Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Investigating Archaeological Cultures pp 229–244Cite as

The Transmission of Technological Skills in the Palaeolithic: Insights from Metapopulation Ecology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

It has become clear in recent years that developments in stone tool technologies in the Palaeolithic, and especially in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, cannot simply be understood in terms of social, cultural or biological evolutionary trajectories. Technologies usually regarded as characteristic of later periods in fact appear in earlier periods, but do not persist or disseminate widely through space; the sporadic occurrence of Levallois technology in the European Lower Palaeolithic is a case in point. It is suggested here that this problem might be approached through understanding the persistence (or otherwise) of technological innovations in the Palaeolithic in terms of the transmission of knowledgeable practices through networks of short-lived local populations embedded in regional metapopulations. Metapopulation ecological dynamics are considered with a view to understanding their potential to impact upon the social transmission of innovative technological practices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allee, W.C., Emerson, A.E., Park, O., Park, T., and Schmidt, K.P. (1949). Principles of Animal Ecology, Saunders, Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ameloot-van der Heijden, N. (1993). L’industrie laminaire du niveau CA du gisement Paléolithique moyen de Riencourt-les-Baupaume (Pas de Calais). Bulletin de la Société Préhistoire Française 90: 324–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baerveldt C., and Snijders, T. (1994). Influences on and from the segmentation of networks: hypotheses and tests. Social Networks 16: 213–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, R.D. (1978). The Evolutionary Ecology of Animal Migration, Hodder and Stoughton, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barham, L. (2000). The Middle Stone Age of Zambia, South Central Africa, Western Academic and Specialist Press, Bristol.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binford, L.R. (1980). Willow smoke and dogs’ tails: Hunter-gatherer settlement and archaeological site formation. American Antiquity 45: 4–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bordes, F. (1953). Essai de classification des industries Moustériennes. Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 50: 226–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bordes, F. (1968). The Old Stone Age. New York, McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordes, F., and de Sonneville-Bordes, D. (1970). The significance of variability in Palaeolithic assemblages. World Archaeology 2: 61–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borenstein, E., Kendal, J., and Feldman, M. (2006). Cultural niche construction in a metapopulation. Theoretical Population Biology 70: 92–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bormann, F.H., and Likens, G.E. (1979). Pattern and Process in a Forested Ecosystem, Springer-Verlag, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C.A., Wrangham, R.W., and Chapman, L.J. (1995). Ecological constraints on group-size: an analysis of spider monkey and chimpanzee subgroups. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 36: 59–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clements, F.E. (1916). Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation, Carnegie Institute Publications 242, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clements, F.E. (1936). Nature and structure of the climax. Journal of Ecology 24: 252–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conard, N.J. (1990). Laminar lithic assemblages from the last interglacial complex in northwestern Europe. Journal of Anthropological Research 46: 243–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connell, J.H., and Sousa, W.P. (1983). On the evidence needed to judge ecological stability or persistence. American Nature 121: 789–824.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dobson, F.S. (1982). Competition for mates and predominant juvenile male dispersal in mammals. Animal Behaviour 30: 1183–1192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar, R.I.M. (1998). The social brain hypothesis. Evolutionary Anthropology 6: 178–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Efferson, C., Lalive, R., Richerson, P.J., McElreath, R., and Lubelld, M. (2008). Conformists and mavericks: the empirics of frequency-dependent cultural transmission. Evolution and Human Behavior 29: 56–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foley, P. (1994). Predicting extinction times from environmental stochasticity and carrying capacity. Conservation Biology 8: 124–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foley, P. (1997). Extinction models for local populations. In Hanski, I., and Gilpin, M. (eds.), Metapopulation Biology, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 215–246.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gamble, C.S. (1995). The Earliest Occupation of Europe: The Environmental Background. In Roebroeks, W., and van Kolfschoten, T. (eds.), The Earliest Occupation of Europe, University of Leiden, Leiden, pp. 279–295.