Hominid Individual in Context: Archaeological Investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts

347 Pages·2005·10.78 MB·English

by  Clive Gamble

The Hominid Individual in Context
This volume explores new approaches to the remarkably detailed information
that archaeologists have for the study of our earliest ancestors. Previous inves-
tigations of human evolution in the Palaeolithic period have conventionally
been from an ecological and behavioural point of view. The emphasis has been
on how our early ancestors made a living, decided what to eat, adapted through
their technology to the conditions of existence and reacted to changing ice age
climates. The Hominid Individual in Context takes a different approach.
Rather than explaining the archaeology of stones and bones as the product
of group decisions, the contributors investigate how individual action created
social life. This challenge to the accepted standpoint of the Palaeolithic brings
new models and theories into the period; innovations that are matched by
the resolution of the data that preserve individual action among the artefacts.
The book brings together examples from recent excavations at Boxgrove,
Schöningen and Blombos Cave, and the analyses of findings from Middle and
Early Upper Pleistocene excavations in Europe, Africa and Asia. The results
will revolutionise the Palaeolithic as archaeologists search for the lived lives
among the empty spaces that remain.
Clive Gambleis Professor of Geography in the Centre for Quaternary Research
at Royal Holloway, University of London. He spent many years at the University
of Southampton, where he founded the Centre for the Archaeology of Human
Origins. He is the author of many books, including Archaeology, The Basics
(Routledge, 2001), and The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe (1999).
Martin Porr is based at the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle,
Germany. There he has been involved as a project manager for the high-profile
exhibition of the Bronze Age Sky Disc of Nebra, in co-operation with the
National Museum of Denmark.

