Erella Hovers

An Early Case of Color Symbolism: Ochre Use by Modern Humans in Qafzeh Cave

Prehistoric archaeology provides the temporal depth necessary for understanding the evolution of the unique human ability to construct and use complex symbol systems. The longstanding focus on language, a symbol system that does not leave direct evidence in the material record, has led to interpretations based on material proxies of this abstract behavior. The ambiguities resulting from this situation may be reduced by focusing on systems that use material objects as the carriers of their symbolic contents, such as color symbolism. Given the universality of some aspects of color symbolism in extant human societies, this article focuses on the 92,000yearold ochre record from Qafzeh Cave terrace to examine whether the human capacity for symbolic behavior could have led to normative systems of symbolic culture as early as Middle Paleolithic times. Geochemical and petrographic analyses are used to test the hypothesis that ochre was selected and mined specifically for its color. Ochre is found to occur through time in association with other finds unrelated to mundane tasks. It is suggested that such associations fulfill the hierarchical relationships that are the essence of a symbolic referential framework and are consistent with the existence of symbolic culture. The implications of these findings for understanding the evolution of symbolic culture in the contexts of the African and Levantine prehistoric records are explored.Prehistoric archaeology provides the temporal depth necessary for understanding the evolution of the unique human ability to construct and use complex symbol systems. The longstanding focus on language, a symbol system that does not leave direct evidence in the material record, has led to interpretations based on material proxies of this abstract behavior. The ambiguities resulting from this situation may be reduced by focusing on systems that use material objects as the carriers of their symbolic contents, such as color symbolism. Given the universality of some aspects of color symbolism in extant human societies, this article focuses on the 92,000yearold ochre record from Qafzeh Cave terrace to examine whether the human capacity for symbolic behavior could have led to normative systems of symbolic culture as early as Middle Paleolithic times. Geochemical and petrographic analyses are used to test the hypothesis that ochre was selected and mined specifically for its color. Ochre is found to occur through...

Grave Markers: Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic Burials and the Use of Chronotypology in Contemporary Paleolithic Research

Comparison of mortuary data from the Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic archaeological record shows that, contrary to previous assessments, there is much evidence for continuity between the two periods. This suggests that if R. H. Gargetts critique of alleged Middle Paleolithic burials is to be given credence, it should also be applied to the burials of the Early Upper Paleolithic. Evidence for continuity reinforces conclusions derived from lithic and faunal analyses and site locations that the Upper Paleolithic as a reified category masks much variation in the archaeological record and is therefore not an appropriate analytical tool. Dividing the Upper Paleolithic into Early and Late phases might be helpful for understanding the cultural and biological processes at work.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Mousterian and Natufian Burials in the Levant

to reinvigorate an evaluation of what has been learned ethnographically and theoretically (as in Levi-Strauss I949 or H6ritier I976, 198I) about kinship and marriage systems. It reconnects the approaches of two worldsFrench and Anglo-Saxon-whose very different perspectives on the study of kinship have to date precluded consensus on theories and on the relation between theoretical models and empirical data. Tufte (I983, I990) and others have shown the importance of visualization in communication. The same is true in the development of scientific specialties. Klovdahl (I98I) argues that network analysis and its concepts-centrality, reachability, role position, clique, flow, etc.-would not have developed as they did without graph theoretic images and measures. Conceptually, it is no small matter that kinship nets can be represented as graphs. Perhaps we are in a better position than before for a foundational reconceptualization in the analysis of kinship.

On Variability and Complexity: Lessons from the Levantine Middle Paleolithic Record

A century of research has led to the recognition of multiple levels of technological variability in the Levantine Middle Paleolithic (MP) that cannot be resolved through single-cause explanatory models. Recent ecological models argue for continual occupation of the region and competitive coexistence of Neanderthal and modern human populations. Current paleogenetic studies underline the feasibility of the latter scenario. The Levantine MP offers a perspective on the interface of historical circumstances and long-term evolutionary mechanisms that structured in-tandem trajectories of technological and behavioral changes as well as insights into the dynamics of nondirectional behavioral complexities in the archaeological record.

Raw material selectivity in Late Pliocene Oldowan sites in the Makaamitalu Basin, Hadar, Ethiopia.

We report the results of an analysis of raw material selection patterns in the assemblages from two Late Pliocene in situ archaeological localities in the Makaamitalu Basin (Hadar, Ethiopia). While the same local conglomerate was used as a raw material source for both archaeological occurrences, different selection criteria are identified. At A.L. 894, selection for quality is subtle and the clearest selection is against non-homogeneous raw materials. In the A.L. 666 assemblage, higher-quality raw materials were selected and some rare raw materials reached the locality from unknown sources. A comparison between the Makaamitalu and other Oldowan assemblages reveals an overall shift toward higher complexity of both selectivity and transport behaviors from ca. 2.0 Ma onward, contrasting a typo-technological conservatism that pertains until ~1.6 Ma. It is hypothesized that an increase in complexity of behaviors related to raw material selection and acquisition involved changes in the intensity and fidelity of technological knowledge transmission.

Modernity, Enhanced Working Memory, and the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Record in the Levant

The Eurocentric (or rather Western European) outlook on cultural evolution envisioned a sharp demarcation between the phenomena grouped under the title Middle Paleolithic (i.e., archaic) and the phenomena recognized as Upper Paleolithic (i.e., modern). This view became the framework for testing cognitive, social, and economic hypotheses explaining the emergence of modern behavior. After nearly a century of research, it seems that this categorization is not applicable in the Levant despite some broad similarities between the two regions. The Levantine archaeological record provides us with the option to think outside the “European box” with regard to this important phase in human cultural evolution.