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goren-Inbar, N., and Belfer-Cohen, A. (1998). The technological abilities of the Levantine Mousterians: cultural and mental capacities. In Akazawa, T., Aoki, K., and Bar-Yosef, O. (eds.), Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, New York, Plenum Press, pp. 205–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grün, R., Beaumont, P.B., Tobias, P.V., and Eggins, S. (2003). On the age of Border Cave 5 human mandible. Journal of Human Evolution 45: 155–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie, R.D. (1984). Mosaics, allelochemics and nutrients: an ecological theory of late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. In Martin, P.S., and Klein, R.G. (eds.), Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 259–298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie, R.D. (1990). Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe, Chicago, Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanski, I. (1999). Metapopulation Ecology, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henzi, S.P., Lycett, J.E., and Piper, S.E. (1997). Fission and troop size in a mountain baboon population. Animal Behaviour 53: 525–535.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hopkinson, T. (2007a). The Transition from the Lower to the Middle Palaeolithic in Europe and the Incorporation of Difference. Antiquity 81: 294–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkinson, T. (2007b). The Middle Palaeolithic Leaf Points of Europe: Ecology, Knowledge and Scale, BAR International Series 1663, John and Erica Hedges, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkinson, T., and White, M.J. (2005). The Acheulean and the handaxe: Structure and agency in the Palaeolithic. In Gamble, C., and Porr, M. (eds.), The Individual Hominid in Context, Routledge, London, pp. 13–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopper, L.M., Spiteri, A., Lambeth, S.P., Schapiro, S.J., Horner, V., and Whiten, A. (2006). Experimental studies of traditions and underlying transmission processes in chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour 73: 1021–1032.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hovers, E. (1998). The lithic assemblages of Amud Cave: implications for understanding the end of the Mousterian in the Levant. In Akazawa, T., Aoki, K., and Bar-Yosef, O. (eds.), Neandertals and Modern Humans in Western Asia, Plenum Press, New-York, pp. 143–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hovers, E., and Kuhn, S. (eds.) (2005). Transitions Before the Transition: Evolution and Stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age, Springer-Verlag, New-York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ims, R.A., and Yoccoz, N.G. (1997). Studying transfer processes in metapopulations: emigration, migration and colonization. In Hanski, I., and Gilpin, M. (eds.), Metapopulation Biology, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 247–266.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • King, T. (1996). Quantifying nonlinearity and geometry in time series of climate. Quaternary Science Reviews 15: 247–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuussaari, M., Nieminem, M., and Hanski, I. (1996). An experimental study of migration in the butterfly Melitaea cinxia. Journal of Animal Ecology 65: 791–801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levins, R. (1970). Extinction. Some Mathematical Questions in Biology Vol 2, , American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, pp. 75–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lister, A.M., and Sher, A.V. (1995). Ice cores and mammoth extinction. Nature 387: 23–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur, R.H., and Wilson, E.O. (1967). The Theory of Island Biogeography, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, A.E., and Monigal, K. (1995). Modeling the production of elongated blanks from the Early Levantine Mousterian at Rosh Ein Mor. In Dibble, H., and Bar Yosef, O. (eds.), The Definition and Interpretation of Levallois Technology, Prehistory Press, Madison, pp. 267–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrearty, S., and Brooks, A.S. (2000). The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behaviour. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P.A. (1967). The Mousterian Succession in South-west France, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P.A. (1986a). A new chronology for the French Mousterian period. Nature 322: 410–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P.A. (1986b). Dating and correlating the French Mousterian: reply. Nature 324: 113–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P. (1988). The chronology of the southwest French Mousterian. A review of the current debate. In Otte, M. (ed.), La Technique. L’Homme de Neandertal. Liege, Universite de Liege. ERAUL, pp. 97–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P.A. (1996). The Neanderthal Legacy, Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellars, P.A., and Grün, R. (1991). A comparison of the electron spin resonance and thermoluminescence dating methods: the results of ESR dating at Le Moustier (France). Cambridge Archaeological Journal 1: 269–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G.H., Beaumont, P.B., Deacon, H.J., Brooks, A.S., Hare, P.E., and Jull, A.J.T. (1999). Earliest modern humans in southern Africa dated by isoleucine epimerization in ostrich eggshell. Quaternary Geochronology (Quaternary Science Reviews) 18: 1548–1573.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munday, F.C. (1979). Levantine Mousterian technological variability: a perspective from the Negev. Paléorient 5: 87–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olivieri, I., and Gouyon, P.-H. (1997). Evolution of migration rate and other traits: the metapopulation effect. In Hanski, I., and Gilpin, M. (eds.), Metapopulation Biology, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 293–324.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Peck, T.R., and Ives, J.W. (2001). Late side-notched projectile points in the northern plains. Plains Anthropologist 46: 163–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pulliam, H.R. (1988). Sources, sinks and population regulation. American Nature 132: 652–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pulliam, H.R. (1996). Sources and sinks: empirical evidence and population consequences. In Rhodes, O.E. Jr., Chester, R.K., and Smith, M.H. (eds.), Population Dynamics in Ecological Space and Time, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 45–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richter, J. (1997). Sesselfelsgrotte III. Der G-Schichten-Komplex der Sesselfelsgrotte. Zum Verständnis des Micoquien, Quartär-Bibliothek Band 7, Saarbrücken.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richter, J. (2002). Die 14C-daten aus der Sesselfelsgrotte und die zeitstellung Micoquien/M.M.O. Germania 80: 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, M.J., Harris, J.W.K., and Feibel, C.S. (1994). Changing patterns of land use by Plio-Pleistocene hominids in the Lake Turkana Basin. Journal of Human Evolution 27: 139–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruxton, G.D. (1996). Dispersal and chaos in spatially-structured models; an individual-level approach. Journal of Animal Ecology 65: 161–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shennan, S. (2001). Demography and cultural innovation: A model and its implications for the emergence of modern human culture. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11: 5–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Short, J., and Turner, B. (1994). A test of the vegetation mosaic hypothesis: a hypothesis to explain the decline and extinction of Australian mammals. Conservation Biology 8: 439–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A.T., and Peacock, M.M. (1990). Conspecific attraction and the determination of metapopulation colonization rates. Conservation Biology 4: 320–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soriano, S., Villa, P., and Wadley, L. (2007). Blade technology and tool forms in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa: The Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort at Rose Cottage Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 681–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Svoboda, J., Ložek, V., and Vlček, E. (1996). Hunters between East and West: the Paleolithic of Moravia, Plenum Press, New-York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torrence, R. (ed) (1989). Time, Energy and Stone Tools, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C.A., and McBrearty, S. (2002). Tephrostratigraphy and the Acheulian to Middle Stone Age transition in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 42: 211–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiβmüller, W. (1995). Sesselfelsgrotte II. Die Silexartefakte der Unteren Schichten der Sesselfelsgrotte. Ein Betrag zum Problem des Moustérien, Quartär-Bibliothek Band 6, Saarbrücken.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiten, A., Horner, V., and de Waal, F.B.M. (2005). Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees. Nature 437: 737–740.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woodward, F.I. (1987). Climate and Plant Distribution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zedler, P.H., Gautier, C.R., and McMaster, G.S. (1983). Vegetation change in response to extreme events: the effect of a short interval between fires in California chapparal and coastal shrub. Ecology 64: 809–818.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zilhão, J. (2007). The Emergence of Ornaments and Art: An Archaeological Perspective on the Origins of “Behavioral Modernity”. Journal of Archaeological Research 15: 1–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Terry Hopkinson

Authors
  1. Terry Hopkinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Terry Hopkinson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Prehistory & Europe, British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom

    Benjamin W. Roberts

  2. , School of Archaeology and Ancient Histor, Leicester University, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, United Kingdom

    Marc Vander Linden

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hopkinson, T. (2011). The Transmission of Technological Skills in the Palaeolithic: Insights from Metapopulation Ecology. In: Roberts, B., Vander Linden, M. (eds) Investigating Archaeological Cultures. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6970-5_12

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation