Skill and Core Uniformity: An Experiment with Oldowan-like Flaking Systems

ABSTRACT

The Oldowan is the archaeological record’s oldest consistent evidence of hominin technical behavior. First appearing ∼2.6 Ma in East Africa, the Oldowan is characterized by simple core and flake technology using direct hard hammer percussion. Archaeologists debate whether Oldowan assemblages are uniform and what role hominin cultural abilities played in generating these assemblages. To improve existing methods for studying Oldowan technical uniformity, we conducted experiments involving 23 novices and one expert knapper. Subjects made simple stone tools under two different instructional conditions (observation-only and direct active instruction) over two hours. We used the resulting cores to track flaking efficiency, reduction intensity, and knapping errors. We find significant differences in the expert and novice core uniformity. Direct active teaching increased core flaking efficiency and reduced knapping errors. Comparisons between our experimental results and an Oldowan sample from Gona, Ethiopia, show core variability patterns that match our expert and actively taught novices.

KEYWORDS:

• Oldowan
• stone tool-making
• social learning
• uniformity

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Emory University and New York University for internal funding that supported this pilot research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Evan Patrick Wilson

Evan Patrick Wilson is a Doctoral Candidate at the City University of New York. His research focuses on the early hominin record in Africa and the role of cultural evolution and geoarchaeological processes in this record.

Dietrich Stout

Dietrich Stout is Professor of Anthropology at Emory University. His research focuses on the evolution of brain and cognition in the Paleolithic record.

Cheng Liu

Cheng Liu is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Emory University. His main research interests include Old World prehistory, hunter-gatherer societies, lithic analysis, and cultural evolution. He has conducted field and laboratory research in China, Israel, and Ethiopia.

Megan Beney Kilgore

Megan Beney Kilgore is a Doctoral Candidate at Emory University where she studies the contexts in which adults and children learn stone knapping skills.

Justin Pargeter

Justin Pargeter is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New York University and honorary Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research focuses on human biocultural evolution tracked by the relationships between technology, cognition, and environmental change in the archaeological record.