Function of hand axes
- Chopper
- Butchery knife
- Flake dispenser (core)
- Scraper
- Throwing weapon
- Digging tool
‘Soft’ hammers of antler uses
- Gives more control over the trimming process
- Allows creation of thinner pieces
- Extra step of cognitive processing
*~0.5mya
Non-lithic technology: wood Schöningen
*~400ka
Wooden artefacts:
* 9 spears (8 spruce, 1 pine)
* 1 ‘lance’
* 1 double-pointed stick:
throwing stick?
* 1 burnt worked wooden stick
* Other worked wood of unidentified function
* Min 35 heavily butchered horses
Wooden hunting spears
*Clacton-upon-sea, UK
*400,000 bp
*Spears 1.84 to 2.53m long
*Resembled modern javelins in size, weight and construction
*Whole trunks of trees used
*Debarked and had knots cut off
*Soear tips off centre to avoid weaker central pith
*Could penetrate 25cm into flesh
Dispersal into high latitudes: the challenges and positives
- New environments/seasonality
- Lack of plant food: necessitates reliance on meat and hunting
- More hunting = bigger ranges: tougher to navigate and remember
- Bigger ranges = lower population density. More complex social lives!
- Also some positives:
- Increased nutritional opportunities
- Fewer parasites and other diseases?
The need for fire
*Fire is needed at above 60 degree latitude
8
The need for fire
*Fire is needed at above 60 degree latitude
*The highest amount of lightening strikes occur on the equator where fire is needed to the least.
Examples of fire in Africa
*Chesowanja- 1.5mya
*We can not tell if these fires were man made or natural
Gesher Benot Ya’Aqov: 780,000BP
- Excellent preservation
- Seeds
- Wood and wooden
artefacts - Pitted stones
- Handaxes
- Cleavers
Evidence of fire:
* Burned seeds, wood and flints
* Highly localised
* Multiple signs in separate layers: control
