Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T17:51:40.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Acheulean Handaxe Technological Persistence: A Case of Preferred Cultural Conservatism?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2018

Meir Finkel  and
Ran Barkai
Meir Finkel*
Affiliation:
The Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B. 39040, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Ran Barkai*
Affiliation:
The Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B. 39040, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
*
Meir Finkel (Corresponding author): finkel2010@gmail.com
Ran Barkai barkaran@post.tau.ac.il
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One of the unsolved ‘paradoxes’ in prehistoric archaeology is that of the gap between the considerable advances in human biological and cultural evolution during the Lower Palaeolithic period, and the over one million years of ‘stagnation’ of the Acheulean handaxe. Most of the research on this topic has focused on innovation – why it was delayed or failed to take place – while overlooking the fact that innovation had occurred in many other fields during the same period. We suggest that practical, social, and adaptive mechanisms were in force in certain areas of human behaviour and led to enhanced innovation, while conservatism was preferred in handaxe technology and use. In this study we emphasise the dependency of Acheulean groups on calories obtained from large mammals, and especially megafauna, as well as the central role of handaxes in processing large carcasses. It is our contention that the handaxe’s role in Acheulean adaptation was pivotal and it thus became fixed in human society, probably through the psychological bias towards majority imitation, which subsequently became a social norm or tradition. In brief, we suggest that the technological persistence of the Acheulean handaxe played an adaptive role that was based on a preferred cultural conservatism and led to the successful survival of Lower Palaeolithic populations over hundreds of thousands of years in the Old World.

Résumé

Le hachereau acheuléen persistance technologique: Un cas de préférence du conservatisme culturel? de Meir Finkel et Ran Barkai

L’un des ‘paradoxes‘ non résolus de l’archéologie préhistorique est l’écart entre les considérables avancées dans l’évolution humaine biologique et culturelle au cours de la période du paléolithique inférieur et le million et quelques d’années de ‘stagnation‘ du hachereau herculéen. La plupart des recherches sur ce sujet se sont concentrées sur l’innovation: pourquoi a-t-elle été retardée ou a-t-elle échoué à se mettre en place, tout en négligeant le fait que des innovations avaient eu lieu dans bien d’autres domaines au cours de la même période. Nous proposons que des mécanismes pratiques, sociaux et d’adaptation étaient présents dans certaines secteurs du comportement humain et conduisaient à une innovation rehaussée tandis que le conservatisme avait la faveur en matière de technologie et d’usage du hachereau. Dans cette étude nous insistons sur la dépendance des groupes acheuléens sur les calories provenant des gros mammifères, en particulier de la mégafaune, ainsi que le rôle central des hachereaux dans la transformation des grosses carcasses. C’est notre point de vue que le rôle du hachereau dans l’adaptation acheuléenne était primordial et il s’en est trouvé fixé dans la société humaine probablement à travers un penchant psychologique vers une imitation de la majorité, ce qui est devenu par la suite une norme ou une tradition sociale. En bref, nous proposons que la persistance technologique du hachereau acheuléen a joué un rôle d’adaptation qui reposait sur une préférence pour un conservatisme culturel et a conduit au succès de leur survie les populations du paléolithique inférieur sur des centaines de milliers d’années dans l’Ancien Monde.

