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      The emergence of large flake-based Acheulian technology: perspective from the highland site-complex of Melka Wakena, Ethiopia

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      Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
      Springer Science and Business Media LLC

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          Abstract

          Isaac GL (1969) proposed that Large Cutting Tools (LCTs) made on large flake blanks detached from giant/boulder cores are the key technological variable that distinguishes the Acheulian from the Oldowan. The production of large flake blanks was initially observed in the earliest records of the Acheulian technology in Africa ca. 1.75 Ma, subsequently becoming a technological feature of many sites across eastern Africa. Still, the mode and tempo of evolution of the large flake-based Acheulian technology remains poorly understood. Here we report on the large flake-based Acheulian assemblage at locality MW5 in the Melka Wakena site-complex, chronologically constrained between 1.37 and 1.34 Ma. At the site-complex level we note that aspects related to small flake production remain relatively unchanged since ~ 1.6 Ma. Secondary modification of small flakes by retouch remained marginal and there is only a slight increase in the frequency of structured reduction of cores, compared to the earlier 1.6 Ma assemblage. In contrast, the MW5 lithic assemblages inform of the diachronic shift of lithic techno-economy into a large flake-based LCTs technology. This shift is characterized by: (1) A highly selective use of a specific raw material (glassy ignimbrite) for the production of large flake blanks; (2) transport of prepared large flake blanks from relatively distant sources into the sites as part of a spatially and temporally fragmented reduction sequence; (3) improved know-how of large flake production, (4) the introduction of the Kombewa technology; (5) a unified technological concept for the production of handaxes and cleavers, diverging only in the specific decisions determining their final shape parameters. Taken together, these trends indicate changes in techno-economic strategies related to LCT production, including higher levels of pre-planning in the raw material acquisition stage and higher investment in controlling the morphometric properties of the artifacts.

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          An earlier origin for the Acheulian.

          The Acheulian is one of the first defined prehistoric techno-complexes and is characterized by shaped bifacial stone tools. It probably originated in Africa, spreading to Europe and Asia perhaps as early as ∼1 million years (Myr) ago. The origin of the Acheulian is thought to have closely coincided with major changes in human brain evolution, allowing for further technological developments. Nonetheless, the emergence of the Acheulian remains unclear because well-dated sites older than 1.4 Myr ago are scarce. Here we report on the lithic assemblage and geological context for the Kokiselei 4 archaeological site from the Nachukui formation (West Turkana, Kenya) that bears characteristic early Acheulian tools and pushes the first appearance datum for this stone-age technology back to 1.76 Myr ago. Moreover, co-occurrence of Oldowan and Acheulian artefacts at the Kokiselei site complex indicates that the two technologies are not mutually exclusive time-successive components of an evolving cultural lineage, and suggests that the Acheulian was either imported from another location yet to be identified or originated from Oldowan hominins at this vicinity. In either case, the Acheulian did not accompany the first human dispersal from Africa despite being available at the time. This may indicate that multiple groups of hominins distinguished by separate stone-tool-making behaviours and dispersal strategies coexisted in Africa at 1.76 Myr ago.
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            The characteristics and chronology of the earliest Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia.

            The Acheulean technological tradition, characterized by a large (>10 cm) flake-based component, represents a significant technological advance over the Oldowan. Although stone tool assemblages attributed to the Acheulean have been reported from as early as circa 1.6-1.75 Ma, the characteristics of these earliest occurrences and comparisons with later assemblages have not been reported in detail. Here, we provide a newly established chronometric calibration for the Acheulean assemblages of the Konso Formation, southern Ethiopia, which span the time period ∼1.75 to <1.0 Ma. The earliest Konso Acheulean is chronologically indistinguishable from the assemblage recently published as the world's earliest with an age of ∼1.75 Ma at Kokiselei, west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. This Konso assemblage is characterized by a combination of large picks and crude bifaces/unifaces made predominantly on large flake blanks. An increase in the number of flake scars was observed within the Konso Formation handaxe assemblages through time, but this was less so with picks. The Konso evidence suggests that both picks and handaxes were essential components of the Acheulean from its initial stages and that the two probably differed in function. The temporal refinement seen, especially in the handaxe forms at Konso, implies enhanced function through time, perhaps in processing carcasses with long and stable cutting edges. The documentation of the earliest Acheulean at ∼1.75 Ma in both northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia suggests that behavioral novelties were being established in a regional scale at that time, paralleling the emergence of Homo erectus-like hominid morphology.
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              Natural history of Homo erectus.

              C Anton (2002)
              Our view of H. erectus is vastly different today than when Pithecanthropus erectus was described in 1894. Since its synonimization into Homo, views of the species and its distribution have varied from a single, widely dispersed, polytypic species ultimately ancestral to all later Homo, to a derived, regional isolate ultimately marginal to later hominin evolution. A revised chronostratigraphic framework and recent work bearing either directly or indirectly on reconstructions of life-history patterns are reviewed here and, together with a review of the cranial and postcranial anatomy of H. erectus, are used to generate a natural history of the species. Here I argue that H. erectus is a hominin, notable for its increased body size, that originates in the latest Pliocene/earliest Pleistocene of Africa and quickly disperses into Western and Eastern Asia. It is also an increasingly derived hominin with several regional morphs sustained by intermittent isolation, particularly in Southeast Asia. This view differs from several current views, most especially that which recognizes only a single hominin species in the Pleistocene, H. sapiens, and those which would atomize H. erectus into a multiplicity of taxa. Following Jolly ([2001] Yrbk Phys Anthropol 44:177-204), the regional morphs of H. erectus may be productively viewed as geographically replacing allotaxa, rather than as the focus of unresolvable species debates. Such a view allows us to focus on the adaptations and biology of local groups, including questions of biogeographic isolation and local adaptation. A number of issues remain unresolved, including the significance of diversity in size and shape in the early African and Georgian records. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
                Archaeol Anthropol Sci
                Springer Science and Business Media LLC
                1866-9557
                1866-9565
                October 2024
                September 28 2024
                October 2024
                : 16
                : 10
                Article
                10.1007/s12520-024-02072-8
                46400f1d-fad0-45f6-a4a6-e26a18bd0f15
                © 2024

                https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

                https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

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