Wayman’s Hypothesis for the Function of Acheulean Lithics Offers a Better Explanation than Does the Current Thinking

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In Foot Cutters: A New Hypothesis for the Function of Acheulean Bifaces and Related Lithics, Joseph Wayman, Lithic Technology 2010, v35-2, I propose that the predominate toolkit of the Early/Middle Pleistocene were not used as hand tools, but instead were devices used to arm traps intended to damage the feet and lower legs of prey animals so that the animals are unable to escape and can be killed and used as a resource. Though published in a respected journal, the idea has yet to be discussed by the field. My idea should be discussed based on cognitive science philosopher Paul Thagard's method of assessing competing hypotheses. Thagard says that the hypothesis that offers explanations for the most attributes should receive the most attention. His suggestion results in a table with evidence on one axis and explanations for evidence on the other. In this matrix I demonstrate that the current thinking is made of not one but several ideas, and that some attributes in evidence are not covered by any of the current ideas. My idea does offer explanations for all attributes in evidence and therefore out-competes the others. The most coherent idea is mine and should be examined.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52444