Zussamenfassung

Die technologische Beständigkeit des Faustkeils des Acheuléen: Ein Fall bevorzugten kulturellen Konservatismus? von Meir Finkel und Ran Barkai

Eines der ungelösten „Paradoxe“ der prähistorischen Archäologie ist das der Kluft zwischen den erheblichen Fortschritten der menschlichen biologischen und kulturellen Evolution während des Altpaläolithikums und der mehr als eine Million Jahre dauernden „Stagnation“ des Acheuléen-Faustkeils. Meist fokussierte die Forschung auf die Frage der Innovation – warum sie sich verzögerte oder gar nicht erst stattfand –, während die Tatsache übersehen wurde, dass in der gleichen Epoche in vielen anderen Bereichen Innovationen auftraten. Wir schlussfolgern deshalb, dass praktische, soziale und adaptive Mechanismen in bestimmten Bereichen menschlichen Verhaltens in Kraft waren und zu erhöhter Innovation führten, während in der Faustkeiltechnologie und seiner Nutzung ein Konservatismus bevorzugt wurde. In dieser Untersuchung stellen wir die Abhängigkeit der Menschengruppen des Acheuléen von Kalorien, die sie von Großsäugern erlangten, heraus, insbesondere von Megafauna, sowie die zentrale Rolle von Faustkeilen in der Verarbeitung großer Tierkörper. Es ist unsere Überzeugung, dass die Rolle des Faustkeils für die Adaption während des Acheuléen entscheidend war und er deshalb in der menschlichen Gesellschaft festgeschrieben wurde, möglicherweise durch eine psychologische Neigung zur Majoritäts-Imitation,woraus nach und nach eine soziale Norm oder Tradition wurde. Kurz gesagt gehen wir davon aus, dass die technologische Beständigkeit des Faustkeils des Acheuléen eine adaptive Rolle spielte, die auf einem bevorzugten kulturellen Konservatismus basierte und zum erfolgreichen Überleben altpaläolithischer Gruppen während hunderttausender Jahre in der Alten Welt führte.

Resumen

La persistencia tecnológica de los bifaces achelenses: ¿un caso de conservadurismo cultural? por Meir Finkel y Ran Barkai

Una de las paradojas sin resolver en arqueología prehistórica es el lapso temporal existente entre los considerables avances en evolución biológica y cultural durante el Paleolítico Inferior, y el ‘estancamiento’ durante más de un millón de años de los bifaces achelenses. La mayor parte de la investigación relacionada con este aspecto se ha centrado en la innovación -porqué se retrasó o no se llevó a cabo- mientras se ignora el hecho de que estas innovaciones se produjeron en muchos otros campos durante el mismo período. Nosotros sugerimos que los mecanismos prácticos, sociales y adaptativos estuvieron vigentes en ciertas áreas del comportamiento humano y condujeron a una mayor innovación, mientras que el conservadurismo se impuso en la tecnología y uso de los bifaces. En este estudio destacamos la dependencia de los grupos achelenses de las calorías obtenidas de los grandes mamíferos, especialmente la megafauna, así como el papel central de los bifaces en el procesado de las grandes carcasas. Siguiendo esta línea argumental, el papel del bifaz achelense en los procesos de adaptación fue fundamental y, por tanto, quedó fijado en la sociedad, probablemente en el ámbito psicológico a través de la imitación, llegando posteriormente a convertirse en una norma o tradición social. En resumen, sugerimos que la persistencia tecnológica de las hachas achelenses jugó un rol adaptativo basado en un conservadurismo cultural y condujo a la supervivencia de las poblaciones del Paleolítico Inferior durante cientos de miles de años en el Viejo Mundo.

