enough to permit reconstruction of carcass acquisition strategies by Early Pleistocene hominins in South Africa. This leaves an information gap between 1.4 and 1.0 Ma. Here, we provide the first evidence of meat consumption by hominins during this gap, based on the zooarchaeological study of the large mammal bone assemblage recovered from the Cooper's D site, South Africa. Based on skeletal part representation, our results show density-mediated attrition of bovid bones due to predepositional and postdepositional destruction. We argue that this attrition is the result of both abiotic (i.e., decalcification) and biotic (i.e., carnivore ravaging) processes. Bovid mortality profiles point out the involvement of ambush predators such as large felids. Bone surface modifications also indicate that the assemblage has been accumulated mostly by carnivores but with some hominin involvement as well. We observe all the stages of animal carcass processing (skinning, disarticulation, defleshing, marrow extraction) as well as the exploitation of a diversity of prey size classes at both Swartkrans Members 1e3 and Cooper's D. Thus, our study shows the importance of the Cooper's D bone assemblage for understanding Early Pleistocene hominin subsistence behaviors. Moreover, this article highlights the need for including long bone flake specimens in the analysis of large bone assemblages from South African caves to better understand the Early Pleistocene hominin bone damage record.
Bone tool-use by Early Pleistocene hominins is at the centre of debates in human evolution. It is especially the case in South Africa, where 102 bone tools have been described from four Early Stone Age archaeological sites, which have yielded Oldowan and possibly Acheulean artefacts, as well as Paranthropus robustus and early Homo remains. Here we describe a bone tool from Cooper's D. The deposit, dated between 1.4 and 1.0 Ma, has yielded seven P. robustus remains and 50 stone artefacts. Our results highlight similarities in morphology and use-wear patterns between the Cooper's D bone tool and those previously identified at nearby Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai and Drimolen. Our findings increase the number of Early Stone Age bone tools and provide further evidence of their association with P. robustus. They suggest P. robustus had the cognitive capacities to develop this cultural adaptation and the manipulative abilities to implement it.
Bone tools have been used by hominins for over a million years and are found in a broad array of shapes and sizes. The function of metapodia exhibiting battering damage on epiphyses from the Lower Palaeolithic site of Schöningen 13 II-4, however, was unknown when they were first described in 2008. Crushing, chipping, and flaking damage on lateral and medial epicondyles was originally ascribed to stone tool production and/or maintenance. A detailed re-examination of the metapodia assemblage, however, did not result in the discovery of small flint particles embedded in the battered surfaces, a common feature in bones from Schöningen that have been used to knap flint. While recent experiments have demonstrated the effective use of metapodia in flint working, they did not produce the characteristic battering damage on the epicondyles when purely working flint. An alternative explanation for the use of metapodia was found in ethnography: the Nunamiut frequently used reindeer metapodia as hammers to fracture other limb bones. It was therefore hypothesised that the metapodia from Schöningen were used as hammers to fracture other limb bones in order to gain access to bone marrow. Actualistic experiments with fresh horse bones presented in this paper verify this hypothesis; horse metapodia were effective tools to break open other limb bones and the metapodia sustained the characteristic battering damage that is observed in the fossil record of Schöningen. Whether the metapodial hammers are the product of incidental improvisation or a quickly abandoned innovation during the transition from the Lower to the Middle Palaeolithic remains unclear.
Activities attested since at least 2.6 Myr, such as stone knapping, marrow extraction, and woodworking may have allowed early hominins to recognize the technological potential of discarded skeletal remains and equipped them with a transferable skillset fit for the marginal modification and utilization of bone flakes. Identifying precisely when and where expedient bone tools were used in prehistory nonetheless remains a challenging task owing to the multiple natural and anthropogenic processes that can mimic deliberately knapped bones. Here, we compare a large sample of the faunal remains from Lingjing, a 115 ka-old site from China which has yielded important hominin remains and rich faunal and lithic assemblages, with bone fragments produced by experimentally fracturing Equus caballus long bones. Our results provide a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria that can help zooarchaeologists and bone technologists distinguish faunal remains with intentional flake removal scars from those resulting from carcass processing activities. Experimental data shows marrow extraction seldom generates diaphyseal fragments bearing more than six flake scars arranged contiguously or in interspersed series. Long bone fragments presenting such characteristics can, therefore, be interpreted as being purposefully knapped to be used as expediency tools. The identification, based on the above experimental criteria, of 56 bone tools in the Lingjing faunal assemblage is consistent with the smaller size of the lithics found in the same layer. The continuity gradient observed in the size of lithics and knapped bones suggest the latter were used for tasks in which the former were less or not effective.
