Prehistoric
Acheulean
Acheulean ; also Acheulian and Mode II ) ,from the French acheuléen, it is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand-axes" associated with early humans. Acheulean tools were produced during the Lower Palaeolithic era across Africa and much of West Asia, South Asia, and Europe, and are typpically found with Homo erectus remains. It is thought that Acheulean technologies first developed in Africa out of the more primitive Oldowan technology as long as 1.76 million year ago, by Homo habilis.
Acheulean tools were the domainant technology for the vast majority of human history
John Frere is generally credited as being the first to suggest a very ancient date for Acheulean hand-axes. In 1797, he sent two examples to the Royal Academy in London from Hoxne in suffolk. He had found them in prehistoric lake deposits along with the bones of extinct animals a and concluded that they were made by people "who had not the use of metals" and that they belonged to a "very ancient period indeed, even beyond the present world". His ideas were, however, ignored by his contemporaries, who subscribed to a pre-Darwinian view of human evolution.( citation needed )later, Jacques Boucher de Crévecoeur de Perthes, working between 1836 and 1846, collected further examples of hand-axes and fossilised animal bone from the gravel river terraces of the somme near Abbeville in northern france. Again, his theories attributing great antiquity to the finds were spurned by his colleagues, until one of de Perthe's main opponents, Dr Marcel Jérome Rigollot, began finding more tools near Saint Acheul by the geologist Joseph Prestwich, the age of the tools was finally accepted. ( citation needed )
In 1872, Louis laurent Gabriel de Mortillet described the characteristic hand-axe tools as belonging to L'Epoque de St Acheulean in 1925. ( citation needed )
Acheulean tools were the domainant technology for the vast majority of human history
History of research
The type site for the Acheulean is Saint-Acheul, a suburb of Amiens, the capital of the Somme department in Picardy, where artifacts were found in 1859.John Frere is generally credited as being the first to suggest a very ancient date for Acheulean hand-axes. In 1797, he sent two examples to the Royal Academy in London from Hoxne in suffolk. He had found them in prehistoric lake deposits along with the bones of extinct animals a and concluded that they were made by people "who had not the use of metals" and that they belonged to a "very ancient period indeed, even beyond the present world". His ideas were, however, ignored by his contemporaries, who subscribed to a pre-Darwinian view of human evolution.( citation needed )later, Jacques Boucher de Crévecoeur de Perthes, working between 1836 and 1846, collected further examples of hand-axes and fossilised animal bone from the gravel river terraces of the somme near Abbeville in northern france. Again, his theories attributing great antiquity to the finds were spurned by his colleagues, until one of de Perthe's main opponents, Dr Marcel Jérome Rigollot, began finding more tools near Saint Acheul by the geologist Joseph Prestwich, the age of the tools was finally accepted. ( citation needed )
In 1872, Louis laurent Gabriel de Mortillet described the characteristic hand-axe tools as belonging to L'Epoque de St Acheulean in 1925. ( citation needed )
Dating the Acheulean
An Acheulean handaxe, Haute-Garonne France -MHNT
providing calendrical dates and ordered chronological sequences in the study of early stone tool manufacture is often potassium-argon dating, and magnetostratigraphy. From the konso Formation of Ethiopia Acheulean hand-axes are dated to about 1.5 million years ago using radiometric dating of deposits containing volcanic ashes.Acheulean tools in south Asia have also been found to be dated as far as 1.5
million year ago. However, the earliest accepted examples of the Acheulean currently known come from the West Turkana region of kenya and were first described by french-led arechaeology team. These particular Acheulean tools was homo ergaster, who first appeared about 1.8 million year ago. Not all researchers use this formal name, and instead prefer to call these users early Homo erectus.
From geological dating of sedimentry deposits, it appears that the Acheulean originated in Africa and spread to Asian, Middle Eastern, and European areas sometime between 1.5 million years ago and about 800 thousand years ago .
In individual regions, this dating can be considerably refind; in Europe for example, it was thought that Acheulean methods did not reach the contient until around 500,000 years ago. However more recent research demonstrated that hand-axes from Spain were made more than 900,000 year ago.
Relative dating techniques ( based on a presumption that technology progresses over time) suggest that Acheulean tools followed on from earlier, cruder tool-making methods, but there is considerable chronolgical overlap in early prehistoric stone-working industries, with evidence in some regions that Acheulean tool-using groups were contemporary with other, less sophisticated Mousterian, as well. It is therefore important not to see the Acheulean as a neartly defined period or one that happend as part of a clear sequence but as one tool-making technique also makes the name unwieldy as it represents numerous regional variations on a similar theme. The term Acheulean does not represent a common culture in the modern sense, rather it is a basic method for making stone tools that was shared across much of the Old World.
They very earliest Acheulean assemblages often contain numerous Oldowan-style flakes and core forms and it is almost certainly transitional between the Oldwan and Acheulean.
million year ago. However, the earliest accepted examples of the Acheulean currently known come from the West Turkana region of kenya and were first described by french-led arechaeology team. These particular Acheulean tools was homo ergaster, who first appeared about 1.8 million year ago. Not all researchers use this formal name, and instead prefer to call these users early Homo erectus.
