1. The earliest archaeology
Early Stone Tools
The earliest archaeology

2. Artifacts
Any object that owes any of its attributes to human activity—usually a discrete object.
Stone tools are the earliest artifacts, why?
How might the preservation equation matter here? P = MCDST.

4. The basics: how are stone tools made?
All stone tools come from a source rock known as a core.
Flint knapping is the process of making stone tools from cores.
Cores are of particular kinds of rock.
Fine grained
Few inclusions
Hard, but not brittle
Chert, obsidian, quartz
homepage.ntlworld.com

5. Percussion
Flakes are generally removed from cores via percussion (hitting) the core with a hammer.
Hard-hammer percussion produces large flakes.
Soft-hammer percussion produces finer, smaller flakes.
Indirect percussion produces long-thin flakes called blades.
Blades are flakes that are twice as long as they are wide.

6. images.encarta.msn.com
Hard Hammer
large cones of force
Principle of conchoidal fracture: A cone of force is propelled from the hammer through the rock causing it to fracture in predictable ways: requires fined-grained rock w/ few inclusions.

7. Soft Hammers
medium cone of force

8. Lithic Reduction Strategy:
Indirect percussion
small cone of force
Lithic Reduction Strategy:
Flakes of all sizes & shapes can be removed from the core.
Flakes = thin, sharp slivers of stone removed from a core during the knapping process.
The smaller the cone of force, the smaller the flakes & the more controlled the knapping.
Scarre 2005:162

9. Archaeological Chronology
We now begin to divide prehistory by cultural period.
The periods are chunks of time that correspond to different kinds of tool technology.
Previously the entire focus was on fossils; now it is on tools & fossils.

10. Technology changes through time

11. An Outline of Chronology
Basal Paleolithic: 2.5 – 1.8 mya
Lower Paleolithic: 1.8 m – 250 kya
Middle Paleolithic: 250 – 40 kya
Upper Paleolithic: 40 – +/- 10 kya
Mesolithic: starts & ends at different times in different places.
Neolithic: starts & ends at different times in different places.

12. The Basal Paleolithic Period
2.5 – 1.8 mya
Oldowan tools
Olduvai Gorge
Stone tools: cores & flakes
Faunal remains
Giraffes, hippos, antelopes, elephants
Cutmarks: at least 1 elephant was butchered
Hunters or scavengers?

14.
Microscopically, cutmarks from sharp stone flakes are V-shaped in profile.
The key is to find several parallel marks with V-shaped profiles in areas where limbs or flesh would have been removed from skeletons.

15. Basal Paleolithic Fossils
Homo habilis
The tool maker & user?
Brain size 600 to 800 cc
Robust australopithecines
Still around during the Basal Paleolithic
Could they have made the tools?
claudiogutierrez.com

17. Lower Paleolithic Period
1.8 m – 250 kya
Acheulean handaxe tools
“the Swiss army knife of the Lower Paleolithic
More refined than previous tools
Peninj (Tanzania), Ubeidiya (Israel), 1.4 mya
Outside of Africa
Zhoukoudian (China), Schoningen (Germany)

18. Acheulean Handaxe
“An icon of the Lower Paleolithic period [1.8 million to 250,000 years ago], the distinctive tear-drop shaped Acheulean handaxe (pronounced ash-oo-lee`an) has been called the Swiss Army knife of the era. The handaxe was an all-purpose tool that was used for a multitude of tasks that included cutting meat, sawing, drilling holes, digging, and other tasks. Acheulean handaxes have been found over much of Europe, Africa, and Asia; from the British Isles to southern Africa, and from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain/Portugal) to China.“
Science Museum of Minnesota
Object: Acheulean Handaxe Accession: A70:11:11 Dimensions: 12.9 cm long x 7.4 cm wide x 2.9 cm thick Collected: Southwestern France, Dordogne region Materials: Flint Period: Lower Paleolithic Age: approximately 500, ,000 years old

19. anthro.palomar.edu

20. Lower Paleolithic Fossils
Homo ergaster
1.8 m – 600 kya
East African Rift Valley
600 – 910 cc brain size
Tools = late Olduwan & early Acheulean
Homo ergaster is restricted primarily (??) to Africa

21. Lower Paleolithic Fossils
Homo erectus
1.0 m – 100 kya
Asia & Southeast Asia
810 – 1250 cc brain size
Tools = Acheulean
Homo erectus is outside of Africa.
H. erectus evolved out of H. ergaster & became extinct by 100 kya.
Peking Man: Zhoukoudian 500 – 300 kya

22. Lower Paleolithic Fossils
Homo heidelbergensis
600 – 300 kya
Africa & Europe
1225 – 1300 cc brain size
Tools: Late Acheulean
Evolved out of H. ergaster & led to H. sapiens & Neanderthals.
Rhodesian Man: Broken Hill
300 kya

23. Summary of Lower Paleolithic
H. ergaster is hypothesized to have evolved from H. habilis between 1.8 & 1.6 mya.
H. erectus evolved out of H. ergaster in Asia around 1 mya.
H. heidelbergensis evolved from H. ergaster in Africa by 600 kya.
H. heidelbergensis evolved into H. sapiens & Neanderthals between 400 & 250 kya.

24. Two Important Concepts
Anagenesis: evolution of a new species in the same place without branching. Non-branching evolution.
H. ergaster (Africa) into H. heidelbergensis (Africa)
Cladogenesis: evolution of a new species resulting from a population splitting into a new area. Branching evolution.
H. ergaster (Africa) into H. erectus (Asia)

25. H. heidelbergensis 600 - 300 kya
H. habilis 2.5 – 1.8 mya
H. ergaster 1.8 m – 600 kya
H. heidelbergensis kya
H. erectus 1 m – 100 kya
H. sapiens
H. neanderthalensis
claudiogutierrez.com

26. Important questions When did humans move outside of Africa?
What evidence do we have for movement outside of Africa?
Which species moved outside of Africa, H. habilis, H ergaster, H. erectus?