The Hominid Individual
in Context
Archaeological investigations
of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic
landscapes, locales and artefacts
Edited by Clive Gamble
and Martin Porr
First published 2005
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2005 Clive Gamble and Martin Porr for selection and editorial material;
individual contributors for their contributions
© Karol Schauer cover illustration
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The hominid individual in context : archaeological investigations of
lower and middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales, and artefacts /
edited by Clive Gamble and Martin Porr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Paleolithic period. 2. Fossil hominids. 3. Human evolution.
4. Social evolution. 5. Hominids. I. Gamble, Clive. II. Porr, Martin.
GN771.I53 2005
930.1′2–dc21
2004014096
ISBN 0-203-00769-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0–415–28432–5 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–28433–3 (pbk)
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables xi
List of contributors xiii
Preface xix
1 From empty spaces to lived lives: exploring the individual
in the Palaeolithic 1
CLIVE GAMBLE AND MARTIN PORR
2 The Acheulean and the handaxe: structure and agency in
the Palaeolithic 13
TERRY HOPKINSON AND MARK J. WHITE
3 Transformations in dividuality: personhood and palaeoliths
in the Middle Pleistocene 29
A. S. FIELD
4 Seeking the Palaeolithic individual in East Africa and Europe
during the Lower-Middle Pleistocene 50
J. A. J. GOWLETT
5 The making of the biface and the making of the individual 68
MARTIN PORR
6 Observations on the relationship between Palaeolithic
individuals and artefact scatters at the Middle Pleistocene site
of Boxgrove, UK 81
MATT POPE AND MARK ROBERTS
vi Contents
7 The natural and socio-cultural environment of Homo erectus at
Bilzingsleben, Germany 98
DIETRICH MANIA AND URSULA MANIA
8 The Lower Palaeolithic art of hunting: the case of Schöningen
13 II-4, Lower Saxony, Germany 115
HARTMUT THIEME
9 Tracking hominins during the last interglacial complex in the
Rhineland 133
D. S. ADLER AND N. J. CONARD
10 Bones and powerful individuals: faunal case studies from the
Arctic and the European Middle Palaeolithic 154
CLIVE GAMBLE AND SABINE GAUDZINSKI
11 All in a day’s work: Middle Pleistocene individuals, materiality
and the lifespace at Makapansgat, South Africa 176
ANTHONY SINCLAIR AND JOHN MCNABB
12 Life and mind in the Acheulean: a case study from India 197
MICHAEL D. PETRAGLIA, CERI SHIPTON AND K. PADDAYYA
13 Individuals among palimpsest data: fluvial landscapes in
Southern England 220
ROBERT HOSFIELD
14 Being modern in the Middle Stone Age: individuals and
innovation 244
C. HENSHILWOOD AND F. D’ERRICO
15 Concluding remarks: context and the individual 265
MARCIA-ANNE DOBRES
Bibliography 271
Index 310
Figures
2.1 Two technologically and typologically identical handaxes
found by Miss Nina Layard at Foxhall Road, Ipswich 24
3.1 A comparison of handaxe size and handaxe shapes:
Gouzeaucourt and Cagny La Garenne 39
3.2 Gouzeaucourt handaxe lengths and widths and
Gouzeaucourt handaxe area and thickness 40
3.3 Differentiating the terms variation, change and transition 42
3.4 Model of possible material movements at Boxgrove 47
4.1 The Kilombe main surface 54
4.2 Measurements taken on bifaces 56
4.3 Clusters of bifaces within Area EH isolated by Density analysis 61
4.4 Beeches Pit: distribution of biface finds 66
4.5 The varied form of Beeches Pit bifaces in plan view 67
6.1 Scatters under excavations from the landsurface at GTP17 82
6.2 Location map for the site of Boxgrove 83
6.3 Individuals in isolation. Perfectly preserved individual
knapping scatter from Q1/A 86
6.4 Refitted biface reduction sequence from GTP17 87
6.5 Palimpsest signatures from the Q1/B waterhole site 88
6.6 Variation in biface discard across the 4c palaeosol 89
6.7 Tranchet-sharpened bifaces allowed hominin individuals
greater flexibility in hunting strategy 93
7.1 Plan of the structuration of the camp at Bilzingsleben 101
7.2 Section of the circular paved area at Bilzingsleben 103
7.3 Plan of an intentionally fixed elephant bone that was used as
an anvil 107
7.4 Plan of a large travertine anvil 108
7.5 Object 1: a large splinter from a long bone of an elephant with
regular cut marks 111
7.6 Objects 2, 3 and 4: bone fragments with intentional cut marks 112
8.1 Composite schematic stratigraphical sequence through the
Schöningen deposits 117
viii Figures
8.2 Course of the six Pleistocene/Holocene channels at Schöningen 119
8.3 The site of Schöningen 13 II-4 121
8.4 Schöningen 13 II-4: flint tools 122
8.5 Schöningen 13 II-4: view of the Lower Palaeolithic throwing
stick 123
8.6 Schöningen 13 II-4: spear II discovered in November 1995 124
8.7 Schöningen 13 II-4: 1. Two views of the wooden stick
(Picea sp.) that is carbonised at one end 126
8.8 Schöningen 13 II-4: hearth 1 127
9.1 Schematic diagram showing the interrelated and shifting
scales of archaeological inquiry 134
9.2 The location of Wallertheim with the excavations indicated 137
9.3 The chronostratigraphy of Wallertheim 138
9.4 Plan view of Wal A with plotted faunal remains 139
9.5 Schematic illustration of generalised reduction sequence 145
9.6 Plan view of Wal A with plotted lithic finds and refitted finds 146
9.7 Generalised reduction sequence for the tuffaceous rhyolite,
red rhyolite and other diverse materials 147
9.8 Refit Group 76, tuffaceous rhyolite 148
9.9 Plan view of Wal A with plotted lithic finds and
water-screened find densities 149
10.1 Butchery school with the Nunamiut 157
10.2 Billy Morry’s lone activities at his spring hunting sites 164
10.3 Logistics in the contemporary spring system 166
11.1 Map showing the position of the Cave of Hearths 182
11.2 The Cave of Hearths looking along the cave from west to east 183
11.3 Patterns of symmetry present in Large Cutting Tools from
the Cave of Hearths 186
11.4 Application of patterns of flaking to LCTs from the Cave of
Hearths 187
11.5 The length and breadth measurement for flake-blades made
using prepared-core techniques 191
11.6 The range of length and breadth measures for debitage types 192
12.1 Isampur site plan from the lowermost surface 201
12.2 Spatial plot showing artefacts and cores, Isampur 203
12.3 Spatial plot showing large flakes and large hammers and
bifaces, hammerstones and small flaking debris, Isampur 204
12.4 Isampur Quarry artefacts showing the manufacture of bifaces
from slabs 205
12.5 Core reduction and large flake removal at Isampur Quarry 206
12.6 Raw material distances by site 209
12.7 Cumulative percentages of the thickness of natural slabs and
artefacts 211
13.1 Selected river systems of Southern Britain 224
Figures ix
13.2 Current model of the Solent River 226
13.3 Distribution of the Setley Plain, Old Milton and Taddiford
Farm Gravels in the Bournemouth area 230
13.4 The Broom sedimentary sequence 236
13.5 A schematic section of Pratt’s Old Pit 237
13.6 Individuals, behaviour and analytical scales 242
14.1 Paired red deer canines, recovered from the Aven des
Iboussières multiple burials 250
14.2 Collection of pipes with unique bite signature on the
mouthpieces 251
14.3 Oblique sets of lines 252
14.4 Location of Blombos Cave and stratigraphy of the deposits 255
14.5 Views of engraved ochres 257
14.6 Photos and tracings of the engraved ochres from Blombos
Cave 258