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Signs of symbolic behavior emerged at the dawn of our species in Africa
More than 320,000 years ago in the Rift Valley of Africa, some early innovators adopted a new technology: They eschewed the clunky, palm-size stone hand axes that their ancestors had used for more than a million years in favor of a sleek new toolkit. Like new generations of cellphones today, their Middle Stone Age (MSA) blades and points were smaller and more precise than the old so-called Acheulean hand axes and scrapers.
These toolmakers in the Olorgesailie Basin in Kenya chose as raw materials shiny black obsidian and white and green chert, rocks they had to get from distant sources or through trade networks. In another first, they chiseled red and black rocks, probably to use as crayons to color their bodies or spears—an early sign of symbolic behavior. "This is indicative of a gear change in behavior, toolmaking, and material culture," says evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who studies social networks.
A trio of papers released online in Science today documents this remarkable technological transition. Although other sites have yielded MSA tools, the new, securely dated chronology nudges the transition back by at least 20,000 years, matching when our species, Homo sapiens, is now thought to have emerged. By analyzing artifacts over time at one site, the papers also show that these behaviors developed as climate swings intensified, supporting the idea that environmental variability drove innovation.
Related:
Environmental dynamics during the onset of the Middle Stone Age in eastern Africa (DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2200) (DX)
Chronology of the Acheulean to Middle Stone Age transition in eastern Africa (DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2216) (DX)
Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age (DOI: 10.1126/science.aao2646) (DX)
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday March 16 2018, @07:08PM (2 children)
This is without a doubt the 'secret' behind many ancient wonders. The willingness to invest incredible amounts of labor over long periods of time.
Many of these things were built over multiple generations. In a world where most projects last a few month, and are obsolete before they release, many people simply cannot conceive of it, but it's true. The man who finished a project might be the grandson of the man who started it. Three generations, working diligently, if not on a daily basis at least a seasonal one, year after year, decade after decade, that was the true genius of the ancients that we have lost.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 16 2018, @08:45PM
We don't need that for most things. It doesn't take three generations to build even our largest buildings. For example, NASA built the Vehicle Assembly Building in about four years and that is one of the largest buildings in the world by internal volume.
Another problem is that a three generation project has the potential to become obsolete before it is finished. For example, a large project on the coastline might be flooded by climate change (if the warnings come true). A computation project would be forever updating on more advanced hardware. It'd be quite the challenging, moving target to plan something so many years in advance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 17 2018, @03:36AM
Science, mathematics and technology are like that. The knowledge that started to be formalized thousands of years ago has reached incredible heights.