Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Signaling Theory and Technologies of Communication in the Paleolithic

  • Thematic Issue Article: Symbols, Signals, and the Archaeological Record
  • Published:
Biological Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Between 300,000 and 250,000 years ago early humans in Africa and Eurasia began to use durable material substances and objects as media for signaling. Initially material signals were confined to ochre and other pigments, but over time objects such as beads were also added as technologies for sending messages. Changes in the types of materials used, their durability and costs, and the contexts of their disposal indicate a series of transitions in how early humans employed signaling media. Signaling theory from biology suggests that shifts in technologies over the course of the Pleistocene reflect problems in coordinating action and resolving conflicts within increasingly large and internally differentiated societies.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. A few particularly large, well-preserved cave art localities may retain enough contextual information to begin to reconstruct the relations of symbols to each other. Valuable as they are, these cases are rare exceptions. Moreover, Paleolithic cave art is a fairly derived feature, confined to a few parts of Western Europe and southern Africa, and produced only by Homo sapiens.

References

  • Álvarez Fernández E, Jöris O (2007) Personal ornaments in the early Upper Paleolithic of western Eurasia: an evaluation of the record. Euras Prehist 5:31–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose SH (1998) Chronology of the Later Stone Age and food production in East Africa. J Archaeol Sci 25:377–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose SH (2001) Paleolithic technology and human evolution. Science 291:1748–1753

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnold JE (1987) Craft specialization in the Prehistoric Channel Islands, California. University of California Publications in Anthropology, vol 18. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Aubry T, Bradley B, Almeida M et al (2008) Solutrean laurel leaf production at Maîtreaux: an experimental approach guided by techno-economic analysis. World Archaeol 40:48–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef Mayer D, Vandermeersch B, Bar-Yosef O (2009) Shells and ochre in Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh Cave, Israel: indications for modern behavior. J Hum Evol 56:307–314

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bliege Bird R, Smith EA (2005) Signaling theory, strategic interaction, and symbolic capital. Curr Anthr 46:221–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouzouggar A, Barton N, Vanhaeren M et al (2007) 82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104:9964–9969

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broglio A, De Stefani M, Gurioli F et al (2009) L’art aurignacien dans la décoration de la Grotte de Fumane. L’Anthropologie 113:753–761

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caron F, d’Errico F, Del Moral P et al (2011) The reality of Neandertal symbolic behavior at the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France. PLoS ONE 6(6):e215545

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chazan M (2009) Assessing the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition. In: Camps M, Chuahan R (eds) Sourcebook of Paleolithic transitions. Springer, New York, pp 237–243

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Conard NJ (2009) A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany. Nature 459:248–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conard NJ, Malina M, Münzel SC (2009) New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany. Nature 460:737–740

    Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico F (2008) The rouge et le noir. Implications of early pigment use in Africa, the Near East and Europe for the origin of cultural modernity. In: Lombard M, Sievers C, Ward V (eds) Current themes in Middle Stone Age research, vol 10. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series, Cape Town, pp 168–174

    Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico F, Henshilwood C, Lawson G et al (2003) Archaeological evidence for the emergence of language, symbolism, and music: an alternative multidisciplinary perspective. J World Prehist 17:1–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • d’Errico F, Vanhaeren M, Barton N et al (2009) Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:16051–16056

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dobrovolskaya M, Richards MP, Trinkaus E (2012) Direct radiocarbon dates for the Mid Upper Paleolithic (eastern Gravettian) burials from Sunghir, Russia. Bull Mém Soc d’Anthr Paris 4:96–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dorfer L, Moser M, Spindler K et al (1998) 5200-year-old acupuncture in central Europe? Science 282:242–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM (1996) Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of language. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunbar RIM, Shultz S (2007) Evolution in the social brain. Science 317:1344–1347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Endicott P, Ho SYW, Stirnger C (2010) Using genetic evidence to evaluate four palaeoanthropological hypotheses for the timing of Neanderthal and modern human origins. J Hum Evol 59:87–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitch WT (2000) The evolution of speech: a comparative review. Trends Cogn Sci 4:258–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foley R, Gamble C (2009) The ecology of social transitions in human evolution. Philos Trans R Soc B 364:3267–3279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Formicola V (2007) From the Sunghir children to the Romito dwarf: aspects of the Upper Paleolithic funerary landscape. Curr Anthr 48:446–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gamble C (1997) Paleolithic society and the release from proximity: a network approach to intimate relations. World Archaeol 29:426–449