Keywords

AcheuleanPalaeolithichandaxestagnationinnovationconservatismlearning
Type
Articles
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 84 , December 2018 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
© The Prehistoric Society 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adler, D.S., Wilkinson, K.N., Blockley, S., Mark, D.F., Pinhasi, R., Schmidt-Magee, B.A., Nahapetyan, S. et al. 2014. Early Levallois technology and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus. Science 345(6204), 1609–1613 Google Scholar
Agam, A. & Barkai, R. 2016. Not the brain alone: the nutritional potential of elephant heads in Paleolithic sites. Quaternary International 406, 218–226 Google Scholar
Agam, A., Marder, O. & Barkai, R. 2015. Small flake production and lithic recycling at late Acheulean Revadim, Israel. Quaternary International 361, 46–60 Google Scholar
Aiello, L.C. & Wheeler, P. 1995. The expensive-tissue hypothesis: the brain and the digestive system in human and primate evolution. Current anthropology 36(2), 199–221 Google Scholar
Assaf, E., Barkai, R. & Gopher, A. 2015. Knowledge transmission and apprentice flint-knappers in the Acheulo-Yabrudian: A case study from Qesem Cave, Israel. Quaternary International, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.02.028 Google Scholar
Barkai, R. 2009. Comment on Sharon G Acheulean giant core technology: a worldwide perspective. Current Anthropology 503, 356–357 Google Scholar
Bar Yosef, O. 2006. The known and the unknown about the Acheulean. In N. Goren-Inbar & G. Sharon (eds), Axe Age: Acheulean tool-making from quarry to discard, 479–494. London: Equinox Google Scholar
Ben-Dor, M., Gopher, A. & Barkai, R. 2016. Neandertals’ large lower thorax may represent adaptation to high protein diet. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 160(3), 367–378 Google Scholar
Ben-Dor, M., Gopher, A., Hershkovitz, I. & Barkai, R. 2011. Man the fat hunter: the demise of Homo erectus and the emergence of a new hominin lineage in the Middle Pleistocene (ca. 400 kyr) Levant. PLoS One 6(12), p. e28689 Google Scholar
Blasco, R., Jordi, R., Fernández-Peris, J., Arsuaga, J.-L., Bermúdez de Castro, J. M. & Carbonell, E. 2013. Environmental availability, behavioural diversity and diet: a zooarchaeological approach from the TD10-1 sublevel of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) and Bolomor Cave (Valencia, Spain). Quaternary Science Review 70, 124–144 Google Scholar
Bocherens, H. 2011. Diet and ecology of Neanderthals: implications from C and N Isotopes, insights from bone and tooth biogeochemistry. In N.J. Conard & J. Richter (eds), Neanderthal Lifeways, Subsistence and Technology: One hundred fifty years of Neanderthal study, 73–85. Dordrecht: Springer Google Scholar
Bocherens, H., Drucker, D.G., Germonpre, M., Lázničková-Galetová, M., Naito, Y.I., Wissing, C., Brůžek, J. & Oliva, M. 2015. Reconstruction of the Gravettian food-web at Predmostí I using multi-isotopic tracking (13C, 15N, 34S) of bone collagen. Quaternary International 359–60, 211–228 Google Scholar
Boyd, R. & Richardson, P.J. 1992. Punishment allows the evolution of cooperation (or anything else) in sizable groups. Ethology and Sociobiology 13(3), 171–195 Google Scholar
Bridgland, D.R. & White, M.J. 2015. Chronological variations in handaxes: patterns detected from fluvial archives in north-west Europe. Journal of Quaternary Science DOI:10.1002/jqs.2805 Google Scholar
Burton, J. 1984. Quarrying in tribal societies. World Archaeology 16(2), 234–247 Google Scholar
Chartrand, T.L. & Bargh, J.A. 1999. The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76(6), 893–910 Google Scholar
Claidiere, N. & Whiten, A. 2012. Integrating the study of conformity and culture in humans and nonhuman animals. Psychological Bulletin 1381, 126–145 Google Scholar
Claud, E. 2008. Le statut fonctionnel des bifaces au Paleolithique moyen recent dans le Sud-Ouest de la France. Etude traceologique integree des outillages des sites de La Graulet, La Conne de Bergerac, Combe Brune 2, fonseigner et Chez-Pinaud/Jonzac, Unpublished PhD, thesis University of BordeauxGoogle Scholar
