Martín-Ramos, Carmen; (2023) Acheulean technology and hominin cognition. Analysis of Large Cutting Tools from Olduvai Gorge Beds III and IV, Tanzania. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Stone toolmaking has proven to be essential in the study of human evolution. In Cognitive Archaeology, lithic studies have played a key role ever since the beginning of the discipline and the development of the first linguistic models. In the case of the Acheulean techno-complex, concepts such as innovation, imposition of arbitrary form and artefact variability have been linked to cognitive traits such as forward planning, spatial intelligence, self-recognition or symmetry perception. The purpose of this thesis is to further explore the links between Acheulean technology and hominins’ working memory capacity, specifically through the examination of the technological strategies employed in the manufacture of Large Cutting Tools through problem-solution distance modelling. This doctoral thesis consists of a first-hand assessment of LCTs excavated between 1969 and 1971 by Mary Leakey and colleagues at Olduvai Beds III-IV, representing therefore the first re-evaluation of such lithic remains since they were first reported in 1994. The analysis performed here identifies a sudden increase in the number of LCTs from Olduvai Beds III and IV, particularly from the Lower of Bed IV onwards. The general increase in the number of LCTs, especially marked among cleavers, is parallel to the increase in the use of flake blanks from the Base of Bed IV onwards, and to the progressive development of newly, diversified and standardised core preparation techniques across Lower and Upper Bed IV. Ultimately, this research identifies substantial diachronic changes in technological complexity, which are thought to have occurred as an adaptative response to the isotropy, shape and size of the local raw material boulders. This analysis suggests that the cognitive skills of hominins within Bed III were similar to those at Bed II, but that a considerable and likely progressive increase in working memory capacity might have taken place throughout Bed IV.

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