The design space of stone flaking: implications for cognitive evolution

Abstract

Stone tools emerged at least 2.5 mya in Africa and were manufactured continuously by early Homo species through the emergence of cognitively modern Homo sapiens. Aspects of hominin cognitive evolution, reflected in hominin intentions, may therefore be preserved in this durable aspect of the archaeological record. Stoneworking design space is cellular in structure and two levels of hominin intentions are apparent in modifying stone: the intention to remove a single flake and the higher-order intentions reflected in the ways that flakes are combined to produce effects. Archaeologists have traditionally interpreted early hominin intentions using the higher-order skills and experiences of modern knappers as analogues, an approach that is epistemologically flawed. Further, the tightly constrained structure of design space could have led early hominins inadvertently to produce what appear to be highly-designed tools or tool attributes in the absence of an intention to do so. Controlled experimental research is necessary to provide an empirical baseline for identifying higher-order intentions in the archaeological record.

Keywords:

• Stone flaking
• stone artifacts
• handaxe
• Levallois method
• hominin cognition
• cognitive evolution

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Australian Research Council. I thank Iain Davidson for our many discussions about the topics appearing in this paper.