ANTH151 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Beyblade, Jane Goodall, Y Chromosome
1 Jun 2018
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Lithic technology – Week 7
• Darwin on human tool use → various weapons which defend themselves,
kills or catches prey and otherwise obtains food
• Innovations can include behavioural, social and political
o Throwing with force and accuracy
o Organisation of kinship systems
o Hierarchies
o Cave paintings etc.
Lithic technological innovations:
• Humans opt for greater division of labour
• Female humans spent time on activities including cave paintings (in hunter
gathering societies)
• Study of stencils – cave paintings predominantly done by females
• Infants in hunter gathering not weaned until ¾ years of age
• Caring for elderly, not just infants
• Spears, bows, harpoons, fish hooks, nets etc. were developed
• River valleys – irrigation was key for large scale farming (agriculture was a
large investment for humans – time and energy)
• Development of agriculture was a huge investment; greater division of labour
• Innovation – disproportionately burdened women
• Labour intensive demands of agriculture – crops could be wiped out in one
season if fire, flood or draught (dangerous investment)
• Not all innovation is good for everyone and everything – can be disruptive to
human life, planetary wellbeing etc.
Paleolithic innovations:
• Paleolithic = period in human history from earliest hominid tool use to the end
of the Pleistocene (Dates to about 10,000 years)
• Stone tool industry (this era was all about this) = distinct type of stone tool
tradition (stone tool types, method of manufacture etc.) – constrained by time
and space, often used to define a specific group of people/culture
• Clark’s five stages of lithic technology:
o 1. Oldowan, chopping tool
o 2. Acheulean, bifaces
o 3. Prepared core (Middle Stone Age, Middle Paleolithic, Levailois)
o 4. Blades (upper Paleolithic, later stone age)
o 5. Microlithic (later stone age, Mesolithic)
• Lower Paleolithic = 2.6mya – 300ka
o Opportunistic use of tools
o Olduwan = 2.4mya-1.7mya → oldest recorded stone tool tradition,
earliest association with species such as Australopithecus garhi, and its
flourishing with early species of Homo such as H. habilis and H.
ergaster (this is a mode 1 tool, usually called pebble tools): choppers,
scrapers, pounders etc. Recognised by the fact that only the working
edge is modified
o Acheulean = 1.7mya-100ka → stone tool tradition found throughout
Africa, West Asia, South Asia and Europe ranging from 1.7mya to
find more resources at oneclass.com
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100ka – most commonly associated with Homo erectus remains (mode
2 tool): dominant tool type, recognized my symmetrical shape, used
soft hammers in some cases, model being imposed on material
o Bifacial → stone tool that is worked symmetrically on both sides, not
just one side (hand-axes, blunt-backed cleavers, picks)
• Middle Paleolithic = 300-30ka
o Time period of the Neanderthals
o Technology → primarily stone tool based – several tool traditions
during Middle Paleolithic: Mousterian and Aterian (Mode 3 tool);
prepared core techniques
o Mousterian = Stone tool tradition associated primarily with
Neanderthals in Europe, North Africa and Near East, requires hand-eye
coordination and proper sheering angle
o Aterian = stone tool tradition associated with anatomically modern
humans found primarily in north Africa between Atlantic coast to the
Kharga Oasis and western edge of Nile river basin (80ka-40ka)
• Upper Paleolithic = 50-10ka
o Emergence of behavioural modernity – key indicators of social and
technological complexity among anatomically modern human
populations in Europe
o Stone tool technology → sophisticated stone tool traditions,
construction of complex shelters and clothing (for protection against
harsh environments)
o Aurignacian (mode 4 tool) → an archaeological culture with distinct
stone tool tradition, dating from 45ka to 35ka, located in Europe and
Southwest Asia
o Gravettian (4) → archaeological culture of European Upper
Paleolithic, dating from 28ka to 22ka, associated with big-game
hunting (bison, horse, reindeer and mammoth)
o Solutrean (4) → archaeological culture of European Upper Paleolithic,
associated primarily with southwestern Europe, dating from 22ka to
17ka
o Magdalenian (4) → one of last archaeological cultures of European
Upper Paleolithic, found widely throughout Europe, dating between
18ka and 10ka
• See more cave paintings at the end of the Paleolithic era
• Law of superposition → idea that sedimentary layers are deposited in a
chronological sequence, with earliest at the bottom and most recent at the top
• Blade technology:
o Indirect percussion (use of a punch or intermediate tool)
o Adds precision to percussion, but also makes task more difficult
o Working with blades rather than flakes
• Microliths (Mode 5):
o Started appearing around 10,000 years ago
o Tiny size gives tools their name
o Made by controlled snapping of blades or from small stone flakes
o Associated with projectile use
o Microliths hafted, or embedded in wood tool or handle
o Barbs for arrows, serration on spears, working cloth…
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lithic technology week 7: darwin on human tool use various weapons which defend themselves, kills or catches prey and otherwise obtains food. Innovations can include behavioural, social and political: throwing with force and accuracy, organisation of kinship systems, hierarchies, cave paintings etc. Lithic technological innovations: humans opt for greater division of labour, female humans spent time on activities including cave paintings (in hunter gathering societies) Innovation disproportionately burdened women season if fire, flood or draught (dangerous investment: not all innovation is good for everyone and everything can be disruptive to human life, planetary wellbeing etc. Constrained by time and space, often used to define a specific group of people/culture: clark"s five stages of lithic technology, 1. Prepared core (middle stone age, middle paleolithic, levailois: 4. Blades (upper paleolithic, later stone age: 5. Recognised by the fact that only the working edge is modified: acheulean = 1. 7mya-100ka stone tool tradition found throughout.