From geological dating of sedimentry deposits, it appears that the Acheulean originated in Africa and spread to Asian, Middle Eastern, and European areas sometime between 1.5 million years ago and about 800 thousand years ago .
In individual regions, this dating can be considerably refind; in Europe for example, it was thought that Acheulean methods did not reach the contient until around 500,000 years ago. However more recent research demonstrated that hand-axes from Spain were made more than 900,000 year ago.
Relative dating techniques ( based on a presumption that technology progresses over time) suggest that Acheulean tools followed on from earlier, cruder tool-making methods, but there is considerable chronolgical overlap in early prehistoric stone-working industries, with evidence in some regions that Acheulean tool-using groups were contemporary with other, less sophisticated Mousterian, as well. It is therefore important not to see the Acheulean as a neartly defined period or one that happend as part of a clear sequence but as one tool-making technique also makes the name unwieldy as it represents numerous regional variations on a similar theme. The term Acheulean does not represent a common culture in the modern sense, rather it is a basic method for making stone tools that was shared across much of the Old World.
They very earliest Acheulean assemblages often contain numerous Oldowan-style flakes and core forms and it is almost certainly transitional between the Oldwan and Acheulean.
Mousterian
The Mousterian ( or Mode III) is a techno-complex (arechaeological industry) of flint tools associated primarily with Neanderthals, as well as with the earliest anatomically modern humans in Eurasia. The Mousterian largely defines the latter part of the Middle Paleolithic, the middle of the West Eurasian Old stone Age . It lasted roughly from 160,000 BP to 0,000 BP.
Aterian
The Aterian is a Middle Stone Age (or Middle Palaeolithic) stone tool industry centered in the Tamazgha, but also possibly found in Oman and the Thar Desert. The earliest Aterian dates to c.15,000 year ago, at the site of Ifri n'Ammar in Morocco. However, most of the early dates cluster around the beginining of the Last Interglacial, around 10,000 year ago, when the enivironment of North Africa began to ameliorate. The Aterian disappeared around 0,000 year ago and it is currently not thought to have influenced subsequent archaeological cultures in the region.
The Aterian is primarily distinguished through the presence of tanged or pedunculated tools, and is named after the type site of Bir el Ater, south of tanged or pedunculated tools, and is named after the type site of Bir el Ater, south of Annaba. Bifacially-worked, leaf-shaped tools are also a common artefact type in Aterian assemblages, and so are racloirs and Levallois flakes and cores . Item of personnal adornment ( pierced and ochred Nassarius shell beads) are known from at least one Aterian site ,with an age of 82,000 years. The Aterian is one of the oldest examples of regional technological diversification, evidencing significant differentiation to older stone tool industries in the area, frequently described as Mousterian . The appropriateness of the term Mousterian is contested in a North African context, however.
The technological character of the Aterian has been debated for almost a century, but has until recently eluded definition . The problems defining the industry have related to its research history and the fact that a number of similarities have been observed between the Aterian and other North African stone tool industries of the same date. Levallois reduction is widespread across the whole of North Africa throughout Middle Stone Age, and scrapers and denticulates are ubiquitous. Bifacial foliates moreover represent a huge taxonomic category and the form and dimension of such foliates associated with tanged tools is extremely varied. There is also a significant variation of tanged tools themselves, with various forms representing both different tool types (e.g., knives , scrapers, points ) and the degree tool resharpening.
More recently, a large-scale study of North African stone tool assemblages, indicated that the traditional concept of stone tool industries is problematic in the North African Middle Stone Age. Although the term Ateri an defines Middle Stone Age assemblages from North Africa with tanged tools, the concept of an Aterian industry obfuscates other similarities between tanged tool assemblages of the same date. For example , bifacial leaf points are found widely across North Africa in assemblages that lack tanged tools and Levallois flakes and cores are near ubiquitous . Instead of elaborating discrete industries, the findings of the comparative study sugget that North Africa during the Last Interglacial comprised a network of related technologies whose similarities and differences correlated with geographical distance and the palaeohydrlogy of a Green Sahara .
The Aterian is primarily distinguished through the presence of tanged or pedunculated tools, and is named after the type site of Bir el Ater, south of tanged or pedunculated tools, and is named after the type site of Bir el Ater, south of Annaba. Bifacially-worked, leaf-shaped tools are also a common artefact type in Aterian assemblages, and so are racloirs and Levallois flakes and cores . Item of personnal adornment ( pierced and ochred Nassarius shell beads) are known from at least one Aterian site ,with an age of 82,000 years. The Aterian is one of the oldest examples of regional technological diversification, evidencing significant differentiation to older stone tool industries in the area, frequently described as Mousterian . The appropriateness of the term Mousterian is contested in a North African context, however.