Claud, E. 2012. Les bifaces: des outils polyfonctionnels? Etude traceologique integree de bifaces du Paleolithique moyen recent du Sud-ouest de la France. Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Francaise 109(3), 413–439 Google Scholar
Claud, E., Brenet, M., Maury, S. & Mourre, V. 2009. Etude experimentale des macro-traces d’ utilisatio sur les tranchants des bifaces: caraterisatio et potential diagnostique. Les Nouvelles de l’Archeologie 118, 55–60 Google Scholar
Corbey, R., Jagich, A., Vaesen, K. & Collard, M. 2016. The Acheulean handaxe: More like a bird’s song than a Beatles’ tune? Evolutionary Anthropology 25, 6–19 Google Scholar
Dennell, R. 2009. The Palaeolithic Settlement of Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M. & Pickering, T.R. 2017. The meat of the matter: an evolutionary perspective on human carnivory. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 52(1), 4–32 Google Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Serrallonga, J., Juan-Tresserras, J., Alcala, L. & Luque, L. 2001. Woodworking activities by early humans: A plant residue analysis on Acheulian stone tools from Peninj (Tanzania). Journal of Human Evolution 40, 289–299 Google Scholar
Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Bunn, H.T., Mabulla, A.Z.P., Baquedano, E., Uribelarrea, D., Pérez-González, A., Gidna, A., Yravedra, J., Diez-Martin, F., Egeland, C.P., Barba, R., Arriaza, M.C., Organista, E. & Ansón, M. 2014. On meat eating and human evolution: a taphonomic analysis of BK4b (Upper Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania), and its bearing on hominin megafaunal consumption. Quaternary International 322, 129–152 Google Scholar
Eerkens, J.W. & Lipo, C.P. 2007. Cultural transmission theory and the archaeological record: Providing context to understanding variation and temporal changes in material culture. Journal of Archaeological Research 15, 239–274 Google Scholar
Eldredge, N. & Gould, S.J. 1972. Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism. In T.J.M. Schopf (ed.), Models in Paleobiology, 82–115. San Francisco: Freeman Cooper Google Scholar
Elias, S. (ed.) 2012. Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity. Developments in Quaternary Science 16. Amsterdam: Elsevier Google Scholar
Eren, M.I., Roos, C.I., Story, B.A., von Cramon-Taubadel, N. & Lycett, S.J. 2014. The role of raw material differences in stone tool shape variation: an experimental assessment. Journal of Archaeological Science 49, 472–487 Google Scholar
Flynn, F.J., Reagans, R.E. & Guillory, L. 2010. Do you two know each other? Transitivity, homophily, and the need for (network) closure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 99(5), 855–869 Google Scholar
Gamble, C. 2007. Origins and Revolutions: Human identity in earliest prehistory. New York: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
García-Medrano, P., Ollé, A., Mosquera, M., Cáceres, I. & Carbonell, E. 2015. The nature of technological changes: The Middle Pleistocene stone tool assemblages from Galería and Gran Dolina-subunit TD10. 1 Atapuerca, Spain. Quaternary International doi.org/ 10.1016/ j.quaint.2015.03.006 Google Scholar
Germonpré, M., Udrescu, M. & Fiers, E. 2014. Possible evidence of mammoth hunting at the Neanderthal site of Spy (Belgium). Quaternary International 337, 28–42 Google Scholar
Germonpré, M., Sablin, M., Khlopachev, G.A. & Grigorieva, G.V. 2008. Possible evidence of mammoth hunting during the Epigravettian at Yudinovo, Russian Plain. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27(4), 475–492 Google Scholar
Gingerich, J.A.M. & Stanford, D.J. 2016. Lessons from Ginsberg: An analysis of elephant butchery tools. Quaternary International doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.03.025 Google Scholar
Gintis, H. 2000. Strong reciprocity and human sociality. Journal of theoretical Biology 206, 169–179. doi:10.1006/ jtbi.2000.2111 Google Scholar
