Handaxe types, colonization waves, and social norms in the British Acheulean

Shipton, Ceri; White, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102352

Cited by 29 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It is now possible to construct a robust framework in which successive phases of colonisation prior to MIS 12 can be isolated, compared and contrasted. Increasingly, temporal variation in stone tool assemblages is being recognised in the British record that is likely to reflect the distinctive material culture of human groups occupying Britain at different times, and in turn reflecting the different source areas in Europe for these populations (Roe, 2001;Wenban-Smith, 2004b;Ashton and Hosfield, 2010;Bridgland and White, 2014;White, 2015;Ashton et al, 2016;Davis and Ashton, 2019;White et al, 2018White et al, , 2019Shipton and White, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The considerable variation in European Acheulean assemblages through time and space, including variation in core reduction strategies, tool blank production, flake tool types and handaxe morphology (e.g. Ollé et al ., 2013; Moncel et al ., 2015; White, 2015; Hérisson et al ., 2016; Moncel and Ashton, 2018; White et al ., 2018; Davis and Ashton, 2019; Shipton and White, 2020), has been interpreted as representing the flexibility of Acheulean technological behaviour in adapting to local circumstances (Moncel et al ., 2015; Ravon, 2019), which may lead to the development of local traditions of production and manufacture (Ashton, 2018; Davis and Ashton, 2019; Ashton and Davis, submitted).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Davis

Ashton

Hatch

et al. 2021

J Quaternary Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Early and early Middle Pleistocene archaeological record in Britain from c. 900 to 500 ka marks a critical shift in human occupation of northwest Europe, from occasional pioneer populations with simple core and flake technology to more widespread occupation associated with the appearance of Acheulean technology. Key to understanding this record are the fluvial deposits of the extinct Bytham River in central East Anglia, where a series of Lower Palaeolithic sites lie on a 15 km stretch of the former river. In this paper we present the results of new fieldwork and a reanalysis of historical artefact collections of handaxes and scrapers to: 1) establish the chronostratigraphic context of the Bytham archaeological record; 2) examine variability in lithic artefact typology and technology through time; and 3) explore the implications for understanding variation in lithic technology in the European record. Six phases of occupation of Britain are identified from at least marine isotope stage (MIS) 21 to MIS 13, with the last three phases characterised by distinctive lithic technology. We argue that this relates to the discontinuous occupation of Britain, where each phase represents the arrival of new groups derived from different European populations with distinctive material culture.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Davis

Ashton

Hatch

et al. 2021

J Quaternary Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In Western Europe, subtle regional variations emerge in biface conventions among contemporary groups between 500 and 400 ka (White 1998;Ashton 2016;White and Foulds 2018;García-Medrano et al 2019). In Britain, a distinctive range of hand-axe forms exists with some forms difficult to make and these two features are interpreted as evidence of socially transmitted norms (Shipton and White 2020).…”

Section: After One Million Years Agomentioning

confidence: 99%

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

Barham

Everett

2020

J Archaeol Method Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not earlier, in the archaeological record of Homo erectus. This controversial claim is based on a broad theoretical and evidential foundation with language defined as communication based on symbols rather than grammar. Peirce's theory of signs (semiotics) underpins our analysis with its progression of signs (icon, index and symbol) used to identify artefact forms operating at the level of symbols. We draw on generalisations about the multiple social roles of technology in pre-industrial societies and on the contexts tool-use among non-human primates to argue for a deep evolutionary foundation for hominin symbol use. We conclude that symbol-based language is expressed materially in arbitrary social conventions that permeate the technologies of Homo erectus and its descendants, and in the extended planning involved in the caching of tools and in the early settlement of island Southeast Asia.

show abstract

“…A striking and important difference with Levallois and with regular fire use is that it took hundreds of thousands of years from the first appearance of handaxes in the African record (1.75 Ma) (122) or in the Levant (1.4 to 1.2 Ma) (123) before handaxe technology first showed up in the technological repertoire of the early occupants of Europe, at 0.6 to 0.7 Ma (124)(125)(126)(127). Hence, the Acheulean record seems more consistent with a demic scenario (128)(129)(130). Indeed, the appearance of Acheulean handaxe technology outside of Africa (its identifiable source area) is widely seen as the result of hominin dispersals (125,130), a hypothesis supported by phylogeographic analysis of the Acheulean record (131) and, in Europe, by fine-grained patterns of its presence and absence (128,130,132).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution

MacDonald

Scherjon

Veen

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Control of fire is one of the most important technological innovations within the evolution of humankind. The archaeological signal of fire use becomes very visible from around 400,000 y ago onward. Interestingly, this occurs at a geologically similar time over major parts of the Old World, in Africa, as well as in western Eurasia, and in different subpopulations of the wider hominin metapopulation. We interpret this spatiotemporal pattern as the result of cultural diffusion, and as representing the earliest clear-cut case of widespread cultural change resulting from diffusion in human evolution. This fire-use pattern is followed slightly later by a similar spatiotemporal distribution of Levallois technology, at the beginning of the African Middle Stone Age and the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. These archaeological data, as well as studies of ancient genomes, lead us to hypothesize that at the latest by 400,000 y ago, hominin subpopulations encountered one another often enough and were sufficiently tolerant toward one another to transmit ideas and techniques over large regions within relatively short time periods. Furthermore, it is likely that the large-scale social networks necessary to transmit complicated skills were also in place. Most importantly, this suggests a form of cultural behavior significantly more similar to that of extant Homo sapiens than to our great ape relatives.

show abstract

Handaxe types, colonization waves, and social norms in the British Acheulean

Cited by 29 publications

References 66 publications

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic

Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About