An investigation proves that they can be built without cultural transmission
Our Stone Age ancestors were not becoming human, they could only make flint tools. A controversial experiment with contemporary humans proves that making stone tools can be achieved without previous cultural models.
Research carried out at the University of Tübingen has reached a controversial conclusion about early cultural heritage in human evolution.
Until now it has been considered that at the beginning of the Stone Age, when the first stone tools were created, there were technical and behavioral innovations in which our current culture sinks its roots.
However, the new research considers that the archaeologically excavated stone tools, some as old as 2.6 million years, do not necessarily indicate that a human culture was being generated at that time, properly speaking.
It only shows that our prehistoric ancestors had the ability to make these tools, but it does not certify that they were already becoming human, mentally and culturally, as has been considered until now.
current experiment
To reach this conclusion, Claudius Tennie Y William Snyderfrom the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the aforementioned German university, have tested this traditional interpretation of human culture in a study funded by the European Research Council.
They asked 28 participants (local adults, who did not study archaeology) to open a locked box containing monetary rewards.
To achieve this, they had at their disposal raw materials equivalent to what our ancestors might have used: a hemisphere of painted glass, a medium-sized river pebble, and a large block of granite.
None of the participants received information about the possible use of these tools, let alone demonstrations. They could use them in any way they saw fit to break a rope that kept the box closed.
new tools
The researchers found that most of the participants innovated and proceeded to make and use the resulting tools to cut the rope that closed the puzzle box.
They also discovered that all the production techniques of the first stone tools were reinvented on the spot, from scratch, among the participants.
This finding has led them to conclude that inventing stone tools (flint) is not difficult and that it can be achieved without having previous models to imitate, which would imply taking advantage of a form of cultural transmission.
“That stone tools existed 2.6 million years ago is not irrefutable proof that our ancestors in the first Stone Age had a culture like ours & rdquor ;, summarizes Snyder. “Now we must look to later time periods to determine the origin of modern human culture,” he concludes.
controversial conclusions
Felipe Cuartero Monteagudoa technician at the Laboratory of Experimental Archeology and Taphonomy of the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (CENIEH), is not so sure.
Speaking to SMC, he considers that none of the participants could ignore the sharp nature of glass, so their ability cannot be considered to be comparable to that of our ancestors.
He also questions the raw materials provided to the volunteers, since he considers that they are not fully representative of the materials available to our ancestors.
It would have to be reconsidered
He adds, however, that, despite this bias on the choice of materials in the approach to the experiment, it is plausible to suppose that the processes of reinvention of a simple technology such as that of African prehistory took place on some occasion without the need for a natural component, “although the experiment, in my opinion, does not manage to demonstrate it with sufficient solvency & rdquor ;, qualifies Cuartero.
The experimentation on the behavior of current individuals simulating past needs and solutions has little relevance and should have been done in another way so that the result was more consistent, he concludes.
Reference
Early knapping techniques do not require cultural transmission. William D. Snyder et al. Science Advances, 6 Jul 2022, Vol 8, Issue 27. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo2894