Goren-Inbar, N. 2011. Culture and cognition in the Acheulian industry: a case study from Gesher Benot Yaqov. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366(1567), 1038–1049 Google Scholar
Goren-Inbar, N., Lister, A., Werker, E. & Chech, M. 1994. A butchered elephant skull and associated artifacts from the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel. Paléorient 20(1), 99–112 Google Scholar
Gould, R.A. 1977. Puntutjarpa Rockshelter and the Australian Desert Culture. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 54(1)Google Scholar
Gowlett, J.A.J. 2011. The vital sense of proportion: Transformation, golden section, and 1:2 preference in Acheulean bifaces. PaleoAnthropology, 174–187 Google Scholar
Gowlett, J.A.J. 2013. Elongation as a factor in artefacts of humans and other animals: an Acheulean example in comparative context. Philosophical Transactions Royal Society B 368(1630), 20130114. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0114 Google Scholar
Gruber, T. 2016. Great apes do not learn novel tool use easily: Conservatism, functional fixedness, or cultural influence? International Journal of Primatology 37(2), 296–316 Google Scholar
Guglielmino, C.R., Viganotti, C., Hewlett, B. & Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. 1995. Cultural variation in Africa: Role of mechanisms of transmission and adaptation. Proccedings of the National Academy of Science USA 92, 7585–7589 Google Scholar
Guzman, R.A., Rodriguez-Sickert, C. & Rowthorn, R. 2007. When in Rome, do as the Romans do: the coevolution of altruistic punishment, conformist learning, and cooperation. Evolution and Human Behavior 282, 112–117 Google Scholar
Hampton, O. W. 1999. Culture of Stone: Sacred and Profane Uses of Stone among the Dani. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press Google Scholar
Hawkes, K., O’Connell, J.F. & Blurton Jones, N.G. 2014. More lessons from the Hadza about men’s work. Human Nature 254, 596–619 Google Scholar
Henrich, J. & Boyd, R. 1998. The evolution of conformist transmission and the emergence of between-group differences. Evolution and Human Behavior 194, 215–241 Google Scholar
Henrich, J., McElreath, R., Ensminger, J., Barr, A., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J.C., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D. & Ziker, J. 2006. Costly Punishment Across Human Societies. Science 312(5781), 1767–1770 Google Scholar
Hopkinson, T. & White, M.J. 2005. The Acheulean and the handaxe Structure and agency in the Palaeolithic. In C. Gamble & M, Porr (eds), The Hominid Individual in Context: Archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts, 13–28. London: Routledge Google Scholar
Hopkinson, T., Nowell, A. & White, M.J. 2013. Life histories, metapopulation ecology, and innovation in the Acheulean. PaleoAnthropology 61–76. doi:10.4207/PA.2013.ART80 Google Scholar
Hosfield, R. 2008. Stability of flexibility? Handaxes and hominins in the Lower Palaeolithic. In D. Papagianni, R. Layton & H. Maschner (eds), Time and Change: Archaeological perspectives on the long-term in hunter-gatherer societies, 15–36. Oxford: Oxbow books Google Scholar
Iakovleva, L., Djindjian, F., Maschenko, E.N., Konik, S. & Moigne, A. M. 2012. The late Upper Paleolithic site of Gontsy (Ukraine): A reference for the reconstruction of the hunter–gatherer system based on a mammoth economy. Quaternary International 255, 86–93 Google Scholar
Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M.J. 2005. Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Google Scholar
Jagher, R. 2016. Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar, an example of Upper Acheulean variability in the Levant. Quaternary International doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.02.006 Google Scholar
Jones, P.R. 1980. Experimental butchery with modern stone tools and its relevance for Palaeolithic archaeology. World Archaeology 12, 153–165 Google Scholar
Jones, P.R. 1981. Experimental implement manufacture and use; a case study from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 292(1057), 189–195 Google Scholar
