Mobile containers in human cognitive evolution studies: Understudied and underrepresented

Langley, Michelle C.; Suddendorf, Thomas

doi:10.1002/evan.21857

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…Today, containers are often central to long-term storage of both raw materials, food stuffs, and material culture items—such storage, like transport, reflects thinking of the future. We recently reviewed the physically surviving evidence for containers [71] and found that the oldest examples date back to about 100 000 years ago (Blombos, shell ochre containers [72])—where a ‘roof' in preservation appears to be reached. While many speculate that containers would have been useful at much earlier periods, concrete evidence for them is thus far lacking.…”

Section: Technology and Behaviour Reflecting Foresightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological evidence for thinking about possibilities in hominin evolution

Langley

Suddendorf

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The emergence of the ability to think about future possibilities must have played an influential role in human evolution, driving a range of foresightful behaviours, including preparation, communication and technological innovation. Here we review the archeological evidence for such behavioural indicators of foresight. We find the earliest signs of hominins retaining tools and transporting materials for repeated future use emerging from around 1.8 Ma. From about 0.5 Ma onwards, there are indications of technical and social changes reflecting advances in foresight. And in a third period, starting from around 140 000 years ago, hominins appear to have increasingly relied on material culture to shape the future and to exchange their ideas about possibilities. Visible signs of storytelling, even about entirely fictional scenarios, appear over the last 50 000 years. Although the current evidence suggests that there were distinct transitions in the evolution of our capacity to think about the future, we warn that issues of taphonomy and archaeological sampling are likely to skew our picture of human cognitive evolution. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thinking about possibilities: mechanisms, ontogeny, functions and phylogeny’.

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Section: Technology and Behaviour Reflecting Foresightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeological evidence for thinking about possibilities in hominin evolution

Langley

Suddendorf

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…The origin of container technology was a significant milestone for early humans, 160 but preservation issues challenge our capacity to identify it. Ostrich eggshells, when emptied of their nutritional contents, make excellent storage containers and are known as such ethnographically, and from many LSA archeological contexts of southern Africa.…”

Section: Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Homo sapiensorigins and evolution in the Kalahari Basin, southern Africa

Wilkins

2021

Evolutionary Anthropology

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The Kalahari Basin, southern Africa preserves a rich archeological record of human origins and evolution spanning the Early, Middle and Late Pleistocene. Since the 1930s, several stratified and dated archeological sites have been identified and investigated, together with numerous open‐air localities that provide landscape‐scale perspectives. However, next to recent discoveries from nearby coastal regions, the Kalahari Basin has remained peripheral to debates about the origins of Homo sapiens. Though the interior region of southern Africa is generally considered to be less suitable for hunter‐gatherer occupation than coastal and near‐coastal regions, especially during glacial periods, the archeological record documents human presence in the Kalahari Basin from the Early Pleistocene onwards, and the region is not abandoned during glacial phases. Furthermore, many significant behavioral innovations have an early origin in the Kalahari Basin, which adds support to poly‐centric, pan‐African models for the emergence of our species.

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“…Some recent articles argue that body ornaments found in certain infant burials were likely attached to a fixed object, possibly a blanket, or baby carrier or sling rather than being worn directly as personal ornaments by the young individuals (Henry-Gambier et al ., 2019 , p. 199; Laporte et al ., 2021 ; Laporte & Dupont, 2019 ; Vang Petersen, 2016 ). In fact, recent research suggests that the need for baby carriers may have emerged as soon as hominins became bipedal (Langley & Suddendorf, 2020 ; Suddendorf et al ., 2020 ; Taylor, 2010 ) and that early Homo mothers may have carried their infants to the front of their bodies to increase interaction (Nowell & Kurki, 2020 ). As Vang Petersen argues ( 2016 ), baby carriers were more than likely a common occurrence for prehistoric infants and young children due to the need for parents to remain mobile while taking care of their progeny.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial

Gravel-Miguel

Cristiani

Hodgkins

et al. 2022

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Personal ornaments are widely viewed as indicators of social identity and personhood. Ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, but they are most often found as isolated objects within archaeological assemblages without direct evidence on how they were displayed. This article presents a detailed record of the ornaments found in direct association with an Early Mesolithic buried female infant discovered in 2017 at the site of Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy). It uses microscopic, 3D, and positional analyses of the ornaments as well as a preliminary perforation experiment to document how they were perforated, used, and what led to their deposit as part of the infant’s grave goods. This study provides important information on the use of beads in the Early Mesolithic, in general, as well as the relationship between beads and young subadults, in particular. The results of the study suggest that the beads were worn by members of the infant’s community for a considerable period before they were sewn onto a sling, possibly used to keep the infant close to the parents while allowing their mobility, as seen in some modern forager groups. The baby was then likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community.

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Mobile containers in human cognitive evolution studies: Understudied and underrepresented

Cited by 13 publications

References 68 publications

Archaeological evidence for thinking about possibilities in hominin evolution

Archaeological evidence for thinking about possibilities in hominin evolution

Homo sapiensorigins and evolution in the Kalahari Basin, southern Africa

The Ornaments of the Arma Veirana Early Mesolithic Infant Burial

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