Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Oldowan

Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Oldowan
Author: Erella Hovers
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2009-03-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1402090609

An understanding of the uniquely human behavior of stone tool making tackles questions about hominins’ ability to culturally transmit and expand their base of social and practical knowledge and their cognitive capacities for advanced planning. The appearance of stone tools has often been viewed as a threshold event, impacting directly and profoundly the later course of cultural and social evolution. Alternatively, it has been understood as a prelude to significant succeeding changes in behavioral, social and biological evolution of hominins. This book presents a series of recent enquiries into the technological and adaptive significance of Oldowan stone tools. While anchored in a long research tradition, these studies rely on recent discoveries and innovative analyses of the archaeological record of ca. 2.6–1.0 million years ago in Africa and Eurasia, dealing with the earliest lithic industries as manifestations of hominin adaptations and as expressions of hominin cognitive abilities.

The Oldowan

The Oldowan
Author: Kathy Diane Schick
Publisher: Stone Age Institute Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2006
Genre: Science
ISBN:

The earliest traces of proto-human technology emerged over 2.5 million years ago on the African continent. Called the Oldowan after the famous site of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, these technologies herald a major evolutionary shift in the human lineage. The Oldowan: Case Studies into the Earliest Stone Age provides a critical look at early archaeological sites and their evidence. This volume also shows how a range of probing, multidisciplinary, experimental investigations - including experimental tool-making, comparative studies of ape technologies, biomechanical analysis, and PET studies of brain activity - help us evaluate this tantalizing prehistoric evidence and appreciate its relevance to human evolution.

The Emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa and Beyond

The Emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa and Beyond
Author: Rosalia Gallotti
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2018-08-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 331975985X

This edited volume presents current archaeological research and data from the major early Acheulean sites in East Africa, and addresses three main areas of focus; 1) the tempo and mode of technological changes that led to the emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa; 2) new approaches to lithic collections, including lithic technology analyses; and 3) the debated coexistence of the Developed Oldowan and the early Acheulean. The chapters are the proceedings from the workshop titled “The Emergence of the Acheulean in East Africa”, held at University of Rome “La Sapienza” on September 12–13, 2013. The aim of the workshop was to bring together researchers currently working in this field in East Africa, in order to define the characteristics and the evolution of the early Acheulean. The volume was expanded with some chapters on the preceding Oldowan, on the African fauna and on paleovegetation, on the Acheulean in Asia and, eventually, on the Acheulean in Europe. The book is addressed to the scientific community, and will be of interest to researchers, graduate students, archaeologists, paleontologists, and paleoanthropologists. This volume is dedicated to the memory of Jean Chavaillon (March 25, 1925 - December 21, 2013), the leading archaeologist and Quaternary geologist who researched with unfailing enthusiasm the earliest human cultures and directed from 1965 to 1995 the French Archaeological Mission at Melka Kunture.

Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions

Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions
Author: Marta Camps
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2009-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0387764879

As the study of Palaeolithic technologies moves towards a more analytical approach, it is necessary to determine a consistent procedural framework. The contributions to this timely and comprehensive volume do just that. This volume incorporates a broad chronological and geographical range of Palaeolithic material from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. The focus of this volume is to provide an analysis of Palaeolithic technologies from a quantitative, empirical perspective. As new techniques, particularly quantitative methods, for analyzing Palaeolithic technologies gain popularity, this work provides case studies particularly showcasing these new techniques. Employing diverse case studies, and utilizing multivariate approaches, morphometrics, model-based approaches, phylogenetics, cultural transmission studies, and experimentation, this volume provides insights from international contributors at the forefront of recent methodological advances.

Human Beginnings in South Africa

Human Beginnings in South Africa
Author: H. J. Deacon
Publisher: New Africa Books
Total Pages: 230
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780864864178

The Stone Age is now beginning to be recognised as vital in establishing who we are and where we have come from. This period has long been neglected.

Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity

Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity
Author: Scott A. Elias
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2012-08-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0444538216

Innovation and creativity are two of the key characteristics that distinguish cultural transmission from biological transmission. This book explores a number of questions concerning the nature and timing of the origins of human creativity. What were the driving factors in the development of new technologies? What caused the stasis in stone tool technological innovation in the Early Pleistocene? Were there specific regions and episodes of enhanced technological development, or did it occur at a steady pace where ancestral humans lived? The authors are archaeologists who address these questions, armed with data from ancient artefacts such as shell beads used as jewelry, primitive musical instruments, and sophisticated techniques required to fashion certain kinds of stone into tools. Providing 'state of art' discussions that step back from the usual archaeological publications that focus mainly on individual site discoveries, this book presents the full picture on how and why creativity in Middle to Late Pleistocene archeology/anthropology evolved. Gives a full, original and multidisciplinary perspective on how and why creativity evolved in the Middle to Late Pleistocene Enhances our understanding of the big leaps forward in creativity at certain times Assesses the intellectual creativity of Homo erectus, H. neanderthalensis, and H. sapiens via their artefacts

The First Peoples of Oman: Palaeolithic Archaeology of the Nejd Plateau

The First Peoples of Oman: Palaeolithic Archaeology of the Nejd Plateau
Author: Jeffrey I. Rose
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2019-07-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789692857

The archaeological evidence presented in this work encompasses the cultural remains of over a million years of successive human occupation of Nejd Plateau, Dhofar, from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Late Palaeolithic. This volumes suggests a fundamental reconsideration of the role of Southern Arabia in the origin and dispersal of our species.

Handbook of Paleoanthropology

Handbook of Paleoanthropology
Author: Winfried Henke
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 2057
Release: 2007-05-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3540324747

This 3-volume handbook brings together contributions by the world ́s leading specialists that reflect the broad spectrum of modern palaeoanthropology, thus presenting an indispensable resource for professionals and students alike. Vol. 1 reviews principles, methods, and approaches, recounting recent advances and state-of-the-art knowledge in phylogenetic analysis, palaeoecology and evolutionary theory and philosophy. Vol. 2 examines primate origins, evolution, behaviour, and adaptive variety, emphasizing integration of fossil data with contemporary knowledge of the behaviour and ecology of living primates in natural environments. Vol. 3 deals with fossil and molecular evidence for the evolution of Homo sapiens and its fossil relatives.

The Oxford Companion to Archaeology

The Oxford Companion to Archaeology
Author: Neil Asher Silberman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 2130
Release: 2012-11
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0199735786

The second edition of The Oxford Companion to Archaeology is a thoroughly up-to-date resource with new entries exploring the many advances in the field since the first edition published in 1996. In 700 entries, the second edition provides thorough coverage to historical archaeology, the development of archaeology as a field of study, and the way the discipline works to explain the past. In addition to these theoretical entries, other entries describe the major excavations, discoveries, and innovations, from the discovery of the cave paintings at Lascaux to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics and the use of luminescence dating. Recent developments in methods and analytical techniques which have revolutionized the ways excavations are performed are also covered; as well as new areas within archeology, such as cultural tourism; and major new sites which have expanded our understanding of prehistory and human developments through time. In addition to significant expansion, first-edition entries have been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect the progress that has been made in the last decade and a half.