Exploring Knapping Learning Processes Amongst Upper Palaeolithic Hunter-Gatherers

ABSTRACT

The work reported in this article explores stone knapping learning processes through the study of a Late Upper Palaeolithic workshop in the Italian Alps, so as to contribute to the framework of today’s debate on social learning. Social learning is an essential process for human evolution as it fosters the development of brain districts, the building of knowledge and the acquisition of new skills. Results suggest that knapping learning was likely a structured activity at the site. Moreover, this analysis helped the reconstruction of the social organisation and composition of this past group of hunter-gatherers.

KEYWORDS:

• Social learning
• flintknapping
• apprenticeship
• hunter-gatherers

Acknowledgements

Fieldwork and research at Val Lastari are coordinated by the Ferrara University (M.P.) in the framework of a project supported by the Ministry of Culture – SABAP Superintendency, public institutions Veneto Region – Department of Cultural Heritage, Province of Vicenza, Sette Comuni Mountain Community, Conco Municipality). Author contributions: M.P. designed research; G.C and M.P. analysed data; G.C. took pictures of Figure 2and M.P. of Figure 1; G.C and M.P. wrote and edited the manuscript with input by A.G.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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^3. Inizian et al., Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone, 16–17.

^4. Pigeot, Magdaléniens d’Etiolles; Pigeot, “Technical and Social Actors,” 126–41.

^5. Pigeot, “Technical and Social Actors,” 126–41.

^6. Goldstein, “Knowledge Transmission Through the Lens of Lithic Production,” 679–713.

^7. Fischer, “On Being a Pupil of a Flint-Knapper,” 447–64; Goldstein, “Knowledge Transmission Through the Lens of Lithic Production,” 686.

^8. Boyette and Hewlett, “Teaching in Hunter-Gatherers”; Terashima, “Reflections on Hunter-Gatherer Social Learning,” 311–18.

^9. Gardner, The Development and Education of the Mind, 15.

^10. Pigeot, Magdaléniens d’Etiolles, 97–104.

^11. Lombao et al., “Teaching to Make Stone Tools,” 9; Roux and Bril, Stone Knapping, 24; Stout, “Stone Toolmaking and the Evolution of Human Culture,” 1050–9; Stout and Chaminade, “Stone Tools, Language and the Brain,” 75–87; Stout and Khreisheh, “Skill Learning and Human Brain Evolution,” 867–75; Uomini, “In the Knapper’s Hands,” 51–62; Wynn and Coolidge, “The Implications of the Working Memory,” 4.

^12. Boyd et al., “The Cultural Niche,” 10918–25; Csibra and Gergely, “Social Learning and Social Cognition,” 249–74; Csibra and Gergely, “Natural Pedagogy as Evolutionary Adaptation,” 1149–57; Tomasello, The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition, 10.

^13. Shelley, “Variation in Lithic Assemblages,” 187–93.

^14. Wilkins, “Learner-Driven Innovation,” 4.

^15. Snyder et al., “Early Knapping Techniques do Not Necessitate Cultural Transmission,” eabo2894; Stout et al., “Archaeology and the Origins of Human Cumulative Culture,” 309–40.

^16. Kline, “How to Learn about Teaching,” 1–70.

^17. Cavalli-Sforza et al., “Theory and Observation in Cultural Transmission,” 19–27; Cavalli-Sforza et al., “Cultural Evolution,” 14–20.

^18. Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman, Cultural Transmission and Evolution, 28.

^19. Ibid.

^20. Hewlett and Cavalli-Sforza, “Cultural Transmission Amongst Aka Pygmies,” 922–34; Lew-Levy et al., “How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?” 367–94; Nakahashi, “The Evolution of Culturally Transmitted Teaching Behavior,” 23–36.

^21. Tehrani and Riede, “Toward an Archaeology of Pedagogy,” 316–32; Uomini et al., “Extended Parenting and the Evolution of Cognition,” 1–9.

^22. Boyette and Hewlett, “Teaching in Hunter-Gatherers,” 785–9; Lew-Levy et al., “How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?” 374–80; Tehrani and Collard, “On the Relationship between Interindividual Cultural Transmission,” 286–300.

^23. Tomasello et al., “Cultural Learning,” 495–511.

^24. Hewlett et al., “Social Learning among Congo Basin Hunter-Gatherers,” 1168–78.

^25. Lancy, “Teaching, Natural or Cultural,” 654–65; Lancy, “Homo Faber Juvenalis,” 72–90.

^26. Boyette and Hewlett, “Teaching in Hunter-Gatherers,” 779–80; Riede et al., “The Role of Play Objects,” 46–59; Riede et al., “Children and Innovation,” 2–4; Super and Harkness, “The Developmental Niche,” 545–69; Cattabriga and Peresani, “Criteria for Identifying Knapping Skill Level.”

^27. Wendrich, “Archaeology and Apprenticeship,” 1–19.

^28. Tehrani and Riede, “Toward an Archaeology of Pedagogy,” 13.

^29. Ibid., 15–17; Gergely and Csibra, “Sylvia’s Recipe,” 229–55.

