Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Stone Age Visiting Cards Revisited: A Strategic Perspective on the Lithic Technology of Early Hominin Dispersal

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper examines the stone tool technology of dispersing Plio-Pleistocene hominins. The traditional division of Early Paleolithic assemblages into Oldowan, Developed Oldowan, Early Acheulean, and related industries obscures a more fundamental axis of strategic variation between pebble-core and large cutting tool technology. In Eurasia, as in Africa before it, first appearances of fossils of the genus Homo occur together with “Oldowan” pebble-core technology. Acheulean assemblages featuring large symmetrical cores/cutting tools, if they appear at all, do so after a considerable period of time. The patterning of the Early Paleolithic industrial variability may reflect a strategic shift between an initial “frontier” phase and a subsequent “settling in” phase of hominin dispersal.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationVertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology
PublisherSpringer
Pages47-64
Number of pages18
Edition9789048190355
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010

Publication series

NameVertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology
Number9789048190355
ISSN (Print)1877-9077

Keywords

  • Acheulean
  • Early Paleolithic
  • Hominin dispersal
  • Oldowan
  • Stone tools
  • Strategic modeling

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Stone Age Visiting Cards Revisited: A Strategic Perspective on the Lithic Technology of Early Hominin Dispersal'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this