1st Edition

The Evolution of Paleolithic Technologies

By Steven L. Kuhn Copyright 2020
    432 Pages 76 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    432 Pages 76 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Evolution of Paleolithic Technologies provides a novel perspective on long-term trajectories of evolutionary change in Paleolithic tools and tool-makers.

    Members of the human lineage have been producing stone tools for more than 3 million years. These artefacts provide key evidence for important evolutionary developments in hominin behaviour and cognition. Avoiding conventional approaches based on progressive stages of development, this book instead examines global trends in six separate dimensions of technological behaviour between 2.6 million and 10,000 years ago. Combining these independent trends results in both a broader and a more finely punctuated perspective on key intervals of change in hominin behaviour. To draw this picture together, the concluding section explores behavioural, cognitive, and demographic implications of developments in material culture and technological procedures at seven key intervals during the Pleistocene.

    Researchers interested in Paleolithic archaeology will find this book invaluable. It will also be of interest to archaeologists researching stone tool technology and to students of human evolution and behavioural change in prehistory.

    List of Figures

    List of Tables

    Chapter 1: Introduction

    Chapter 2: Thinking about technological evolution

    Chapter 3: Parts and wholes

    Chapter 4. Raw material economies

    Chapter 5: Artefacts as information

    Chapter 6: Identifying design

    Chapter 7: Diversity

    Chapter 8: Artefact complexity

    Chapter 9: Synthesis - trends, tendencies and entrenchments

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Steven L. Kuhn is Riecker Distinguished Professor in the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona. He has conducted research on Paleolithic sites and stone artefacts in Turkey, Mediterranean Europe, the Levant, Morocco, and China. With his wife and frequent collaborator, Dr. Mary Stiner, Dr. Kuhn has also published on the evolution of human societies and symbolic behaviour during the Pleistocene.