全部 标题 作者
关键词 摘要

OALib Journal期刊
ISSN: 2333-9721
费用:99美元

查看量下载量

相关文章

更多...
PLOS ONE  2013 

Earliest Stone-Tipped Projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift Date to >279,000 Years Ago

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0078092

Full-Text   Cite this paper   Add to My Lib

Abstract:

Projectile weapons (i.e. those delivered from a distance) enhanced prehistoric hunting efficiency by enabling higher impact delivery and hunting of a broader range of animals while reducing confrontations with dangerous prey species. Projectiles therefore provided a significant advantage over thrusting spears. Composite projectile technologies are considered indicative of complex behavior and pivotal to the successful spread of Homo sapiens. Direct evidence for such projectiles is thus far unknown from >80,000 years ago. Data from velocity-dependent microfracture features, diagnostic damage patterns, and artifact shape reported here indicate that pointed stone artifacts from Ethiopia were used as projectile weapons (in the form of hafted javelin tips) as early as >279,000 years ago. In combination with the existing archaeological, fossil and genetic evidence, these data isolate eastern Africa as a source of modern cultures and biology.

References

[1]  Churchill SE, Rhodes JA (2009) The evolution of the human capacity for “killing at a distance”: The human fossil evidence for the evolution of projectile weaponry. In: Hublin, J-J, Richards MP, editors. The evolution of hominin diets: Integrating approaches to the study of Paleolithic subsistence. Springer. 201–210.
[2]  Shea JJ (2006) The origins of lithic projectile point technology: Evidence from Africa, the Levant, and Europe. J Archaeol Sci 33: 823–846 doi:10.1016/j.jas.2005.10. 015.
[3]  Shea JJ, Sisk ML (2010) Complex projectile technology and Homo sapiens dispersal into Western Eurasia. PaleoAnthropol: 100–122. doi:10.4207/PA.2010.ART 36.
[4]  Wilkins J, Schoville BJ, Brown KS, Chazan M (2012) Evidence for early hafted hunting technology. Science 338: 942–946 doi:10.1126/science.1227608.
[5]  Thieme H (1997) Lower Paleolithic hunting spears from Germany. Nature 385: 807–810 doi:10.1038/385807a0.
[6]  Brooks AS, Nevell L, Yellen JE, Hartman G (2006). Projectile Technologies of the African MSA: Implications for Modern Human Origins. In: Hovers E., Kuhn SL, editors. Transitions before the transition: Evolution, and stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age. Springer. 233–255.
[7]  Brown KS, Marean CW, Jacobs Z, Schoville BJ, Oestmo S, et al. (2012) An early and enduring advanced technology originating 71,000 years ago in South Africa. Nature 491: 590–593 doi:10.1038/nature11660.
[8]  Rots V, Van Peer P, Vermeersch PM (2011) Aspects of tool production, use, and hafting in Palaeolithic assemblages from Northeast Africa. J Hum Evol 60: 637–664 doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.01.001.
[9]  Lombard M, Phillipson L (2010) Indications of bow and stone-tipped arrow use 64,000 years ago in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Antiq 84: 1–14.
[10]  Tomenchuk J (1985) The development of a wholly parametric use-wear methodology and its application to two selected samples of Epipaleolithic chipped stone tools from Hayonim Cave, Israel [Ph.D. Dissertation]. Toronto: University of Toronto. 4 vol.
[11]  Hutchings WK (2011) Measuring use-related fracture velocity in lithic armatures to identify spears, javelins, darts, and arrows. J Archaeol Sci 38: 1737–1746 doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.03.005.
[12]  Morgan LE, Renne PR (2008) Diachronous dawn of Africa’s Middle Stone Age: New 40Ar/39Ar ages from the Ethiopian Rift. Geol 36: 967–970 doi:10.1130/G25213A.1.
[13]  Sahle Y, Morgan LE, Braun DR, Atnafu B, Hutchings WK (2013) Chronological and behavioral contexts of the earliest Middle Stone Age in the Gademotta Formation, Main Ethiopian Rift. Quat Int doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.03.010.
[14]  Wendorf F, Schild R (1974) A Middle Stone Age sequence from the Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia. Warsaw: Ossolineum. 232 p.
[15]  Renne PR, Balco G, Ludwig KR, Mundil R, Min K (2011) Response to the comment by W.H. Schwarz et al. on “Joint determination of 40K decay constants and 40Ar*/40K for the Fish Canyon sanidine standard, and improved accuracy for 40Ar/39Ar geochronology” by P.R. Renne et al. (2010). Geochim et Cosmochim Acta 75: 5097–5100.