I review five “vanished technologies” from southern Africa that have been brought to light through use-wear studies of bone tools. Most of the examples discussed here represent the first recognition of these technologies in the region and provide unique insights into the technological and behavioral repertoires of past humans and hominins. Hominin foraging and subsistence practices are inferred from the use-wear patterns on modified bones from four sites in the Cradle of Humankind. Early evidence for bow-and-arrow technology comes from Sibudu Cave and Klasies River Main site, with the evidence from the latter site extending the known distribution of this technology farther south. Use-wear has shown that modified bones, thought to have been pendants, were used in a manner more consistent with the production of sound and likely represent early musical instruments. In a similar vein, use-wear has shown that several bone points, conventionally interpreted as arrowheads, were used for domestic activities, such as making reed mats or baskets. Among some of the earliest state-level societies in southern Africa, the presence of bone hoes attests to the practice of small-scale garden agriculture, placing greater emphasis on individual agency within these complex societies. Use-wear studies continue to highlight the absurdity of attributing function based on shape.
The Drimolen Palaeocave System in the ‘Fossil Hominid Sites of South Africa’ UNESCO World Heritage Site is well known for numerous remains of early hominins such as Paranthropus robustus and early Homo. These hominin fossils, along with bone tools and notably diverse accumulation of non-hominin primates and fauna, have all been excavated from the 'Main Quarry' area of the site where extensive lime-mining took place. Here we report the first radiometric age of 1.712 ± 0.269 Ma for hominin bearing deposits associated with the DNH7 Paranthropus robustus cranium in the Main Quarry area of the site, which is consistent with recent biochronological estimates. This age is similar to recent estimates for Swartkrans Member 1 Hanging Remnant (somewhere between 2.3 and 1.8 Ma) which also contains Paranthropus and early Homo. Simultaneously, we integrate the newly radiometrically dated Main Quarry deposits with a new fossil deposit, the Drimolen Makondo, discovered in 2013, that is situated some 50 m up the hill to the west from the Main Quarry. It has experienced only limited disturbance from mining but much more extensive erosion. Preliminary excavations and analysis have revealed that the Makondo infill is older than the Main Quarry, dating to 2.706 ± 0.428 Ma. Its greater age is confirmed by biochronology. The Makondo thus overlap with the suggested end of deposition of Australopithecus bearing Sterkfontein deposits, although it is yet to yield any hominin remains. These new dates for the two Drimolen Palaeocave System deposits indicates that, contrary to prior age estimates, the Drimolen site as a whole records the critical hominin and faunal turnover in South African palaeocommunities that occurred around 2.3–1.7 Ma. Finally, as the Drimolen Makondo represents a rare example of a pre-2 Ma fossil bearing deposit in the Gauteng exposures of the Malmani dolomite, we also integrate our results into the greater South African record of palaeodeposit formation (most of which occur between ∼2.0 and 1.0 Ma). An analysis of the age of palaeocave infillings across the Malmani dolomite suggests that, as is classically the case with karst, the height within the dolomite is broadly correlated to their age, although with some notable exceptions that are likely related to localised geological features. Our analysis also indicates that most caves have undergone some form of secondary karstification related to a younger phase of cave formation, contrasting with models that suggest the cavities all formed at the same time and that infill is related to erosion and the opening up of cave passages. As such, the reason that few pre-2 Ma deposits have been identified in the Gauteng exposures of the Malmani dolomite is probably because these older caves have been eroded away. Identifying such early caves is critical in understanding whether earlier hominins may have once existed in South Africa or if erosion of older deposits (or an absence of speleogenesis at this time) has made such early periods absent from the geological record.
