ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2015
Variability in an early hominin percussive tradition: the Acheulean versus cultural variation in modern chimpanzee artefacts.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Article
- Article
- The origins of the Acheulean: past and present perspectives on a major transition in human evolution.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Percussive technology in human evolution: an introduction to a comparative approach in fossil and living primates.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015Article
- Experimental studies illuminate the cultural transmission of percussive technologies in Homo and Pan.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2015Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Percussion makes a vital link between the activities of early human ancestors and other animals in tool-use and tool-making. Far more of the early human actions are preserved as archaeology, since the percussion was largely used for making hard tools of stone, rather than for direct access to food. Both primate tools and early hominin tools, however, offer a means to exploring variability in material culture, a strong focus of interest in recent primate studies. This paper charts such variability in the Acheulean, the longest-lasting tool tradition, extant form about 1.7 to about 0.1 Ma, and well known for its characteristic handaxes. The paper concentrates on the African record, although the Acheulean was also known in Europe and Asia. It uses principal components and discriminant analysis to examine the measurements from 66 assemblages (whole toolkits), and from 18 sets of handaxes. Its review of evidence confirms that there is deep-seated pattern in the variation, with variability within a site complex often matching or exceeding that between sites far distant in space and time. Current techniques of study allow comparisons of handaxes far more easily than for other components, stressing a need to develop common practice in measurement and analysis. The data suggest, however, that a higher proportion of traits recurs widely in Acheulean toolkits than in the chimpanzee record.
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