Acheulean variation and selection: does handaxe symmetry fit neutral expectations?

Lycett, Stephen J.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.05.002

Cited by 118 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…Later Acheulean handaxes, appearing towards the end of the Acheulean, supposedly show much higher degrees of symmetry accompanying regularity in planform outline (Clark, 1994;Clark, 2001;Wynn and Coolidge, 2016). Potentially, these later Acheulean handaxes may reflect the increasing capacity of material culture to carry symbolic meaning (Lycett, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methodologically, one of the most successful has been the flip test developed by Hardaker and Dunn (Hardaker and Dunn, 2005), which has seen usage in a number of different contexts (Shipton and Clarkson, 2015;Underhill, 2007), and other techniques have also been promoted (Lycett, 2008). In addition, there have been a number of theoretical stances that have sought to extract behavioural meaning from Acheulean handaxes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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The Acheulean is defined by its iconic tool type, the handaxe, and a suite of other large cutting tools (LCTs). These tools retain information on technical and procedural practices concerned with the manufacture of these butchery tools and carcass processing knives. The Acheulean straddles the period in which more ancient hominin species (H. erectus and H. heidelbergensis) give way to archaic H. sapiens (sensu lato) amongst whom the ancestor of modern humans may be found. The roots of modern behaviour may be present in these handaxe making hominin species, and the handaxes themselves, through proxy data such as bilateral symmetry, may chart hominin cognitive evolution as researchers such as T. Wynn and F. Coolidge (2016), amongst others, have argued. But the search for the earliest consistent application of symmetry, and its persistence thereafter has been hampered by the lack of large datasets, spanning the temporal extent of the Acheulean, and analysed through a single consistent methodology.Our paper has two aims. The first, and in the absence of a large comparative data set of earlier Acheulean handaxes, is to assess the degree to which symmetry is consistently applied to the making of handaxes in the later Acheulean (=<0.5 mya), a time when bilateral planform symmetry should already be an integral component in handaxe making. The dataset we select is the British Acheulean from MIS 13 -MIS 3/4. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time handaxe symmetry has been assessed on a large body of British Acheulean handaxes. Our second aim is to present a relatively simple and low tech methodology for the analysis of handaxes

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

McNabb

Cole

Hoggard

2018

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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“…This pattern is what Isaac (1972) referred to as the "random walk" of Acheulean variation, or what more recently Crompton and Gowlett (1993: 177) termed a zone of "free play" within which handaxe traits may vary. It is important to note, however, that it would be possible for some traits within this framework to be under either long-term or short term selective pressures, while still other traits were undergoing drift (Lycett, 2008). Indeed, this pattern may actually be apparent in a range of functional lithic technologies, and resembles the "wiggle room" that has recently been discussed in the case of Clovis projectile technologies in North America (Eren et al, 2014: 168).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Factors affecting Acheulean handaxe variation: Experimental insights, microevolutionary processes, and macroevolutionary outcomes

Lycett

Schillinger

Eren

et al. 2016

Quaternary International

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The so-called "Acheulean" is comprised of individual knapping events undertaken by individual hominins. In other words, it is a particular component of hominin behavior that we draw out and amalgamate into a wider "pattern." The resultant phenomenon (i.e., "the Acheulean") is an entity that stretches over the space of three continents and spans a time period in excess of one million years. If such an exercise has any merit, it is because it provides a means of comparative (behavioral) analysis over these swathes of time and space. Comparative research can document, measure, and statistically assess temporo-spatial patterns of artifactual variation, and so test hypotheses regarding the character of that variation. However, comparative research alone is not sufficient to fully understand this archaeological legacy. Here, we review and synthesize recent experimental work that we have undertaken, which has specifically investigated some of the factors potentially responsible for the generation and constraining of variation within the Acheulean techno-complex. We examine issues of raw material, copying errors, and their relationship to mechanisms of social learning. Understanding these microevolutionary factors via experiments, we contend, is essential in order to reach a secure understanding of the macroscale phenomenon typically referred to as the "Acheulean."

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“…The next analytical step proposes a maximum parsimony scenario for the spread of particular design variation from earlier to later contexts. 65 Stone tools are relevant to human origins research. They have tremendous potential to shed light on change and variability in hominin behavior across wide ranges of time and geography.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stone tool analysis and human origins research: Some advice from uncle Screwtape

Shea¹

2011

Evolutionary Anthropology

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The production of purposefully fractured stone tools with functional, sharp cutting edges is a uniquely derived hominin adaptation. In the long history of life on earth, only hominins have adopted this remarkably expedient and broadly effective technological strategy. In the paleontological record, flaked stone tools are irrefutable proof that hominins were present at a particular place and time. Flaked stone tools are found in contexts ranging from the Arctic to equatorial rainforests and on every continent except Antarctica. Paleolithic stone tools show complex patterns of variability, suggesting that they have been subject to the variable selective pressures that have shaped so many other aspects of hominin behavior and morphology. There is every reason to expect that insights gained from studying stone tools should provide vital and important information about the course of human evolution. And yet, one senses that archeological analyses of Paleolithic stone tools are not making as much of a contribution as they could to the major issues in human origins research.

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Acheulean variation and selection: does handaxe symmetry fit neutral expectations?

Cited by 118 publications

References 95 publications

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

From side to side: Symmetry in handaxes in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic

Factors affecting Acheulean handaxe variation: Experimental insights, microevolutionary processes, and macroevolutionary outcomes

Stone tool analysis and human origins research: Some advice from uncle Screwtape

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