^30. Rein et al., “Movement Pattern Variability in Stone Knapping,” 5–7; Sternke and Sorensen, “The Identification of Children’s Flint Knapping Products”, 722–9.

^31. Tehrani and Riede, “Towards an Archaeology of Pedagogy,” 15.

^32. We are referring here to Mode 0: Snyder et al., ‘Early Knapping Techniques,” 7–10.

^33. Stout et al., “Archaeology and the Origins of Human Cumulative Culture,” 325–6.

^34. Wilkins, “Learner-Driven Innovation,” 4.

^35. Ibid., 10; Assaf, “Throughout the Generations,” 12–17.

^36. Lancy, “Homo Faber Juvenalis,” 80–3.

^37. Amongst others: Arthur, The Lives of Stone Tools; Boyette and Hewlett, “Teaching in Hunter-Gatherers,” 23–40; Hewlett and Cavalli-Sforza, “Cultural Transmission Amongst Aka Pygmies,” 923–6; Lew-Levy et al., “How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?” 384–6; Lew-Levy et al., “Where Innovations Flourish,” 3–5; Roux et al., “Skills and Learning Difficulties Involved in Stone Knapping,” 63–87; Stout, “Skill and Cognition in Stone Tool Production,” 712–15; Terashima and Hewlett, Social Learning and Innovation, 3.

^38. Lombao et al., “Teaching to Make Stone Tools,” 8; Partager et al., “Understanding Stone Tool-Making Skill Acquisition,” 146–66; Partager et al., “Knowledge vs. Know-How,” 102807.

^39. Ferguson, “The When, Where, and How of Novices in Craft Production,” 51–67; Minar and Crown, “Learning and Craft Production,” 8–9.

^40. Gergely and Csibra, “Sylvia’s Recipe,” 7.

^41. Boyette and Hewlett, “Teaching in Hunter-Gatherers,” 9–13; Lew-Levy et al., “How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?” 384–7.

^42. Kline, “How to Learn about Teaching,” 6.

^43. Boyette and Hewlett, “Teaching in Hunter-Gatherers,” 793; Gergely and Csibra, “Sylvia’s Recipe,” 9; Lew-Levy et al., “How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?,” 385.

^44. Wynn and Coolidge, “The Expert Performance Model,” 22–34; Bril, “L’apprentissage des gestes techniques,” 6.

^45. Ferguson, “The When, Where, and How of Novices in Craft Production,” 52; Tehrani and Riede, “Toward an Archaeology of Pedagogy,” 13.

^46. Tehrani and Riede, “Toward an Archaeology of Pedagogy,” 1.

^47. Stout, “Skill and Cognition in Stone Tool Production,” 700–5.

^48. Ibid.

^49. Arthur, The Lives of Stone Tools, 130.

^50. Ibid., 126.

^51. Ibid., 80–91.

^52. Lombao et al., “Teaching to Make Stone Tools,” 8.

^53. See, amongst others, Boyette and Hewlett, “Teaching in Hunter-Gatherers,” 798; Lew-Levy et al., “How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?,” 369; Riede et al., “The Role of Play Objects and Object Play,” 55.

^54. Lew-Levy et al., “How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?,” 369; Riede et al., “The Role of Play Objects and Object Play,” 49; Riede et al., “Children and Innovation,” 11–12; Super and Harkness, “The Developmental Niche,” 554; Wendrich, “Archaeology and Apprenticeship,” 9.

^55. Wendrich, “Archaeology and Apprenticeship,” 7–9.

^56. Arthur, The Lives of Stone Tools, 133; Roux and Bril, “Des ‘programmes’ d’apprentissage comparables,” 59; Stout, “Skill and Cognition in Stone Tool Production,” 702.

^57. Milne, “Palaeo-Eskimo Novice Flintknapping,” 329–45; Piaget, The Psychology of the Child, 35–40; Shea, “Child’s Play,” 212–16.

^58. Assaf, “Throughout the Generations,” 162; Partager et al., “Understanding Stone Tool-Making Skill Acquisition,” 162; Roux and Bril, “Des ‘programmes’ d’apprentissage comparables,” 234–6.

^59. Arthur, The Lives of Stone Tools, 134.

^60. Ibid.

^61. Biryukova et al., “The Organization of Arm Kinematic Synergies,” 73–91.

^62. Pelegrin, “Prehistoric Lithic Technology,” 116–25.

^63. Pelegrin, “Les savoir-faire,” 106–13.

^64. Pelegrin, “Remarks about Archaeological Techniques,” 22–33.

^65. Roux and Bril, “General Introduction,” 10–13.

^66. Ibid.

^67. Biryukova et al., “The Organization of Arm Kinematic Synergies,” 88; Nonaka et al., “How do Stone Knappers Predict,” 155–67; Rein et al., “Movement Pattern Variability in Stone Knapping,” 2.

^68. Bril et al., “Stone Knapping,” 7–9.

^69. Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension, 20.

^70. Ferguson, “An Experimental Test,” 113–31; Shelley, “Variation in Lithic Assemblages,” 187.

^71. Bamforth and Finlay, “Introduction,” 5–7.