Archaeological horizons and fluvial processes at the Lower Paleolithic open-air site of Revadim (Israel)

In this paper we present new data pertaining to the paleo-landscape characteristics at the Acheulian site of Revadim, on the southern coastal plain of Israel. Sedimentological, isotopic, granulometric and micromorphological studies showed that the archaeological remains accumulated in an active fluvial environment where channel action, overbank flooding and episodic inundation occurred. Measurements of total organic matter and its carbon isotopic composition indicate that the hominin activity at the site started at a period of relatively drier conditions, which coincided with erosion of the preceding soil sequence. This process led to the formation of a gently-undulating topography, as reconstructed by a GIS model. Later deposition documents relatively wetter conditions, as indicated by carbon isotopic composition. Formation processes identified at the site include fluvial processes, inundation episodes that resulted in anaerobic conditions and formation of oxide nodules, as well as small-scale bioturbation and later infiltration of carbonate-rich solutions that resulted in the formation of calcite nodules and crusts. The combination of micro-habitats created favorable conditions that repeatedly drew hominins to the area, as seen by a series of super-imposed archaeological horizons. This study shows that site-specific paleo-landscape reconstructions should play an important role in understanding regional variation among hominin occupations and in extrapolating long-term behavioral patterns during the Middle Pleistocene.

Invention, Reinvention and Innovation: The Makings of Oldowan Lithic Technology

In the modern world, creativity often culminates in material things or ideas about how to make them, and therefore should be of major interest of archaeologists, who deal with the material record of the past. Being the first recognizable techno-complex of hominin material culture, the Oldowan constitutes an interesting case for investigating creativity in early hominins. It presents, for the first time in the hominin record, a set of material culture signatures that make it a recognizable archaeological entity, such as the existence of “sites”, a novel behaviour of the systematic flaking of stone, and, arguably, an expansion of the dietary niche through the processing of animal resources. In this paper I rely on psychological and ecological approaches of creativity, which define different problem-solving procedures, to explore a range of feasible scenarios related to two questions about the Oldowan. Based on the known behaviours of non-human primates, I first attempt to identify derived behaviours (inventions) that can be considered truly creative events in the Oldowan record. I then focus on the question of whether the spread of the Oldowan after 2.5 Ma was due to social learning and cultural transmission, as opposed to independent re-inventions that can be defined as acts of mundane creativity. It is concluded that the majority of early Oldowan innovations are the continuation or extension of behavioural patterns that might have been shared by early hominins and nonhuman primates. Oldowan stone-tool making is the only major disjunction from behaviours of nonhuman primates and pre-Oldowan hominins. This first invention is followed by a long time of stasis in stone tool technology. Nevertheless, several organizational innovations in land-use patterns and in dietary spectra did occur. The emergence of the Oldowan represents a momentous threshold in hominin evolution because it involved exceptional creativity, essentially different from cognitive patterns shared with other hominids. This first occurrence marks a creative act in the sense that it provided an unexpected and interesting solution to problems faced by hominins. Innovations inferred from the Oldowan record after this event are mostly attributed to mundane creativity.

Alternative Pathways to Complexity: Evolutionary Trajectories in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age An Introduction to Supplement 8

The 145th symposium of the Wenner-Gren Foundation took place June 1–8, 2012, in Häringe Slott near Stockholm, Sweden. The primary goal of the symposium was to reframe discussions of behavioral evolution among Neanderthals and early modern humans. We hoped to replace conventions of a single scale of evolutionary progress (in which the primary benchmark is “modern human behavior”) with a more Darwinian framework that could allow for independent evolutionary trajectories in different areas. The 15 participants included archaeologists researching material culture and subsistence in Eurasia, Africa, and China; physical anthropologists; a demographer; a geneticist; modelers of cultural evolution; and a climatologist. Participants were asked to draw on evidence in their areas of expertise, focusing on evolutionary trends in both modal tendencies and levels of variation/diversity within various regions during the interval in which the Middle Stone Age and Middle Paleolithic developed, spread, and eventually disappeared. It was agreed that there is compelling evidence for very different trajectories of cultural evolution in different parts of the world but that we are not yet in a position to fully evaluate and understand the outcomes of the parallel cultural evolutionary pathways among modern Homo sapiens in Africa and Neanderthals in Europe. Answering questions this large in scope requires synthesis on a large geographic scale comparable to studies by climate scientists and biogeographers. Conventional approaches to collecting, reporting, and analyzing archaeological and skeletal data do not lend themselves to rigorous tests of alternative evolutionary models. At the same time, the intellectual tools needed to research these questions are well developed, and answers are within reach.

Introduction: Current Issues in Oldowan Research

The Oldowan industry represents the oldest known manifestation of material culture. The expression of these earliest tools is marked by its diversity. Here we review various approaches to this material. In particular we focus on how the history of research on these industries has changed dramatically from the earliest investigations in East Africa through the last thirty years and finally we describe the approaches found in the volume. This volume is distinct in its incorporation of many industries that would not classically be considered Oldowan, and subsequently provides a unique perspective on early stone tool manufacture and use. In particular the conceptual framework around the evolution of different technical skills provides a major theoretical step in constructing models of early hominin behavioral evolution. Although this chapter reviews the material found in each of the chapters of this volume it does not reiterate the information found in these chapters. Rather we provide a conceptual perspective for the various themes that link the contributions together. We identify the challenges for future Oldowan research. We see the synthesis of different schools of thought in the study of Oldowan stone artifacts as one of the most important contributions that future work can make for the study of the earliest technologies.