[16]  Brown FH, McDougall I, Fleagle JG (2012) Correlation of the KHS tuff of the Kibish Formation to volcanic ash layers at other sites, and the age of early Homo sapiens (Omo I and Omo II). J Hum Evol 63: 577–585 (2012): doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.05.014.
[17]  Steiger RH, J?ger E (1977) Subcommission on geochronology: Convention on the use of decay constants in geo- and cosmochemistry. Earth Planet Sci Lett 36: 359–362 doi:10.1016/0012-821X(77)90060-7.
[18]  McDougall I, Brown FH, Fleagle JG (2005) Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia. Nature 433: 733–736 doi:10.1038/nature 03258.
[19]  Negash A, Brown FH, Alene M, Nash B (2010) Provenance of Middle Stone Age obsidian artifacts from the central sector of the Main Ethiopian Rift Valley. SINET: Ethiop J Sci 33: 21–30.
[20]  Vogel N, Nomade S, Negash A, Renne PR (2006) Forensic 40Ar/39Ar dating: A provenance study of Middle Stone Age obsidian artifacts from Ethiopia. J Archaeol Sci 33: 1749–1765 doi:10.1016/j.jas.2006.03.008.
[21]  Fischer A, Hansen PV, Rasmussen P (1984) Macro and micro wear traces on lithic projectile points: Experimental results and prehistoric examples. J Danish Archaeol 3: 19–46.
[22]  Sano K (2009) Hunting evidence from stone artefacts from the Magdalenian cave site Bois Laiterie, Belgium: A fracture analysis. Quart?r 56: 67–86.
[23]  Pargeter J (2013) Rock type variability and impact fracture formation: working towards a more robust macrofracture method. J Archaeol Sci 40(11) 4056–4065 doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.05.021.
[24]  Sisk ML, Shea JJ (2011) The African origin of complex projectile technology: An analysis using tip cross-sectional area and perimeter. Int J Evol Biol e968012. doi:10.4061/2011/968012.
[25]  Shea JJ, Davis Z, Brown K (2001) Experimental tests of Middle Paleolithic spear points using a calibrated crossbow. J Archaeol Sci 28: 807–816 doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.01.001.
[26]  Ravi-Chandar K (2004) Dynamic fracture. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 264 p.
[27]  Cotterell B, Kamminga J (1987) The formation of flakes. Am Antiq 52: 675–708.
[28]  Iovita R, Sch?neke? H, Gaudzinski-Windheuser S, J?ger F (2013) Projectile impact fractures and launching mechanisms: results of a controlled ballistic experiment using replica Levallois points. J Archaeol Sci in press. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.01.031.
[29]  Haynes CV (1980) The Clovis culture. Canadian J Anthropol 1: 115–121.
[30]  Villa P, Boscato P, Ranaldo F, Ronchitelli A (2009) Stone tools for the hunt: points with impact scars from a Middle Paleolithic site in southern Italy. J Archaeol Sci 36: 850–859 doi:10.1016/j.jas.2008.11.012.
[31]  Newman K, Moore MW (2013) Ballistically anomalous stone projectile points in Australia. J Archaeol Sci 40: 2614–2620.
[32]  Wurz S (2002) Variability in the Middle Stone Age Lithic Sequence, 115,000–60,000 Years Ago at Klasies River, South Africa. J Archaeol Sci 29: 1001–1015.
[33]  Wendorf F, Schild R (1993) Probable functions of Mousterian points and convergent sidescrapers in the Middle Stone Age of Ethiopia. Quat Nova 3: 39–51.
[34]  Milo RG (1998) Evidence for hominid predation at Klasies River Mouth, South Africa, and its implications for the behaviour of early modern humans. J Archaeol Sci 25: 99–133.
[35]  McBrearty S, Brooks AS (2000) The revolution that wasn’t: A new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. J Hum Evol 39: 453–563 doi:10.1006/jhev.2000.0435.
[36]  Zilh?o J, Angelucci D, Badal-García E, d’Errico F, Daniel F, et al. (2010) Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 107(3) 1023–1028 doi/10.1073/pnas.0914088107.
[37]  Wadley L (2013) Recognizing complex cognition through innovative technology in Stone Age and Palaeolithic sites. Cambridge Archaeol J 23(2): 163–183.
[38]  Klein RG, Edgar B (2002) The Dawn of Human Culture. New York: Wiley. 288 p.
[39]  Fisher SE, Ridley M (2013) Culture, genes, and the human revolution. Science 340: 929–930 doi:10.1126/science.1236171.
[40]  Roach NT, Venkadesan M, Rainbow MJ, Lieberman DE (2013) Elastic energy storage in the shoulder and the evolution of high-speed throwing in Homo. Nature 498: 483–487 doi:10.1038/nature12267.
[41]  Lahr MM, Foley RA (1998) Towards a theory of modern human origins: Geography, demography and diversity in recent human evolution. Yearb Phys Anthropol 41: 137–176.
