Gossa Aredo, T. and Hovers, E.,.2024.The emergence of large flake-based Acheulian technology: A perspective from the highland site-complex of Melka Wakena, Ethiopia. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 16:172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8 (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Gademotta and Kulkuletti site complex, located in the central part of the Main Ethiopian Rift, is known to be one of the richest early Middle Stone Age (MSA) sequences in East Africa. The technological assessment of three main sites provides evidence of major changes in the production of convergent tools over a period from before 280 ka (thousands of years ago) to ca. 100 ka. Important diachronic changes are identified in the manufacturing process of convergent tools, by shaping or retouching of predetermined points, and in the core reduction process that produced the corresponding blanks. These are: 1) the development of specific Levallois methods for the production of points (classical Levallois point production and Nubian type 1 core reduction); and 2) the shift from uni-bifacial invasive shaping of convergent tools to localized slight retouch of predetermined points. These technological changes in convergent tool production reveal the gradual emergence of a new set of technological behaviors that can be considered specific to the MSA. While the eastern African MSA is often considered as stable over time with minimal innovation, our results provide an insight into local behavioral mechanisms that have given rise to changes in technological systems during the early MSA.
Structural continuity and technological change in Lower Pleistocene toolkits
A structural foundation has recently been laid down to describe early stone industries using a four-phase evolutionary sequence: Homogeneity, Variability, Diversity, and Multiplicity. Homogeneity refers to a hypothetical phase predating the earliest recognizable industries (>2.6 Ma) during which stones could have been used for pounding or throwing but controlled knapping was not practiced. The Variability phase, already explored in previous publications, refers to a subsequent stage wherein simple knapping strategies were discovered and tested. It precedes the innovation of shaped tools in Africa and Eurasia within largely divergent timeframes. This paper explores the Diversity phase, during which standardized shaped tools and relatively complex flake production strategies occurred. Presently, flake-core assemblages lacking configured tools are referred to as ‘Oldowan’ or ‘Mode 1’ and those with handaxes and/or cleavers are named ‘Acheulian’ or ‘Mode 2’. The model described here does not propose to replace existing terminology, but presents an alternative approach to the ways in which we perceive of technological change and explores why analogous techno-typological changes occurred diachronically in different areas of the globe where contact between populations was unlikely. The Diversity phase, characterized by technotypological expansion in stone toolkit components, translates improved hominin capacities to access resources, compete with other carnivores and widen their range of activities. This process intensified exchange between an increasingly complex lifestyles and growing cognitive capacities, leading to Multiplicity; the final phase of this conceptual model for understanding change in early human technologies.
The Oldowan Industrial Complex has long been thought to have been static, with limited internal variability, embracing techno-complexes essentially focused on small-to-medium flake production. The flakes were rarely modified by retouch to produce small tools, which do not show any standardized pattern. Usually, the manufacture of small standardized tools has been interpreted as a more complex behavior emerging with the Acheulean technology. Here we report on the ~1.7 Ma Oldowan assemblages from Garba IVE-F at Melka Kunture in the Ethiopian highland. This industry is structured by technical criteria shared by the other East African Oldowan assemblages. However, there is also evidence of a specific technical process never recorded before, i.e. the systematic production of standardized small pointed tools strictly linked to the obsidian exploitation. Standardization and raw material selection in the manufacture of small tools disappear at Melka Kunture during the Lower Pleistocene Acheulean. This proves that 1) the emergence of a certain degree of standardization in toolkits does not reflect in itself a major step in cultural evolution; and that 2) the Oldowan knappers, when driven by functional needs and supported by a highly suitable raw material, were occasionally able to develop specific technical solutions. The small tool production at ~1.7 Ma, at a time when the Acheulean was already emerging elsewhere in East Africa, adds to the growing amount of evidence of Oldowan techno-economic variability and flexibility, further challenging the view that early stone knapping was static over hundreds of thousands of years.
