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STONE AGE SITE CHALLENGES ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT EARLY TECHNOLOGY
UConn Today , CT
Sept 26 2014
by Tim Miller
Analysis of artifacts from a newly excavated site in Armenia shows
that human technological innovation occurred intermittently throughout
the Old World, rather than spreading from a single point of origin,
as previously thought.
The study, co-authored by UConn archaeology professor Daniel Adler
and more than a dozen scientists from universities worldwide, was
recently published in the journal Science. Adler and his colleagues
examined thousands of stone artifacts retrieved from Nor Geghi 1, a
site on the outskirts of Yerevan, the Armenian capital. The artifacts
were found in sediments between two ancient layers of lava that could
be accurately dated to a period between 325,000 and 350,000 years ago.
The collection comprises stone tools made using two distinct
technologies, an older method called bifacial technology, and a
more advanced method known as Levallois technology. Archaeologists
previously believed that Levallois technology was invented in Africa
and spread to Eurasia with expanding human populations, replacing
local biface technologies. The co-existence of the two technologies at
Nor Geghi 1 provides the first clear evidence that local populations
developed Levallois technology on their own.
"The combination of these different technologies in one place
suggests to us that, about 325,000 years ago, people at the site were
innovative," says Adler. Moreover, the chemical analysis of several
hundred obsidian artifacts shows that humans at the site utilized
obsidian outcrops from as far away as 75 miles, suggesting they must
also have been capable of exploiting large, environmentally diverse
territories.
The paper argues that biface and Levallois technology, while distinct
in many regards, share a common pedigree. In biface technology, a mass
of stone is shaped through the removal of flakes from two surfaces
in order to produce a tool such as a hand axe. The flakes detached
during the manufacture of a biface are treated as waste. In Levallois
technology, a mass of stone is shaped through the removal of flakes in
order to produce a convex surface from which flakes of predetermined
size and shape are detached. The predetermined flakes produced through
Levallois technology are the desired products. Archaeologists suggest
that Levallois technology is optimal in terms of raw material use and
that the predetermined flakes are relatively small and easy to carry.
These were important issues for the highly mobile hunter-gatherers
of the time.
It is the novel combination of the shaping and flaking systems that
distinguishes Levallois from other technologies, and highlights its
evolutionary relationship to biface technology. Based on comparisons
of archaeological data from sites in Africa, the Middle East, and
Europe, the study also demonstrates that this evolution was gradual
and intermittent, and that it occurred independently within different
human populations who shared a common technological ancestry, says
Adler. In other words Levallois technology evolved out of pre-existing
biface technology in different places at different times.
This conclusion challenges the view held by some archaeologists
that technological change resulted from population expansion during
this period.
"If I were to take all the artifacts from the site and show them to
an archaeologist, they would immediately begin to categorize them
into chronologically distinct groups," Adler says. The artifacts
found at Nor Geghi 1, however, reflect the technological flexibility
and variability of a single population during a period of profound
human behavioral and biological change. These results highlight the
antiquity of the human capacity for innovation.
The excavation at Nor Geghi 1, just outside the Armenian capital of
Yerevan, was performed with the help of a number of UConn students,
including undergraduates taking part in UConn's Education Abroad
Field School program.
Major support for the work came from UConn's Norian Armenian Programs
Committee, which was established in 2004 to enhance the longstanding
collaboration between UConn and Armenia's Yerevan State University.
"The successes of the archaeological field school underscore the
importance of high-quality science collaborations with our strategic
global partners," says Daniel Weiner, vice provost for global affairs,
who co-chairs the committee.
Additional funding came from the U.K. Natural Environment Research
Council; the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation; the Irish Research Council;
and the University of Winchester, U.K.
http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2014/09/stone-age-site-challenges-assumptions-about-early-technology/
UConn Today , CT
Sept 26 2014
by Tim Miller
Analysis of artifacts from a newly excavated site in Armenia shows
that human technological innovation occurred intermittently throughout
the Old World, rather than spreading from a single point of origin,
as previously thought.
The study, co-authored by UConn archaeology professor Daniel Adler
and more than a dozen scientists from universities worldwide, was
recently published in the journal Science. Adler and his colleagues
examined thousands of stone artifacts retrieved from Nor Geghi 1, a
site on the outskirts of Yerevan, the Armenian capital. The artifacts
were found in sediments between two ancient layers of lava that could
be accurately dated to a period between 325,000 and 350,000 years ago.
The collection comprises stone tools made using two distinct
technologies, an older method called bifacial technology, and a
more advanced method known as Levallois technology. Archaeologists
previously believed that Levallois technology was invented in Africa
and spread to Eurasia with expanding human populations, replacing
local biface technologies. The co-existence of the two technologies at
Nor Geghi 1 provides the first clear evidence that local populations
developed Levallois technology on their own.
"The combination of these different technologies in one place
suggests to us that, about 325,000 years ago, people at the site were
innovative," says Adler. Moreover, the chemical analysis of several
hundred obsidian artifacts shows that humans at the site utilized
obsidian outcrops from as far away as 75 miles, suggesting they must
also have been capable of exploiting large, environmentally diverse
territories.
The paper argues that biface and Levallois technology, while distinct
in many regards, share a common pedigree. In biface technology, a mass
of stone is shaped through the removal of flakes from two surfaces
in order to produce a tool such as a hand axe. The flakes detached
during the manufacture of a biface are treated as waste. In Levallois
technology, a mass of stone is shaped through the removal of flakes in
order to produce a convex surface from which flakes of predetermined
size and shape are detached. The predetermined flakes produced through
Levallois technology are the desired products. Archaeologists suggest
that Levallois technology is optimal in terms of raw material use and
that the predetermined flakes are relatively small and easy to carry.
These were important issues for the highly mobile hunter-gatherers
of the time.
It is the novel combination of the shaping and flaking systems that
distinguishes Levallois from other technologies, and highlights its
evolutionary relationship to biface technology. Based on comparisons
of archaeological data from sites in Africa, the Middle East, and
Europe, the study also demonstrates that this evolution was gradual
and intermittent, and that it occurred independently within different
human populations who shared a common technological ancestry, says
Adler. In other words Levallois technology evolved out of pre-existing
biface technology in different places at different times.
This conclusion challenges the view held by some archaeologists
that technological change resulted from population expansion during
this period.
"If I were to take all the artifacts from the site and show them to
an archaeologist, they would immediately begin to categorize them
into chronologically distinct groups," Adler says. The artifacts
found at Nor Geghi 1, however, reflect the technological flexibility
and variability of a single population during a period of profound
human behavioral and biological change. These results highlight the
antiquity of the human capacity for innovation.
The excavation at Nor Geghi 1, just outside the Armenian capital of
Yerevan, was performed with the help of a number of UConn students,
including undergraduates taking part in UConn's Education Abroad
Field School program.
Major support for the work came from UConn's Norian Armenian Programs
Committee, which was established in 2004 to enhance the longstanding
collaboration between UConn and Armenia's Yerevan State University.
"The successes of the archaeological field school underscore the
importance of high-quality science collaborations with our strategic
global partners," says Daniel Weiner, vice provost for global affairs,
who co-chairs the committee.
Additional funding came from the U.K. Natural Environment Research
Council; the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation; the Irish Research Council;
and the University of Winchester, U.K.
http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2014/09/stone-age-site-challenges-assumptions-about-early-technology/