Jones, P.R. 1994. Results of experimental work in relation to the stone industries of Olduvai Gorge. In M. Leakey & D. Roe (eds), Olduvai Gorge: Volume 5, Excavations in Beds III, IV and the Masek Beds, 1968–1971. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Kameda, T., Takezawa, M. & Hastie, R. 2005. Where do social norms come from?: the example of communal sharing. Current Directions in Psychological Science 14, 331–334 Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H. 1980. Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses: A microwear analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Google Scholar
Key, A.J.M. & Lycett, S.J. 2015. Edge angle as a variably influential factor in flake cutting efficiency: an experimental investigation of its relationship with tool size and loading. Archaeometry 57, 911–927 Google Scholar
Key, A.J.M. & Lycett, S. 2016. Influence of handaxe size and shape on cutting efficiency: a large-scale experiment and morphometric analysis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Doi.10.1007/s10816-016-9276-0 Google Scholar
Klein, R. 1999. The Human Career: Human biological and cultural origins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press Google Scholar
Kohn, M. & Mithen, S. 1999. Handaxes: products of sexual selection? Antiquity 73, 518–526 Google Scholar
Kruglanski, A.W. & Webster, D. 1996. Motivated closing of the mind: Seizing and freezing. Psychological Review 103, 263–283 Google Scholar
Kufel-Diakowska, B., Wilczyński, J., Wojtal, P. & Sobczyk, K. 2016. Mammoth hunting – impact traces on backed implements from a mammoth bone accumulation at Kraków Spadzista (southern Poland). Journal of Archaeological Science 65, 122–133 Google Scholar
Lakin, J.L., Jefferis, V.E., Cheng, C.M. & Chartrand, T.L. 2003. The Chameleon effect as social glue: evidence for the evolutionary significance of nonconscious mimicry. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 27(3), 145–162 Google Scholar
Lucas, G. 2005. The Archaeology of Time. New York: Routledge Google Scholar
Lupo, K.D. & Schmitt, D.N. 2016. When bigger is not better: the economics of hunting megafauna and its implications for Plio-Pleistocene hunter-gatherers. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 44, 185–197 Google Scholar
Lycett, S.J. 2015. Cultural evolutionary approaches to artifact variation over time and space: basis, progress, and prospects. Journal of Archaeological Science 56, 21–31 Google Scholar
Lycett, S.J. & Gowlett, J.A.J. 2008. On questions surrounding the Acheulean ‘tradition’. World Archaeology 403, 295–315 Google Scholar
Lycett, S.J., Schillinger, K., Eren, M.I., von Cramon-Taubadel, N. & Mesoudi, A. 2015. Factors affecting Acheulean handaxe variation: Experimental insights, microevolutionary processes, and macroevolutionary outcomes. Quaternary International doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.021 Google Scholar
Mace, R. & Jordan, F.M. 2011. Macro-evolutionary studies of cultural diversity: a review of empirical studies of cultural transmission and cultural adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366, 402–411. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0238 Google Scholar
Machin, A. 2009. The role of the individual agent in Acheulean biface variability – a multi-factorial model. Journal of Social Archaeology 91, 35–58 Google Scholar
Machin, A., Robert, J., Hosfield, T. & Mithen, S.J. 2007. Why are some handaxes symmetrical? Testing the influence of handaxe morphology on butchery effectiveness. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(6), 883–893 Google Scholar
Mathew, S. & Perreault, C. 2015. Behavioural variation in 172 small-scale societies indicates that social learning is the main mode of human adaptation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282, 20150061. Doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0061 Google Scholar
Mayr, E. 1992. Speciational evolution or punctuated equilibria. In A. Somit & S.A. Peterson (eds), The Dynamics of Evolution, 21–53. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press Google Scholar