Lithic Technology at Loiyangalani, a Late Middle Stone Age Site in the Serengeti, Tanzania
African Archaeological Review, 2019
Loiyangalani is important to the understanding of human occupation patterns in the Serengeti and Northern Tanzania during the Middle Stone Age in terms of food-processing activities and lithic technology. The abundant faunal remains at the site show that it was used for game processing. The lithic technology was based on prepared core methods, dominated by the discoid and Levallois types, for the production of flakes. The retouched tools found at the site (scrapers, denticulates, and notches) are characteristic of activities associated with animal butchering while those connected with hunting activities are scarce. Some previous studies proposed that the Middle Stone Age occupation at Loiyangalani represents an independent industry in the region since the techno-typological differences noted between it and the neighboring sites are quite striking. We revisit this hypothesis by using three approachestaphonomy, typology, and technology-for analyzing the MSA assemblage in Loiyangalani. We then compare the data from these three analyses with two other MSA industries in Northern Tanzania-Mumba and Nasera. Using principal component and cluster analyses to evaluate the typological and technological variation in these three industries, we show the patterns of differences and similarities among them and offer explanations for these patterns. Résumé Loiyangalani est important pour comprendre les modèles d'occupation humaine dans le Serengeti et le nord de la Tanzanie au Paléolithique moyen (MSA), en termes d'activités de transformation des aliments et de technologie lithique. Les restes de faune abondants découverts sur le site montrent qu'il a été utilisé pour le traitement du gibier. La technologie lithique reposait sur la production des éclats par des méthodes de base préparées, dominées par les types discoïde et Levallois. Les outils retouchés trouvés sur le site (grattoirs, denticulés et entailles) sont caractéristiques des activités Afr Archaeol Rev
The origin of the Acheulean. Techno-functional study of the FLK W lithic record (Olduvai, Tanzania)
Plos One, 2017
The Acheulean materials documented in FLK West dated c. 1.7 Ma. are the focus of the present work. An original techno-functional approach is applied here to analyze the origin of Acheulean tools. According to the results, these tools were employed in different functional contexts in which tasks of different durations that transformed resources with different resistances were carried out. The exploitation of large and resistant resources suggests that the economic mechanism governing the manufacture of these tools was an increase in the demand of the work load. The decision processes underlying the production of these tools have thus an evident functional motivation. However, the presence of a refined handaxe in the studied sample indicates that the design form and production principles of handaxe manufacture were the result of an abrupt emergence rather than a long gradual development. The integration of mechanical and ergonomic investigation in our research has been crucial to explain how a core-and-flake industry gave way to a technology based on the production of large and heavy shaped tools.
PLoS ONE, 2025
The evolution of human behaviour is marked by key decision-making processes reflected in technological variability in the early archaeological record. As part of the technological system, differences in raw material quality directly affect the way that humans produce, design and use stone tools. The selection, procurement and use of various raw materials requires decision-making to evaluate multiple factors such as suitability to produce and design tools, but also the materials’ efficiency and durability in performing a given task. Therefore, characterizing the physical properties of various lithic raw materials is crucial for exploring changes in human interactions with their natural environment through time and space and for understanding their technological behaviour. In this paper, we present the first step in an ongoing program designed to understand the decision-making criteria involved in the use of raw materials by the early Acheulian tool-makers at the Melka Wakena (MW) site-complex, located on the Ethiopian highlands. We present the results of the first experimental step, in which we identified and measured the engineering properties of raw materials in the lithic assemblages. These data serve as an objective, quantifiable baseline for natural experiments as well as archaeological inquiries into the technological decision-making processes of early Pleistocene hominins in Africa.
2011
Acheulean lithic technology is comprised of more than handaxes or other large cutting tools. Artifact assemblages from Member 11' of the Olorgesailie Formation, Kenya, form the basis of our detailed examination of the flake and core component of an Acheulean behavioral system preserved in sediments dating to ~662-625 ka. We contrast what we consider descriptive and explanatory methods of lithic analysis currently in use among researchers studying the African Early Stone Age, and explore here an 'industry-free,' attribute-based analysis for the study of raw material economy. For sites from Member 11' and Member 1 (~990 ka) of the Olorgesailie Formation, we compared the size of transported artifacts, the reduction intensity of flaked pieces, and flake utility (estimated by the ratio of flake cutting edge:thickness). Our results suggest a positive relationship between raw material economy and inferred paleoenvironmental structure, and demonstrate that the analysis of flakes and cores is an important complement to the study of handaxes, cleavers, and other characteristic Acheulean artifacts.
African Archaeological Review, 2005
The technology of the end products i.e. blades and points in Late Pleistocene stone artefact assemblages from Klasies River, South Africa, and the Nile Valley, Egypt, are compared. The comparison includes univariate and multivariate analysis of metrical attributes enhanced by graphical biplot displays. The end products in these assemblages are either dominantly points or blades and this is related to the core reduction strategy adopted. The MSA 11 from Klasies River and the Nubian Complex industry from the Nile Valley are point industries made in the Levallois tradition, while the MSA 1 from Klasies River and the Taramsan from the Nile Valley may be non-Levallois or adapted Levallois blade industries. Dating of the assemblages shows the changes between dominant core reduction strategies are sequential and time restricted in both South and North Africa. It is concluded that variability of the same kind occurs in Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic assemblages south and north of the Sahara in the early Late Pleistocene. Dans cet article, les technologies des produits recherchés, des lames et des pointes, pour certains ensembles lithiques de Klasies River, Afrique du Sud et la Vallée du Nil, Egypte, sont comparées. Cette comparaison implique des analyses univariées et multivariées de variables métriques biplot. Les produits recherchés sont bien des pointes que des lames, selon les stratégies d’exploitation adoptées. Le MSA II de Klasies River et le Complexe nubien de la Vallée du Nil sont des industries à pointes issues de la tradition Levallois. Par contre, le MSA I de Klasies River et le Taramsien de la Vallée du Nil évoquent une technologie de production non-Levallois ou Levallois modifiée. Les éléments de datation disponibles indiquent que les changements dans la prépondérance des stratégies d’exploitation s’enchaînent dans une séquence chronologique bien identifiable, aussibien dans l’Afrique du Sud que l’Afrique du Nord. On arrive à la conclusion qu’une variabilité du même caractère est attestée dans les ensembles du Middle Stone Age et du Paléolithique moyen au sud et au nord du Sahara, pendant le Pléistocène supérieur ancien.