Behavioral Modernity (or Lack Thereof) and Its Reflection in Lithic Assemblages

Summary

One of the most important methodological issues facing modern paleoanthropology is the so far failed matching of archaeological material with specific hominins, at least at the metapopulation level. Due largely to the plethora of scenarios produced by genetic and genomic data in the last few years, the demand for archaeological confirmation or refutation of diverse dispersal scenarios has increased. Yet our understanding of lithic assemblages is not sufficiently nuanced to answer these questions. This is compounded by research bias in some of the places of likely contact between multiple species/metapopulations, such as Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. We review the history of key definitional concepts, such as Levallois and prepared-core technology, blades and bladelets, as well as retouch intensity and tool diversity in the context of shifting fossil identities of their makers. We ponder the effect of ecology, taphonomy, and function in determining our studiable units, and propose that the answer to separating populations probably depends on multiple lines of evidence that preserve different life ways rather than individual strands of material culture. We abstract from examples of contact situations from the historical record (albeit between members of our own species) and discuss their potential outcomes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21460