The evolution of stone-tool technology occurred independently among different human populations, instead of during the migration of hominins out of Africa.
Traditional theories suggest hominin populations from Africa brought new toolmaking technology called Levallois with them into Eurasia around 300,000 years ago, replacing bifacial technologies and marking the change from the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic periods. A new study published in Science proves otherwise.
The archaeological site of Nor Geghi 1, in Armenia, is the earliest site outside Africa containing both bifacial and levallois technologies together. Researchers dating the layers of volcanic ash associated with the artefacts have provided the first clear evidence that the population at Nor Geghi invented Levallois technology independently, based on their prior knowledge of biface technology, between 325,000 and 335,000 years ago.
Handaxes were made by removing waste flakes from a central mass of stone to create a tool with a sharp edge around much of the circumference. Levallois technology carefully predetermines the size and shape of the flakes that are detached from the core, and uses them as smaller, lighter, and more versatile tools, useful for a highly mobile lifestyle. The separate traditions did not come from multiple hominin groups overlapping in one area, but from adaptation of technology as the community here independently discovered the advantages of the economical Levallois-type tools. Dr Daniel Adler, author of the study, told CWA, ‘The combination of these different technologies in one place suggests to us that, about 325,000 years ago, people at the site were innovative.’