Bone accumulation by porcupines at archaeological sites is well known. However, in paleontological sites such a taphonomical occurrence is rather rare. We here report porcupine (Hystrix sp.) gnaw marks on an unidentified bone fragment, dated to ~2.6 Ma from the Upper Siwalik deposits exposed near Khetpurali (Haryana), India. The present gnaw marks are very distinct and are characterized by visible edges and grooves making clear broad and shallow furrows. The present find adds to our knowledge of Siwalik vertebrate taphonomy where most of the accumulations reported earlier were either fluvial or made by carnivores.
Tool use is one of the hallmarks of what makes us
human. This defining behaviour is fostered by our
high fidelity social learning environment and unique
process of cumulative cultural evolution. From the
Stone Age to the Digital Revolution, the human
narrative has been written in the technologies we
developed to meet the challenges of everyday life.
How our ancestors accomplished increasingly complex
tasks reflected the skills and materials available
at the time, and as technology developed in complexity,
so too did their lives. For over two million
years of the human lineage, stone and bone tools
preserve the only record of our technological heritage
and capacity for innovation. Studying the origins
and development of these technologies plays
a vital role in retracing our evolutionary footsteps
toward becoming human.
The search for ‘firsts’ is a common trope in the study of human evolution. Both popular books and scientific articles attempt to discern the key moments in evolutionary history that indicate the true appearance of our species (or subspecies, depending on one’s classificatory scheme). While scientists are cognizant of the problematic nature of this work, we often use a specific set of dates and material markers as tipping points for the origins and spread of modern humans. Here, we summarize the available data used to indicate behavioral modernity and suggest (1) that key factors traditionally seen as indicative of ‘behaviorally modern’ humans had their origin across the Middle Pleistocene and (2) were not lumped into one cohesive package (or associated with only one species) until more recently. Fossil, genetic, and archaeological datasets indicate that members of our genus (Homo) have been engaging in complex cognitive thought and semiosis since circa 400–300 ka, and perhaps earlier. These data point to a more complex, but more accurate and realistic, depiction of the braided steam of human evolution.
The paper presented here is framed within the field of experimental archeology. From research on bone tools in Tierra del Fiego arose the necessity of identifying use and manufacture traces to achieve accuracy when giving "tool" names to certain specimens which are doubtful as artifacts. For that purpose, and as a first step, an experimental study was designed. It consisted of the removal of bark fragments of Nothofagus betuloides, following a hypothesis generated from the ethnographic record. The first results of that work are presented here.
Use-wear analysis is a method in paleoanthropology that identifies the functions of tools and teeth by closely examining their surface damage characteristics. Microwear analysis is thus widely used to improve our knowledge of Prehistoric man way of life. After having developed a quantitative method to record a representative part of food movements between cheeks and back teeth by the enamel tooth buccal wear striae, demonstrating its utility in dietary preferences of both living and extinct species (Puech 1976; Puech 1981), we apply the methodology to study the technology of bone-implement manufacture
Characteristic markings left on bone surfaces by various kinds of stone tools were studied by taking replicas of the surfaces with a nitrocellulose-based metallographic varnish. The patterns left by unretouched flint blades, flint end-scrapers, flint burins used in various ways, and by polishing with sand, could all be distinguished.
Utilisation de répliques pour étudier la surface du matériel osseux et expérimentations d'outils lithiques sur des surfaces osseuses pour obtenir les mêmes stries
Previous research showed that 68 bone fragments from the early hominid site of Swartkrans (Members 1-3; c. 1.8-1.0 Myr), bearing a characteristic wear pattern not found in bone assemblages accumulated by non-human factors, could be interpreted as tools used by early hominids in digging activities to extract tubers or termites. Here we describe 16 additional bone tools from the same site and study the enlarged bone tool collection in search of patterns of variation among members. No significant differences were observed between Members 1-3 in the type and size of the bone fragments used as tools as well as in the length and type of the wear pattern, suggesting that no major changes occurred through time in the subsistence strategy for which the tools were used. The vertical distribution of the bone tools spans Members 1-3, indicating that early hominids maintained a behavioural pattern involving a bone tool material culture that may have persisted for nearly a million years. The fact that the proportion of bone versus stone tools remained roughly similar in the three members indicates stability in the artefact catchment basin. The different preservation of bone and stone tools indicates the former were incorporated in the deposit quickly while the latter remained exposed to alteration for longer in some instances. Bone and stone tools do not share the same spatial and vertical distribution which suggests that relatively long time intervals could separate early hominid incursions in the catchment basin to use the two tool types. The absence of Homo remains in Member 3 - where Paranthropus (Australopithecus) robustus fossils occur in association with relatively few stone and many bone tools, together with the presence of only two possible stone tools at Drimolen, the other southern African site to have yielded similar bone tools, points to the robust australopithecines as the more probable users of these tools.
The co-occurrence of Paranthropus robustus and early Homo in South Africa has so far been firmly documented only at the site of Swartkrans. Our analysis of a sample of 79 early hominid fossil specimens from the newly discovered cave site of Drimolen confirms that Paranthropus [Australopithecus] robustus was contemporaneous with early Homo in South Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene. In addition, analysis of the large number of robust australopithecine dental remains from Drimolen demonstrates the considerable variability in this taxon. The sub-sample of deciduous P. robustus teeth from Drimolen encompasses a wide range of the metrical and morphological variation observed in the robust australopithecine samples from Swartkrans and Kromdraai. This finding supports the idea of a single, variable species of robust australopithecine in South Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene. At the same time, it weakens the hypothesis of the existence of two separate robust australopithecine species (namely, P. robustus from the site of Kromdraai and P. crassidens from Swartkrans) in South Africa, as first proposed by Broom and later supported by others.
Purported early hominid bone tools from Olduvai Gorge are studied for microscopic traces of use-wear, and evidence of intentional flaking by knapping. Comparative microscopic analyses of the edges of the purported tools, and areas far from the potential functional zone, as well as edges of bone pieces from the remainder of the assemblage, show that possible modifications due to utilization are not distinguishable from features attributed to post-depositional abrasion. Taphonomic analysis of the bone tool collection, a control sample of bone shaft fragments from the remainder of the Olduvai assemblage, and experimentally broken elephant long bones, identifies significant differences in the size and type of mammals represented. The bone tool collection records an abundance of large to very large mammals, while the control sample comprises mostly medium-size bovids. Puncture and cut-marks occur on one third of the bone tool collection, and on only a few pieces in the control sample, suggesting hominids were the agent responsible for the breakage of most of the bones previously described as tools. Analysis of the number, location and length of flake scars in the three assemblages, reveals that a reduced proportion of purported bone tools bear invasive, contiguous, often bifacially arranged removals, not seen in the control or experimental collections. This makes these specimens good candidates for having been shaped and used by early hominids. Complete bones with tool-generated puncture-marks, previously interpreted as anvils, are interpreted here as hammers used on intermediate stone tools.
A number of natural processes occurring during the life of an animal or after its death can produce pseudotools,
mimics of human-made objects. A number of purported bone tools from Lower and Middle Palaeolithic
sites have been published without any validating microscopic analysis of the bone surfaces showing possible
traces of manufacture and use. This paper discusses the evolutionary significance of bone tool technology
and summarises results of research on the use of bone tools by early hominids between one and two million
years ago (Mya). It attempts to establish formal criteria for the identification of minimally modified bone tools by
characterising the modifications produced by known human and non-human agents, and applying these criteria
to the purported bone tool collections from Swartkrans, Sterkfontein and Olduvai Gorge. A number of experiments involving a variety of tasks were conducted in order to increase the range of diagnostic features available. New analytical techniques have been developed for the quantification of microscopic use-wear, and a wide range of taphonomic and morphometric variables have been used to isolate idiosyncratic populations of specimens for which a robust argument can be made for their identification as tools. South and East African early hominid sites dated to between 1,8 Mya and 1 Mya have yielded what appear to be very different types of bone tools. The former are characterised by long bone shaft fragments and horn-cores of medium to large-sized bovids, collected by hominids after weathering, and possibly used in specialised digging activities. Most fragments were used as such, though a few horn-cores were modified by grinding the tips to points on sandstone or compact abrasive sediment. Those from East Africa mainly consist of freshly broken, or more rarely, complete irregular bones from very large mammals, used as such, or modified by flaking. Irregular bones or epiphyses appear to have been used as hammers, while the others were apparently involved in a variety of light- and heavy-duty activities. Based on the bone tool manufacturing techniques recorded in the two regions, there appear to be no significant differences between the cognitive abilities of the hominid users. Evidence of intentional flaking by knapping seen on the Olduvai bone tools, and traces of grinding on those from South Africa, suggests that the makers of the tools had a clear understanding of the properties of bone, could anticipate the end product, and conceived shaping techniques specific to this raw material in order to achieve optimal efficiency in the tasks for which they were used.
Cave development in the Madison aquifer of the Black Hills has taken place in several stages. Mississippian carbonates fi rst underwent eogenetic (early diagenetic) reactions with interbedded sulfates to form breccias and solution voids. Later sub-aerial exposure allowed oxygenated meteoric water to replace sulfates with calcite and to form karst and small caves. All were later buried by ~2 km of Pennsylvanian– Cretaceous strata. Groundwater fl ow and speleogenesis in the Madison aquifer were renewed by erosional exposure during Laramide uplift. Post-Laramide speleogenesis enlarged paleokarst voids. Most interpretations of this process in the Black Hills invoke rising thermal water, but they fail to account for the cave patterns. Few passages extend downdip below the present water table or updip to outcrops. None reaches the base of the Madison Limestone, and few reach the top. Major caves underlie a thin cover of basal Pennsylvanian–Permian Minnelusa Formation (interbedded quartzarenite and carbonates). Water infi ltrating through the Minnelusa Formation dissolves car-bonates in a nearly closed system, producing low pCO 2 , while recharge directly into Madison outcrops has a much higher pCO 2. Both are at or near calcite saturation when they enter caves, but their mixture is undersaturated. The caves reveal four phases of calcite deposition: eogenetic ferroan calcite (Mis-sissippian replacement of sulfates); white scalenohedra in paleovoids deposited during deep post-Mississippian burial; palisade crusts formed during blockage of springs by Oligocene–Miocene continental sediments; and laminated crusts from late Pleisto-cene water-table fl uctuations. The caves reveal more than 300 m.y. of geologic history and a close relationship to regional geologic events.
Hundreds of non-cultural elephant bone sites have been studied in southern Africa, starting at or before the actual moments of death and continuing through bone burial or destruction. In some sites, dozens of elephants died en masse due to drought. These sites contain spirally fractured limb bones in proportions as high as 62% of counted limb elements. Many naturally broken tusk fragments are similar to specimens that have been interpreted as artifacts in fossil proboscidean collections. Trampling marks on bones closely mimic cut marks made by stone tools. As reported here, numerous attributes of non-cultural assemblages are virtually indistinguishable from attributes that archaeologists have believed to be created by human behaviour alone.
A cote des outils sur os indubitables des gisements italiens, il existe beaucoup de cas pour lesquels se pose le probleme de l'identification d'outillage a partir de pieces presentant un bas niveau de modification (par ex. les outils en os de Vallonnet, Cueva Morin, Prolom Il etc.). Ces difficultes sont dues a l'absence de modeles interpretatifs de reference, a l'insuffisance de donnees actualistes et aux procedures des archeologues qui ont etudie des pieces selectionnees et non pas des assemblages complets. Les donnees actualistes issues des etudes des activites de carnivores ne permettent pas toujours de definir des criteres diagnostiques precis puisque les referentiels actuels sont essentiellement constitues par des modifications sur restes osseux d'animaux de petite taille (cervides ou bovides de taille moyenne); dans les sites archeologiques, en revanche, il s'agit souvent de restes d'herbivore d'assez grande taille (Bos, Bison). Le site de Bois Roche a fourni un tres abondant assemblage de restes osseux de bovides de grande taille et d'equides. L'exiguite de la salle (qui la rend inhabitable par l'homme), l'abondance de coprolithes, d'os maches et de diaphyses relativement completes, la presence de dents deciduales d'Hyene et de centaines d'esquilles partiellement digerees et regurgitees, montrent que la grotte etait un repaire d'hyene. La fragmentation des restes osseux est importante et indique un mode de fracturation sur os frais. Plusieurs pieces avec encoches et pseudo-retouches montrent des ressemblances etonnantes avec les traces de percussion intentionnelle et une grande regularite des bords retouches sur la face interne et externe des diaphyses. Il est clair que les carnivores du Pleistocene etaient parfaitement capables de tailler des os de grands herbivores (comme Bos et Bison) et de produire des artefacts tres semblables a des outils lithiques. Il n'est donc plus possible d'accepter d
3 that certain fossil bone fragments found at the Swartkrans and Sterkfontein sites were modified by early hominids. These new studies have also ex - tended earlier research to the potential use of these artefacts, and suggest that the unusual tip modification found on most specimens is not from digging for roots, bulbs and tubers as was previously suggested. 3 Rather, recent re - 2 where weathered bones were used by hominids to dig into the colony. The implications of this research are many. These results are the first conclusive evidence of tool use linked to a specific food resource at this time depth. Furthermore, this research seems to demonstrate the often predicted link between l iving c himpanzee a nd e arly hominid social and cultural adaptation. 4-6 It is