Mayr, E. 2001. What Evolution Is? New York: Basic Books Google Scholar
Melamed, Y., Kislev, M.E., Geffen, E., Lev-Yadun, S. & Goren-Inbar, N. 2016. The plant component of an Acheulian diet at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov, Israel. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA doi:10.1073/pnas.1607872113 Google Scholar
McNabb, J. & Cole, J. 2015. The mirror cracked: Symmetry and refinement in the Acheulean handaxe. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 3, 100–111 Google Scholar
McNabb, J., Binyon, F. & Hazelwood, L. 2004. The large cutting tools from the South African Acheulean and the question of social traditions. Current Anthropology 455, 653–677 Google Scholar
Mitchell, J.C. 1996. Studying biface utilisation at Boxgrove: Roe deer butchery with replica handaxes. Lithics 16, 64–69 Google Scholar
Mithen, S. 1996. Social learning and cultural tradition: interpreting Early Palaeolithic technology. In J. Steele & S. Shennan (eds), The Archaeology of Human Ancestry: Power, sex and tradition, 207–229. London: Routledge Google Scholar
Mithen, S 1998. Creativity in Human Evolution and Prehistory. London: Routledge Google Scholar
Moncel, M-H., Arzarellob, M., Boëdac, E., Bonilauri, S., Chevrier, B., Gaillard, C., Forestier, H., Yinghua, L., Sémah, F. & Zeitoun, V. 2016. Assemblages with bifacial tools in Eurasia (third part). Considerations on the bifacial phenomenon throughout Eurasia. Comptes Rendus Palevolsous doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2015.11.007 Google Scholar
Naito, Y.I., Chikaraishi, Y., Drucker, D.G., Ohkouchi, N., Semal, P., Wißing, C. & Bocherens, H. 2016. Ecological niche of Neanderthals from Spy Cave revealed by nitrogen isotopes of individual amino acids in collagen. Journal of Human Evolution 93, 82–90 Google Scholar
Nowell, A. & White, M. J. 2010. Growing up in the Middle Pleistocene: life history strategies and their relationship to Acheulean industries. In A. Nowell & I. Davidson (eds), Stone Tools and the Evolution of Human Cognition, 67–82. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press Google Scholar
Petraglia, M.D., Shipton, C. & Paddayya, K. 2005. Life and mind in the Acheulean: A case study from India. In C. Gamble & M. Porr (eds), The Hominid Individual in Context: Archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts, 197–219. London: Routledge Google Scholar
Pontzer, H, Brown, M.H., Raichlen, D.A., Dunsworth, H., Hare, B., Walker, K., Luke, A. et al. 2016. Metabolic acceleration and the evolution of human brain size and life history. Nature 533, 390–392 Google Scholar
Pope, M., Russel, K. & Watson, K. 2006. Biface form and structured behavior in the Acheulean. Lithics 27, 47–57 Google Scholar
Premo, L.S. & Kuhn, S.L. 2010. Modeling effects of local extinctions on culture change and diversity in the Paleolithic. PloS ONE 512, e15582 Google Scholar
Rabinovich, R., Ackermann, O., Aladjem, E., Barkai, R., Biton, R., Milevski, I., Solodenko, N. & Marder, O. 2012. Elephants at the middle Pleistocene Acheulian open-air site of Revadim Quarry, Israel. Quaternary International 276, 183–197 Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. & Morley, I. 2009. Becoming Human: Innovation in prehistoric material and spiritual culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Richerson, P.J., Boyd, R. & Bettinger, R.L. 2009. Cultural innovations and demographic change. Human Biology 81(2–3), 211–235 Google Scholar
Scarre, C. (ed.) 2009. The Human Past: World prehistory and the development of human societies. London: Thames and Hudson Google Scholar
Schick, K. & Clark, D.J. 2003. Biface technological development and variability in the Acheulean industrial complex in the Middle Awash region of the Afar rift, Ethiopia. In M. Soressi & H.L. Dibble (eds), Multiple Approaches to the Study of Bifacial Technologies, 1–30. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Google Scholar
Sharon, G. 2008. The impact of raw material on Acheulian large flake production. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 1329–1344 Google Scholar