[42]  Yotova V, Lefebvre JF, Kohany O, Jurka J, Michalski R, et al. (2007) Tracing genetic history of modern humans using X-chromosome lineages. Ann Hum Genet 122: 431–443 doi:10.1007/s00439-007-0413-4.
[43]  Wynn T (2009) Hafted spears and the archaeology of mind. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 106(24): 9544–9545. doi_10.1073_pnas.0904369106.
[44]  Powell A, Shennan S, Thomas MG (2009) Late Pleistocene demography and the appearance of modern human behavior. Science 324: 1298–1301 doi:10.1126/science.1170165.
[45]  Bo?da E, Geneste JM, Griggo C, Mercier N, Muhesen S, et al. (1999) A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting weapons. Antiq 73: 394–402.
[46]  Brooks A, Leslie D (in press) Recognizing and characterizing projectiles armatures in the early Middle Stone Age of Africa. In: Iovita R, Sano K, editors. Multidisciplinary approaches to the study of Stone Age weaponry. Springer.
[47]  Shea JJ (2011) Homo sapiens is as Homo sapiens was: Behavioral variability versus “behavioral modernity” in Paleolithic Archaeology. Current Anthropol 52: 1–35 doi:10.1086/658067.
[48]  Wadley L, Hodgskiss T, Grant M (2009) Implications for complex cognition from the hafting of tools with compound adhesives in the Middle Stone Age, South Africa. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 106(24): 9590–9594. doi_10.1073_pnas.0900957106.
[49]  Lombard M, Haidle MN (2012) Thinking a bow-and-arrow set: Cognitive implications of Middle Stone Age bow and stone-tipped arrow technology. Cambridge Archaeol J 22(2): 237–264.
[50]  Shea JJ (2008) The Middle Stone Age archaeology of the Lower Omo Valley Kibish Formation: Excavations, lithic assemblages and inferred patterns of early Homo sapiens behavior. J Hum Evol 55: 448–485 doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.05.014.
[51]  Brown KS, Marean CW, Herries AIR, Jacobs Z, Tribolo C, et al. (2009) Fire as an engineering tool of early modern humans. Science 325: 859–862 doi:10.1126/science.1175028.
[52]  Henshilwood CS, d’Errico F, van Niekerk KL, Coquinot Y, Jacobs Z, et al. (2011) A 100,000-year-old ochre-processing workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science 334: 219–222.
[53]  Basell LS (2008) Middle Stone Age (MSA) site distributions in eastern Africa and their relationship to Quaternary environmental change, refugia and the evolution of Homo sapiens. Quat Sci Rev 27: 2484–2498 doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.09.010.
[54]  White TD, Asfaw B, DeGusta D, Gilbert H, Richards GD, et al. (2003) Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Nature 423: 742–747 doi:10.1038/nature01669.
[55]  Clark JD, Beyene Y, WoldeGabriel G, Hart WK, Renne PR, et al. (2003) Stratigraphic, chronological and behavioural contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, Nature. 423: 747–752 doi:10.1038/nature01670.
[56]  Negash A, Brown FH, Nash B (2011) Varieties and sources of artifactual obsidian in the Middle Stone Age of the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Archaeom 53: 661–673 doi:10.1111/j.1475-4754.2010.00579.x.
[57]  Walter RC, Buffler RT, Bruggemann JH, Guillaum MMM, Berhe SM, et al. (2000) Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the last interglacial. Nature 405: 65–69 doi:10.1038/35011048.
[58]  Kurashina H (1978) An examination of prehistoric lithic technology in east-central Ethiopia [PhD dissertation]. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley. 676 p.
[59]  Yellen J, Brooks A, Helgren D, Tappen M, Ambrose S, et al. (2005) The archaeology of Aduma Middle Stone Age sites in the Awash Valley, Ethiopia. PaleoAnthropol 25–100.
[60]  Beyin A (2013) A surface Middle Stone Age assemblage from the Red Sea coast of Eritrea: Implications for Upper Pleistocene human dispersals out of Africa. Quat Int 300 195–212 doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.02.015.
[61]  Rose JI, Usik VI, Marks AE, Hilbert YH, Galletti CS, et al. The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age industry in southern Arabia. PLoS ONE 6, e28239. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028239.
[62]  Shea JJ (2012) “Early” symbolic material culture in South Africa: A comment on Henshilwood and Dubreuil. Current Anthropol 53(1): 130–131 doi:10.1086/663334.
[63]  Soares P, Alshamali F, Pereira JB, Fernandes V, Silva NM, et al. (2012) The expansion of mtDNA Haplogroup L3 within and out of Africa. Mol Biol Evol 29: 915–927 doi:10.1093/molbev/msr245.

Full-Text

Contact Us

service@oalib.com

QQ:3279437679

WhatsApp +8615387084133