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Open AccessAuthor Correction: Modelling the end of the Acheulean at global and continental levels suggests widespread persistence into the Middle Palaeolithic
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Article
Open AccessModelling the end of the Acheulean at global and continental levels suggests widespread persistence into the Middle Palaeolithic
The Acheulean is the longest cultural tradition ever practised by humans, lasting for over 1.5 million years. Yet, its end has never been accurately dated; only broad 300–150 thousand years ago (Kya) estimates...
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Article
Open AccessThe unexpected importance of the fifth digit during stone tool production
Unique anatomical features of the human hand facilitate our ability to proficiently and forcefully perform precision grips and in-hand manipulation of objects. Extensive research has been conducted into the ro...
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Article
Open AccessThe exceptional abandonment of metal tools by North American hunter-gatherers, 3000 B.P.
Most prehistoric societies that experimented with copper as a tool raw material eventually abandoned stone as their primary medium for tool making. However, after thousands of years of experimentation with thi...
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Article
Investigating interrelationships between Lower Palaeolithic stone tool effectiveness and tool user biometric variation: implications for technological and evolutionary changes
Lower Palaeolithic hominins are thought to have been dependent upon stone tools during the acquisition and processing of food resources. Hence, it is hypothesized that the evolutionary advantages provided by e...
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Article
Reassessing the production of handaxes versus flakes from a functional perspective
Bifacially flaked stone tools, traditionally referred to as “handaxes” were produced by Pleistocene hominins for over one million years over three different continents. This spatial and temporal prevalence rai...
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Influence of Handaxe Size and Shape on Cutting Efficiency: A Large-Scale Experiment and Morphometric Analysis
Handaxes represent one of the most temporally enduring and geographically widespread of Palaeolithic artifacts and thus comprised a key technological strategy of many hominin populations. Archaeologically obse...
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Is Loading a Significantly Influential Factor in the Development of Lithic Microwear? An Experimental Test Using LSCM on Basalt from Olduvai Gorge
Lithic microwear develops as a result of abrasive friction between a stone tool’s working edge and the surface of a worked material. Variation in the loading (i.e. force) applied to a stone tool during its use...
