Sharma Centre for Heritage Education India

Abstract Technological strategies for biface manufacture adopted during the Acheulean represent a significant shift in the Lower Palaeolithic. The appearance of intentional bifacial shaping indicates the imposition of form on stone tools not seen previously. Despite this importance, there is considerable scope for research into hominin decision-making while factoring in the differential properties of varied raw materials. Here, we discuss the results of an experimental knapping program of Acheulean handaxes on Naibor Soit quartzites (NSQ), aiming at investigating technological strategies observed at the Lower Floor TK Site (TKLF), Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. We examine the unique properties of the NSQ raw material and the challenges faced during knapping slabs at various stages of the handaxe reduction sequence. We explore how the selection and extraction of suitable slabs for handaxe manufacture and the impact of specific geological structures within this raw material determine the final artefact form. We note the effect this had on the need for careful choices in selecting suitable slabs at the raw material sources based on considerations of the properties of the slab, thickness, and width, amongst other factors. Functional requirements and the NSQ slabs’ properties influenced strategies adopted for handaxe façonnage and the final tool morphology. We discuss choices made by Acheulean toolmakers when they adopted freehand and bipolar knapping techniques. These decisions can be identified through the nature of the debitage generated and the organization of flake scars on handaxes. We suggest that Acheulean hominins displayed high skill levels and evolved knapping strategies. These strategies allowed them to adapt to the complex task of implementing specific shaping techniques on NSQ slabs. This provides one of the few experimental studies that directly explore the impact of the particular requirements of flaking quartzites during the Acheulean. This study contributes to understanding the diversity of strategies and behavioral flexibility exhibited by Acheulean hominins. Highlights • Experimental knapping of handaxes on Naibor Soit quartzite (NSQ) slabs, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. • Reproduction of the reduction sequence used for handaxe façonnage on slabs at the Acheulean level of Lower Occupation Floor in Thiongo Korongo site (TKLF). • Investigating decision-making at various stages of the handaxe reduction sequence. • Issues related to the NSQ, leading to breakage and steps adopted by the knapper to control for the same. • Inferences on Acheulean technological abilities based on experimental studies and knapping decisions at stages in the reduction sequence.

Luminescence dating at the stratified prehistoric site of Attirampakkam, India, has shown that processes signifying the end of the Acheulian culture and the emergence of a Middle Palaeolithic culture occurred at 385 ± 64 thousand years ago (ka), much earlier than conventionally presumed for South Asia. The Middle Palaeolithic continued at Attirampakkam until 172 ± 41 ka. Chronologies of Middle Palaeolithic technologies in regions distant from Africa and Europe are crucial for testing theories about the origins and early evolution of these cultures, and for understanding their association with modern humans or archaic hominins, their links with preceding Acheulian cultures and the spread of Levallois lithic technologies. The geographic location of India and its rich Middle Palaeolithic record are ideally suited to addressing these issues, but progress has been limited by the paucity of excavated sites and hominin fossils as well as by geochronological constraints. At Attirampakkam, the gradual disuse of bifaces, the predominance of small tools, the appearance of distinctive and diverse Levallois flake and point strategies, and the blade component all highlight a notable shift away from the preceding Acheulian large-flake technologies. These findings document a process of substantial behavioural change that occurred in India at 385 ± 64 ka and establish its contemporaneity with similar processes recorded in Africa and Europe. This suggests complex interactions between local developments and ongoing global transformations. Together, these observations call for a re-evaluation of models that restrict the origins of Indian Middle Palaeolithic culture to the incidence of modern human dispersals after approximately 125 ka.

Remains of the highly nutritious aquatic plant Fox nut -Euryale ferox Salisb.