Steven L. Kuhn

Mousterian Lithic Technology: An Ecological Perspective

Human beings depend more on technology than any other animal-the use of tools and weapons is vital to the survival of our species. What processes of biocultural evolution led to this unique dependence? Steven Kuhn turns to the Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) and to artifacts associated with Neandertals, the most recent human predecessors. His study examines the ecological, economic, and strategic factors that shaped the behaviour of Mousterian tool makers, revealing how these hominids brought technological knowledge to bear on the basic problems of survival. Kuhns main database consists of assemblages of stone artifacts from four caves and a series of open-air localities situated on the western coast of the Italian peninsula. Variations in the ways stone tools were produced, maintained, and discarded demonstrate how Mousterian hominids coped with the problems of keeping mobile groups supplied with the artifacts and raw materials they used on a daily basis. Changes through time in lithic technology were closely tied to shifting strategies for hunting and collecting food. Some of the most provocative findings of this study stem from observations about the behavioural flexibility of Mousterian populations and the role of planning in foraging and technology.

What's a Mother to Do? The Division of Labor among Neandertals and Modern Humans in Eurasia

Recent huntergatherers display much uniformity in the division of labor along the lines of gender and age. The complementary economic roles for men and women typical of ethnographically documented huntergatherers did not appear in Eurasia until the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. The rich archaeological record of Middle Paleolithic cultures in Eurasia suggests that earlier hominins pursued more narrowly focused economies, with womens activities more closely aligned with those of men with respect to schedule and ranging patterns than in recent forager systems. More broadly based economies emerged first in the early Upper Paleolithic in the eastern Mediterranean region and later in the rest of Eurasia. The behavioral changes associated with the Upper Paleolithic record signal a wider range of economic and technological roles in forager societies, and these changes may have provided the expanding populations of Homo sapiens with a demographic advantage over other hominins in Eurasia.

On Planning and Curated Technologies in the Middle Paleolithic

The importance of planning or anticipatory organization in the technologies of archaic hominids has recently come under much scrutiny. Among modern populations, the extent to which technologies are planned depends on a variety of factors external to and internal to the cultural system, including the distribution of raw materials and settlement mobility. While data on the European Mousterian suggest that the manufacture and maintenance of tools were planned to a limited degree, evidence of truly long-term projection of needs is sparse. Most of the extant information is insufficient to evaluate whether these facts directly implicate the capacities of Mousterian hominids or whether they reflect the operation of independent factors that rendered more complex forms of planning unnecessary or impractical. Studies of a series of Italian Paleolithic sites employing independent data to control for the contexts of stone tool manufacture and use suggest that apparent differences in technological planning among Middle and late Upper Paleolithic populations in that region may be explicable in terms of contrasting patterns of land use.

Unpacking Reduction: Lithic Raw Material Economy in the Mousterian of West-Central Italy

Abstract The extent to which lithic artifacts are consumed or reduced can be attributed to a number of factors, including raw material accessibility, differential transport, patterns of site use, and tool function. In order to isolate the influence of any single factor, independent data must be used to control for variation caused by the other factors. Variation in the reduction of cores and retouched tools in eight Mousterian assemblages from west-central Italy reflects the effects of several processes and contingencies. The availability of lithic raw materials strongly affects the extent of core exploitation but not the intensity of tool retouch or reduction. Evidence for differential transport accounts for some but not all of the remaining contrasts in tool reduction. Information derived from associated faunas suggests that contrasts in the duration or stability of cave-use events as well as activity variation stand behind some of the most pronounced differences in the intensity of reduction among the lithic assemblages.

The early Upper Paleolithic occupations at Üçağızlı Cave (Hatay, Turkey)

This paper summarizes results from excavations at Uçağizli Cave (Hatay, Turkey) between 1999 and 2002 and 2005. This collapsed karstic chamber contains a sequence of early Upper Paleolithic deposits that span an interval between roughly 29,000 and 41,000 (uncalibrated) radiocarbon years BP. Lithic assemblages can be assigned to two major chronostratigraphic units. The earliest assemblages correspond with the Initial Upper Paleolithic, whereas the most recent ones fit within the definition of the Ahmarian. Substantial assemblages of stone tools, vertebrate faunal remains, ornaments, osseous artifacts, and other cultural materials provide an unusually varied picture of human behavior during the earliest phases of the Upper Paleolithic in the northern Levant. The sequence at Uçağizli Cave documents the technological transition between Initial Upper Paleolithic and Ahmarian, with a high degree of continuity in foraging and technological activities. The sequence also documents major shifts in occupational intensity and mobility.