I report on a well-preserved Paranthropus robustus skull and another mandible from the recently discovered dolomitic cave site of Drimolen, Krugersdorp District, South Africa. The skull (DNH 7), a presumed female, consists of the first cranium and articulated mandible with the most complete dentition yet described for this taxon. Found juxtaposed to the skull was a large and presumably male mandible, with almost complete dentition (DNH 8). Paranthropus robustus was described from Kromdraai in South Africa in 1938 and in 1948 from Swartkrans, and has until recently been definitively known only from these two sites. Owing to the distortion of many of the Swartkrans crania, it has been suggested that P. robustus displays a smaller degree of intraspecific variability than the better preserved specimens of Paranthropus boisei from East Africa. Owing to the excellent preservation of this new skull, it is now possible to demonstrate that P. robustus shows a greater degree of intraspecific variability in both morphology and size, indicating greater sexual dimorphism in this species, than was previously thought.
New specimens of Carnivora from late Pliocene deposits at the Sterkfontein hominid site are described. Proteles is now added to the faunal list and the hyaena Chasmaporthetes nitidula is also identified in the Member 2 assemblage from the Silberberg Grotto. With a larger sample, Members 4 and 5 are now seen to have essentially the same large carnivore guild, a mix of extant and extinct taxa. An updated checklist of taxa is provided.
Natural traces produced on antlers during the life of the deer may be mistaken for use wear inflicted by humans when the antler is recovered from archaeological contexts. In the process of discarding their velvet and engaging in a variety of rutting behaviors, deer inflict several forms of damage to their antlers. The abrasion, polishing, marring, and terminal impact fractures noted on 110 pairs of uncast, unused antlers from 11 species of deer demonstrate that this damage is widespread and diagnostic. Comparisons were made between characteristic natural surface modifications and wear found on two common antler tools, pressure flakers and soft hammers.
In recent years archaeologists and paleontologists have become increasingly interested in how and why vertebrate animal remains become, or do not become, fossils. Vertebrate Taphonomy introduces interested researchers to the wealth of analytical techniques developed by archaeologists and paleontologists to help them understand why prehistoric animal remains do or do not preserve, and why those that preserve appear the way they do. This book is comprehensive in scope, and will serve as an important work of reference for years to come.
The importance of meat-eating in human evolution has long been a controversial subject1–4. The best available evidence of hominid activities between 2 and 1.5 Myr ago is the archaeological record from two East African localities, Olduvai Gorge5, Tanzania, and Koobi Fora6, Kenya, which consists of scattered stone artefacts and fragmentary animal bones. The question7,8 of functional association between juxtaposed artefacts and bones would be largely settled if hominid-induced modifications were present on some bones. Comparative analyses of archaeological bone assemblages from Olduvai Gorge and Koobi Fora and of various modern bone assemblages with known taphonomic histories reveal direct evidence of early hominid butchering and marrow-processing activities.
Information on the number of carnivore taxa that were involved with archaeological bone assemblages is pertinent to questions of site formation, hominid and carnivore competition for carcasses and the sequence of hominid and carnivore activity at sites. A majority of early archaeological bone assemblages bear evidence that both hominids and carnivores removed flesh and/or marrow from the bones. Whether flesh specialists (felids) or bone-crunchers (hyaenas), or both, fed upon the carcasses is crucial for deciphering the timing of hominid involvement with the assemblages. Here we present an initial attempt to differentiate the tooth mark signature inflicted on bones by a single carnivore species versus multiple carnivore taxa. Quantitative data on carnivore tooth pits, those resembling a tooth crown or a cusp, are presented for two characteristics: the area of the marks in millimetres, and the shape as determined by the ratio of the major axis to the minor axis of the mark. Tooth pits from bones modified by extant East African carnivores and latex impressions of tooth pits from extinct carnivore species are compared to those in the FLK Zinjanthropus bone assemblage. Data on tooth mark shape indicate greater variability in theZinj sample than is exhibited by any individual extant or extinct carnivore species in the comparative sample. Data on tooth mark area demonstrate that bone density is related to the size of marks. Taken together, these data support the inference that felids defleshed bones in the Zinj assemblage and that hyaenas had final access to any grease or tissues that remained.