The technological character of the Aterian has been debated for almost a century, but has until recently eluded definition . The problems defining the industry have related to its research history and the fact that a number of similarities have been observed between the Aterian and other North African stone tool industries of the same date. Levallois reduction is widespread across the whole of North Africa throughout Middle Stone Age, and scrapers and denticulates are ubiquitous. Bifacial foliates moreover represent a huge taxonomic category and the form and dimension of such foliates associated with tanged tools is extremely varied. There is also a significant variation of tanged tools themselves, with various forms representing both different tool types (e.g., knives , scrapers, points ) and the degree tool resharpening.
More recently, a large-scale study of North African stone tool assemblages, indicated that the traditional concept of stone tool industries is problematic in the North African Middle Stone Age. Although the term Ateri an defines Middle Stone Age assemblages from North Africa with tanged tools, the concept of an Aterian industry obfuscates other similarities between tanged tool assemblages of the same date. For example , bifacial leaf points are found widely across North Africa in assemblages that lack tanged tools and Levallois flakes and cores are near ubiquitous . Instead of elaborating discrete industries, the findings of the comparative study sugget that North Africa during the Last Interglacial comprised a network of related technologies whose similarities and differences correlated with geographical distance and the palaeohydrlogy of a Green Sahara .
Iberomaurusian
The Iberomaurusian ("of Iberia and Mauritania"; it was once belived that it extended into Spain ) is a backed bladelet lithic industry found throughot North Africa. Its name, meaning "of Iberia and Mauritania" , is based on Pallary (1909)'s belief that it extended over the strait of Gilbraltar into Spain and Portugal, a theory now generally discounted (Garrod 198).
Pallary (1909) originally described the industry based on material found at the site of Abri Mouillah. Because the name of the Iberomaurusian assumes a cultural contact that might not have existed, other names have been proposed, including "Mechta-Afalou" , "Mouillian" and "Oranian" . ''''Yet, at least to the West of Libya, none of these terms have supplanted what already in 196, Tixier called the "deplorable and deplored term "Orania" has become popular in Libya where sites are described as "eastern Orania" (where "western Orania",which is not used would be what in Morocco, Algeria ,and Tunisia is called Iberomaurusian).
Recent fieldwork indicates that the Iberomaurusian culture existed in the region from around the timing of the last Glacial Maximum (LGM), at 20,000 BP , until the Younger Dryas.The industry is succeseeded by the Capasian culture, which was originally thought to have spread into the Maghreb from the Near East. However, later studies suggest that the Iberomaurusian may have been the progenitors of the Capsian.
Although modern population in the Maghreb speak languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family, which is associated with the capasian culture, it has been hypothesized that the capsians' predecessors, the Iberomaurusians, may have spoken a languge(s) from a different phylum. This was inferred from the likelihood that the Iberomaurusians existed prior to the advent of the Proto-Afro-Asiatic language, as well as from the presence of what apears to be an older, pre-Afro-Asiatic population substramtum in parts of the Atlas Mountains. Despite suggestions that this minor element may be related to the Basques of southwestern Europe, there appear to be no vestiges of a Basque linguistic influence in the region.
Although modern population in the Maghreb speak languages belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family, which is associated with the capasian culture, it has been hypothesized that the capsians' predecessors, the Iberomaurusians, may have spoken a languge(s) from a different phylum. This was inferred from the likelihood that the Iberomaurusians existed prior to the advent of the Proto-Afro-Asiatic language, as well as from the presence of what apears to be an older, pre-Afro-Asiatic population substramtum in parts of the Atlas Mountains. Despite suggestions that this minor element may be related to the Basques of southwestern Europe, there appear to be no vestiges of a Basque linguistic influence in the region.
Capsian culture
The Capsian culture was a Mesolithic culture centered in the Maghreb, which lasted from about 10,000 to 6,000 BCE. It was named after the town of Gafsa in Tuniian sia, which was Capsa in Roman times.
The Capsian industry was concentrated mainly in modern Tunsia and Algeria , with some lithic sites attested in southern Spain to Sicity. It is traditionally divided into two horizons, the Capsien supérieur (Upper Capsian), which are sometimes found in chronostratigraphic sequence. They represent variants of one tradition, the differences between them being both typological and technological.
During this period, the environment of the Maghreb was open savanna, much like modern East Africa, with Mediterranean forests at higher altitudes. The capasian diet included a wide variety of animals, raniging from aurochs and hartebeest to hares and snails; there is little evidence concerning plants eaten. During the succeeding Neolithic of Capsian Tradition, there is evidence from one site, for domesticated, probably imported, ovicaprids.
continuity been Morocans, Caspians and Natufians.
The Capsian industry was concentrated mainly in modern Tunsia and Algeria , with some lithic sites attested in southern Spain to Sicity. It is traditionally divided into two horizons, the Capsien supérieur (Upper Capsian), which are sometimes found in chronostratigraphic sequence. They represent variants of one tradition, the differences between them being both typological and technological.
During this period, the environment of the Maghreb was open savanna, much like modern East Africa, with Mediterranean forests at higher altitudes. The capasian diet included a wide variety of animals, raniging from aurochs and hartebeest to hares and snails; there is little evidence concerning plants eaten. During the succeeding Neolithic of Capsian Tradition, there is evidence from one site, for domesticated, probably imported, ovicaprids.
continuity been Morocans, Caspians and Natufians.
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