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Occasional, obligatory, and habitual stone tool use in hominin evolution
Author(s) -
Shea John J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
evolutionary anthropology: issues, news, and reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.401
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1520-6505
pISSN - 1060-1538
DOI - 10.1002/evan.21547
Subject(s) - stone tool , paleoanthropology , hominidae , stone age , pleistocene , middle stone age , human evolution , early pleistocene , archaeology , lithic technology , paleontology , homo erectus , geology , biological evolution , history , biology , genetics
Archeologists have long assumed that earlier hominins were obligatory stone tool users. This assumption is deeply embedded in traditional ways of describing the lithic record. This paper argues that lithic evidence dating before 1.7 Ma reflects occasional stone tool use, much like that practiced by nonhuman primates except that it involved flaked‐stone cutting tools. Evidence younger than 0.3 Ma is more congruent with obligatory stone tool use, like that among recent humans. The onset of habitual stone tool use at about 1.7 Ma appears correlated with increased hominin logistical mobility (carrying things). The onset of obligatory stone tool use after 0.3 Ma may be linked to the evolution of spoken language. Viewing the lithic evidence dating between 0.3‐1.7 Ma as habitual stone tool use explains previously inexplicable aspects of the Early‐Middle Pleistocene lithic record.