Cutmarks made by stone tools, conchoidal flake scars from hammerstone percussion, carnivore tooth marks, striations from sedimentary abrasion, and other surface modifications on bones from archaeological sites constitute a crucial body of evidence for investigating the role of human behaviors and of nonhuman taphonomic processes in site formation. This paper describes the various kinds of bone surface modifications produced by humans and by nonhuman processes and assesses the current status of bone surface modification studies with regard to such issues as the need for greater analytical standardization, the selection of instruments for examining bone specimens, tactics for identifying the origins of marks on bones, and strategies for inferring human behaviors.
Ever since Dart (J. Phys. Anthrop. 7 (1949) 1) interpreted certain bones from Makapansgat as tools, scientific consensus has fluctuated as to whether some bone objects from early hominid sites should be interpreted as artefacts, or the result of non-human taphonomic processes, which are known to produce pseudo-bone tools morphologically similar to human modified or used artefacts. Here we present possible evidence of bone tool shaping from Swartkrans (Members 1–3; ca. 1.8–1.0 Mya). Four horncores and the proximal end of an ulna used as tools in digging activities also have facets covered by parallel spindle-shaped striations characteristic of grinding. Identification of these traces as possibly resulting from deliberate shaping or re-sharpening of the bone tools is based on the characterisation of the use-wear pattern and other taphonomic modifications observed on the Swartkrans bone tools. This interpretation is also supported by the study of the remainder of the horncores from Swartkrans, horncores from other southern African Plio-Pleistocene sites (Sterkfontein, Makapansgat, Gondolin), modern horncores affected by pre- and post-mortem modification, ethnographic, LSA, African Iron Age and experimental bone tools shaped by grinding. These data suggest that early hominids had the cognitive ability to modify the functional area of bone implements to achieve optimal efficiency.
The relative frequencies of different skeletal elements within the bone assemblage recovered from a late Pleistocene fissure fill at Swartklip (South-Western Cape Province, South Africa) are shown to resemble those in the assemblage from the Transvaal australopithecine site of Makapansgat. Since there is evidence that carnivores, probably hyenas, accumulated the bones at Swartklip, it follows that carnivores, rather than hominids, may have accumulated the bones at Makapansgat.
Previous researchers have reported difficulties in distinguishing between surface marks on bone formed by sedimentary abrasion and those inflicted while butchering. Trampling by large ungulates and humans has been credited with producing pseudocut marks: natural alterations to the bone that mimic cultural ones. The purposes of this research are: (1) to re-examine trampling as a taphonomic process, and (2) to suggest criteria useful for distinguishing sedimentary abrasion, including trampling, from butchery. Macroscopic and microscopic comparison of experimentally trampled bones and those which have had soft tissue removed with a flint tool demonstrate significant differences between the surface modifications produced by the two processes.
"Amongst scientists involved [in taphonomy], C. K. Brain stands out as the pioneer; this impressive book is a statement of his investigations. . . . The Hunters or the Hunted? is a very important book for paleoanthropology. It presents the first thorough analysis of the Sterkfontein Valley assemblages, contributes significantly to the resolution of lingering controversies and, by placing the old information in a fresh perspective, enables new and more sophisticated questions to be asked not only of the South African material but of similar assemblages elsewhere. Another contribution is that it reinforces the recent change in feelings as to what constitutes data, for the value of looking at fossil and contemporary bones as closely as this is clear. Brain urges the necessity of recovering fossils with a high regard for subtle detail. I hope excavators of any vertebrate fossil site will be persuaded to follow his advice and pay more attention to these features of bone accumulations that have been previously neglected; for taphonomy can be a powerful tool in elucidating the problems of fossil assemblages, especially when handled with the care and caution that Brain brings to the subject."âAndrew Hill, Nature