Sharon, G. 2010. Large flake Acheulean. Quaternary International 223–4, 226–233 Google Scholar
Sharon, G., Alperson-Afil, N. & Goren-Inbar, N. 2011. Cultural conservatism and variability in the Acheulean sequence of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov. Journal of Human Evolution 60, 387–397 Google Scholar
Schillinger, K., Mesoudi, A. & Lycett, S. J. 2016. Differences in manufacturing traditions and assemblage-level patterns: the origins of cultural differences in archaeological data. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Doi 10.1007/s10816-016-9280-4 Google Scholar
Shimelmitz, R. 2015. The recycling of flint throughout the Lower and Middle Paleolithic sequence of Tabun Cave, Israel. Quaternary International 361, 34–45 Google Scholar
Shipton, C. 2013. A Million Years of Hominin Sociality and Cognition: Acheulean bifaces in the Hunsgi-Baichbal Valley, India. British Archaeological Report S2468. Oxford: ArchaeopressGoogle Scholar
Shipton, C. & Nielsen, M. 2015. Before cumulative culture: The evolutionary origins of overimitation and shared intentionality. Human Nature 26, 331–345 Google Scholar
Smith, G.M. 2015. Neanderthal megafaunal exploitation in Western Europe and its dietary implications: a contextual reassessment of La Cotte de St Brelade (Jersey). Journal of Human Evolution 78, 181–201 Google Scholar
Solodenko, N., Zupancich, A., Nunziante Cesaro, S., Marder, O., Lemorini, C., Barkai, R. & Petraglia, M.D. 2015. fat residue and use-wear found on Acheulean biface and scraper associated with butchered elephant remains at the site of Revadim, Israel. PLoS ONE 103, e0118572, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118572 Google Scholar
Somel, M., Liu, X. & Khaitobich, P. 2013. Human brain evolution: transcripts, metabolites and their regulators. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14, 112–127 Google Scholar
Speth, J.D. 2010. Paleoanthropology and Archaeology of Big-game Hunting. New York: Springer Google Scholar
Steele, J. & Shennan, S. 2009. Introduction demography and cultural macroevolution. Human Biology 81(2–3), 105–119 Google Scholar
Stout, D. 2011. Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366, 1050–1059 Google Scholar
Schwartz, J.H. & Tattersall, I. 2015. Defining the genus Homo . Science 349, 932–932 Google Scholar
Tehrani, J.J. & Riede, F. 2008. Towards an archaeology of pedagogy: learning, teaching and the generation of material culture traditions. World Archaeology 40(3), 316–331 Google Scholar
Vaesen, K., Collard, N., Cosgrove, R. & Roebroeks, W. 2016. Population size does not explain past changes in cultural complexity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA doi/10.1073/pnas.1520288113 Google Scholar
Wang, Q.E. 2015. Chopsticks: A cultural and culinary history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Wiessner, P. 2005. Norm enforcement among the Ju/‘hoansi Bushmen a case of strong reciprocity? Human Nature 16(2), 115–145 Google Scholar
Wrangham, R.W., Koops, K., Machanda, Z.P., Worthington, S., Bernard, A.B., Brazeau, N.F. & Muller, M.N. 2016. Distribution of a Chimpanzee social custom is explained by matrilineal relationship rather than conformity. Current Biology 26(22), 3033–3037 Google Scholar
Zaidner, Y., Yeshurun, R. & Mallol, C. 2010. Early Pleistocene hominins outside of Africa: recent excavations at Bizat Ruhama, Israel. PaleoAnthropology 2010, 162–195 Google Scholar
Zhang, Y., Stiner, M.C., Dennell, R., Wang, C., Zhang, S. & Gao, X. 2010. Zooarchaeological perspectives on the Chinese Early and Late Palaeolithic from the Ma’anshan site (Guizhou, south China). Journal of Archaeological Science 37(8), 2066–2077 Google Scholar
Zink, K.D. & Lieberman, D. E. 2016. Impact of meat and Lower Palaeolithic food processing techniques on chewing in humans. Nature 531, 500–503 Google Scholar
Zutovski, K. & Barkai, R. 2016. The use of elephant bones for making Acheulean handaxes: A fresh look at old bones. Quaternary International doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.01.033 Google Scholar