Hominin cognition across the Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic transition

Summary

In 2013 I suggested that changes in behaviour at a transitional Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic site in India were characterized by increases in generativity, hierarchical organization and recursion, and that the transition was perhaps underpinned by improved working memory. Here I present the results of a knapping experiment that compares the recursive and hierarchical complexity of Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic knapping sequences in order to test this claim. I then look at how differences in Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic cognition are manifested at the landscape level by comparing two remarkable preserved Paleolithic landscapes in the Arabian Desert: Dawadmi and Jubbah. The tools transported, the areas on the landscape used, and the degree of reduction intensity are contrasted between the two periods. I conclude that there are demonstrable differences between Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic hominins in behaviours that may relate to working memory, and speculate that this transition in human evolution might reflect the origins of narrative communication.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Cognitive Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage