The fossil record reveals a significant leap in stone tool complexity around 600,000 years ago, indicating a sudden increase in hominin knowledge. This development played a crucial role in the ability of modern humans and our ancestors to adapt effectively to new environments. According to University of Missouri anthropologist Jonathan Paige and Arizona State University anthropologist Charles Perreault, this advancement could potentially predate the separation of Neanderthals and modern humans, serving as a shared characteristic of both lineages.
Paige and Perreault conducted a comprehensive analysis of stone tool manufacturing techniques spanning 3.3 million years of human evolution. They evaluated 62 tool-making sequences based on their complexity, ranked in order, across 57 archaeological sites worldwide. While the oldest artifact originated in Africa, ancient tools from various regions such as Eurasia, Greenland, Sahul, Oceania, and the Americas were included in the study. The researchers observed that prior to 1.8 million years ago, stone tool manufacture sequences typically consisted of two to four procedural units. However, over the subsequent 1.2 million years, there was a notable increase in tool complexity, with sequences extending to up to seven procedural units.
Around 600,000 years ago, a groundbreaking shift occurred in the complexity of stone tools. At this point, tool manufacturing processes required up to 18 procedural units, indicating a significant advancement in technological capabilities. Paige and Perreault suggest that such a remarkable development was made possible by the transmission of knowledge across generations, creating a cumulative culture. Subsequent generations continued to enhance point stone tool complexity at a rapid pace, reinforcing the concept of cumulative culture.
Cumulative culture involves the accumulation of modifications, innovations, and improvements over generations through social learning. This iterative process enables populations to solve problems through trial and error, similar to how evolution operates through random mutations and natural selection. Additionally, cumulative culture allows individuals to utilize and improve upon technologies without having to grasp every aspect of their inception, leading to an expanding pool of knowledge. As this collective knowledge grows, genes related to learning may have been selected for, resulting in characteristics such as increased brain size, prolonged life history, and other essential traits unique to humans.
While the researchers’ findings provide evidence of cumulative culture during the Middle Pleistocene, they acknowledge that such cultural intelligence may have emerged even earlier in human history in ways that are not as easily preserved archaeologically. Early hominins may have relied on cumulative culture to develop complex social, foraging, and technological behaviors that are not readily visible in the archaeological record. Regardless of the specific timeline or technological advancements, the reliance on cumulative culture likely played a crucial role in shaping many of the distinctive features of humanity.
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