^72. Assaf et al., “Knowledge Transmission and Apprentice,” 70–85; Baena et al., “Good and Bad Knappers,” 13–17; Delagnes and Roche, “Late Pliocene Hominid Knapping Skills,” 435–72, also 112–31; Hovers, “Learning from Mistakes,” 137–50; Milne, “Palaeo-Eskimo Novice Flintknapping,” 335–37; Pigeot, “Technical and Social Actors,” 135–7; Takakura, “Using Lithic Refitting to Investigate the Skill Learning Process,” 151–71.

^73. Bamforth and Finlay, “Introduction,” 18; Wendrich, “Archaeology and Apprenticeship,” 7.

^74. Ferguson, “The When, Where, and How of Novices in Craft Production,” 52–6; Roux and Bril, “General Introduction,” 13.

^75. Eren et al., “Middle Paleolithic Skill Level,” 229–251; Geribàs et al., “What Novice Knappers Have to Learn,” 2857–70; Nonaka et al., “How do Stone Knappers Predict,” 162–5; Proffitt et al., “The Effect of Raw Material,” 50–82; Rein et al., “Movement Pattern Variability in Stone Knapping,” 13–20; Morgan et al. “Experimental evidence for the co-evolution of hominin tool-making,” 6029.

^76. Nonaka et al., “How do Stone Knappers Predict,” 164.

^77. Eren et al., “Toolstone Constraints on Knapping Skill,” 2731–9.

^78. Nonaka et al., “How do Stone Knappers Predict,” 165.

^79. Ibid.

^80. Angelucci and Peresani, “I siti all’aperto di Val Lastari e di Cima XII,” 109–23.

^81. Broglio et al., “Le site Epigravettien de Val Lastari,” 207–25; Peresani, “Flint Exploitation at Epigravettian Sites,” 193–205.

^82. Broglio et al., “Le site Epigravettien de Val Lastari,” 208.

^83. Peresani, “Flint Caches and Raw Material Economy,” 173–82.

^84. Montoya, “Les traditions techniques lithiques,” 34–168.

^85. Ibid.; Montoya and Peresani, “Premiers éléments d’analyse technologique,” 103–21; Ziggiotti, “The Complexity of an Epigravettian Site,” 131–9.

^86. Cattabriga and Peresani, “Influential Criteria to Identify Knapping Skill Levels.”

^87. Anderson, “Knowledge and Know-How,” 117–46.

^88. For more information on this, see Cattabriga and Peresani, “Influential Criteria to Identify Knapping Skill Levels.”

^89. Roux, “Habilités et inventions,” 173–88.

^90. Ibid., 184–7.

^91. Torres and Baena, “Experts Also Fail,” 15–20.

^92. Bril et al., “The Role of Expertise in Tool Use,” 833; Rein et al., “Movement Pattern Variability in Stone Knapping,” 17–22.

^93. Ferguson, “The When, Where, and How of Novices in Craft Production,” 52; Milne, “Palaeo-Eskimo Novice Flintknapping,” 335.

^94. Milne, “Lithic Raw Material Availability,” 119–44.

^95. Riede et al., “Children and Innovation,” 11412; Stout et al., “Archaeology and the Origins of Human Cumulative Culture,” 326.

^96. Arthur, The Lives of Stone Tools, 95–7.

^97. Milne, “Palaeo-Eskimo Novice Flintknapping,” 338; Pigeot, Magdaléniens d’Etiolles, 88.

^98. Arthur, The Lives of Stone Tools, 135–8; Shea, “Child’s Play,” 213.

^99. Ferguson, “An Experimental Test,” 127.

^100. Ibid.; Wendrich, “Archaeology and Apprenticeship,” 9.

^101. Alciati et al., “Human Deciduous Dental Crowns,” 69–72; Dalmeri et al, “Un centro di sacralità,” 31–42.

^102. Stout et al., “Archaeology and the Origins of Human Cumulative Culture,” 325–6.

^103. Duches et al., “Success of a Flexible Behavior,” 1617–43.

^104. Inizian et al., Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone, 90–1.

^105. Fischer, “On Being a Pupil of a Flint-Knapper,” 46; Pigeot, “Technical and Social Actors,” 136.

^106. Jacob, “Evolution and Tinkering,” 1161–6.

^107. Lévi-Strauss, La pensée sauvage, 47–55.

^108. Jacob, “Evolution and Tinkering,” 1163–4.

^109. Arthur, The Lives of Stone Tools, 91; Milne, “Lithic Raw Material Availability,” 138.

^110. Bodu et al., “Who’s Who,” 143–63; Fischer, “On Being a Pupil of a Flint-Knapper,” 46; Pigeot, “Technical and Social Actors,” 134–6.

^111. D’Errico and Banks, “The Archaeology of Teaching,” 859–66.

^112. Stout et al., “Archaeology and the Origins of Human Cumulative Culture,” 325–6.

^113. Alciati et al., “Human Deciduous Dental Crowns,” 70.

Additional information

Funding

The project received fundings by FPI Maria de Maetzu (PRE2022-102878), and the Research Groups SGR StEP (2021SGR01239) and MINECO (PID2022-138590NB-C41).