Modeling effects of local extinctions on culture change and diversity in the paleolithic

The persistence of early stone tool technologies has puzzled archaeologists for decades. Cognitively based explanations, which presume either lack of ability to innovate or extreme conformism, do not account for the totality of the empirical patterns. Following recent research, this study explores the effects of demographic factors on rates of culture change and diversification. We investigate whether the appearance of stability in early Paleolithic technologies could result from frequent extinctions of local subpopulations within a persistent metapopulation. A spatially explicit agent-based model was constructed to test the influence of local extinction rate on three general cultural patterns that archaeologists might observe in the material record: total diversity, differentiation among spatially defined groups, and the rate of cumulative change. The model shows that diversity, differentiation, and the rate of cumulative cultural change would be strongly affected by local extinction rates, in some cases mimicking the results of conformist cultural transmission. The results have implications for understanding spatial and temporal patterning in ancient material culture.

Blank Form and Reduction as Determinants of Mousterian Scraper Morphology

Variation in the forms of Mousterian tools has been attributed to a number of factors, including style, function, and more recently, differential reduction. This study compares the influences of two factors, reduction and the shapes of tool blanks, on the forms of scrapers from a Mousterian site in Italy. In the subject assemblages, the shapes of the tool blanks had a much stronger influence on scraper forms than had reduction. To the extent that blank form affects typology in other cases, explanations of contrasts among Mousterian assemblages would need to account for the use of alternative techniques of flake production. Since typological variation is multicausal, it would also appear more profitable to focus directly on variables pertinent to current research issues, rather than on reinterpreting the typology.

Paleolithic Ornaments: Implications for Cognition, Demography and Identity

Beads and other ‘body ornaments’ are very widespread components of the archaeological record of early modern humans (Homo sapiens). They appear first in the Middle Stone Age in Africa, and somewhat later in the Early Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia. The manufacture and use of ornaments is widely considered to be evidence for significant developments in human cognition. In our view, the appearance of these objects represents the interaction of evolved cognitive capacities with changing social and demographic conditions. Body ornamentation is a medium or technology for communication, particularly of socially-relevant information. The widespread adoption of beads and other discrete objects as media for communication implies changes in the complexity and stability of social messages, as well as the scale of social networks. The relatively sudden appearance of beads in the Paleolithic archaeological record coincides with genetic and archaeological evidence for expansion of human populations. We argue that these changes reflect expanding scales of social interaction and more complex social landscapes resulting from unprecedentedly large and internally differentiated human populations.

Evolutionary perspectives on technology and technological change

It is my view that many so-called theoretical disputes in archaeology stem from the fact that participants in the debates are actually trying to answer different questions. Thus, I begin this essay with a brief discussion of the problems that most occupy my attention. My main research area is the Pleistocene prehistory of western Eurasia, although huntergatherer studies, both archaeological and ethnographic, inform my research on the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. I am especially interested in how the role of technology in human life has changed over the past 2.5 million years. Over that time artifacts have evolved from simple extensions of the human physical apparatus and relatively peripheral elements in the behavioral repertoire of the genus Homo to a central component in practically every interaction between humans and their environments as well as between humans and other humans. In short, artifacts have been transformed from simple extensions of hands, claws and teeth into material culture. This is obviously a long and complex story, but it is also central to understanding the human condition and how it came about. Evolutionary concepts and models provide some of the best tools for learning about the kinds of long-term processes that engage my interest. Many archaeologists also find them useful for examining processes that unfolded over much shorter time frames, even within the span of a single human generation. In this essay I explore the rationale for applying evolutionary ideas to the study of technology, and some of the ways these ideas have been used. I would not claim to speak for everyone who flies the banner of evolution in archaeology, for they are a diverse and contentious lot. Instead I focus on what seem to be the most productive rationales and approaches. Speaking at the broadest level, concepts and models derived from evolutionary theory have proven or could prove useful in three general contexts. One obvious application arises where there is thought to be a direct connection between technological and biological changes occurring on an evolutionary time scale. The most salient examples are arguments linking changes in artifact form or manufacture techniques to evolutionary developments in human cognition (Coolidge and Wynn 2001; Mithen 1996, 1997; Wynn

Emergent Patterns of Creativity and Innovation in Early Technologies

Abstract Creativity and innovation are conventionally viewed as consequences of individual mental processes and actions. Certain time and places are also remarkable for the pace of culture change and variety of cultural accomplishments, whereas others appear quite static. From this second macroscopic perspective, creativity can be seen as an emergent property of large numbers of interactions among individuals. Palaeoanthropologists are in a much better position to study emergent forms of innovation than individual creativity. This chapter reviews recent research concerning the effects of demographic factors and network structures on diversity and rates of change in behaviour. These studies demonstrate that the sizes, stability and interconnectedness of past human populations could directly influence the development, spread and persistence of novel forms of behaviour. Demographic conditions and social strategies are thus likely to have influenced rates of culture change and the scale of diversity over the course of human evolution. From this perspective, creativity and innovation can be seen as having multiple origins, both causally and temporally.