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gamble C (1999) Palaeolithic societies of Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Gintis H (2009) The bounds of reason. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Green RE, Krause J, Briggs AW et al (2010) A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science 328:710–722

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes K, Bliege Bird R (2002) Showing off, handicap signaling, and the evolution of men’s work. Evol Anthr 11:58–67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood C, d’Errico F, Vanhaeren M et al (2004) Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science 304:40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henshilwood C, d’Errico F, Watts I (2009) Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. J Hum Evol 57:27–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hublin J–J, Talamo S, Julien F et al (2012) Radiocarbon dates from the Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire support a Neandertal origin for the Châtelperronian. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:18743–18748

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein R (2009) The human career: human biological and cultural origins. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn S, Stiner M (2007) Body ornamentation as information technology: towards an understanding of the significance of early beads. In: Mellars P, Boyle K, Bar-Yosef O et al (eds) Rethinking the human revolution: new behavioural and biological perspectives on the origins and dispersal of modern humans. MacDonald Institute of Archaeology, Cambridge, pp 45–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn S, Stiner MC, Reese D et al (2001) Ornaments in the earliest Upper Paleolithic: new perspectives from the Levant. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:7641–7646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Machin AT, Hosfield RT, Mithen SJ (2007) Why are some handaxes symmetrical? Testing the influence of handaxe morphology on butchery effectiveness. J Archaeol Sci 34:883–893

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malafouris L (2008) Beads for a plastic mind: the ‘blind man’s stick’ (BMS) hypothesis and the active nature of material culture. Camb Archaeol J 18:401–414

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J (1991) Honest signalling: the Philip Sydney game. Anim Behav 47:1034–1035

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J (1994) Must reliable signals always be costly? Anim Behav 47:1115–1120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard-Smith J, Harper D (2003) Animal signals. Oxford series in ecology and evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • McBrearty S (2013) Advances in the study of the origin of humanness. J Anthr Res 69:7–32

    Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mithen S (1996) The prehistory of the mind. Thames and Hudson, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble W, Davidson I (1996) Human evolution, language and mind: a psychological and archaeological enquiry. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak M (2006) Five rules for the evolution of cooperation. Science 314:1560–1563

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connell JF, Hawkes K, Lupo KD et al (2002) Male strategies and Plio-Pleistocene archaeology. J Hum Evol 43:831–872

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peresani M, Fiore I, Gala M et al (2011) Late Neandertals and the intentional removal of feathers as evidenced from bird bone taphonomy at Fumane Cave 44 ky B.P., Italy. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. doi:10.1073/pnas.1016212108

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettitt P, Richards M, Maggi R, Formicola V (2003) The Gravettian burial known as the Prince (“Il Principe”): new evidence for his age and diet. Antiquity 77:15–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Pike AWG, Hoffmann DL, García-Diez M et al (2012) U-series dating of Paleolithic art in 11 caves in Spain. Science 336:1409–1413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roebroeks W, Villa P (2011) On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108:5209–5214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roebroeks W, Mussi M, Svoboda J et al (2000) Hunters of the Golden Age: the Mid Upper Palaeolithic of Eurasia 30,000–20,000 BP. University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology

    Google Scholar 

  • Roebroeks W, Siera MJ, Kellberg Nielsen T et al (2012) Use of red ochre by early Neandertals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:1889–1894

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rolland N (2004) Was the emergence of homebases and domestic fire a punctuated event? A review of the Middle Pleistocene record in Eurasia. Asian Perspect 43:248–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schildkrout E (2004) Inscribing the body. Ann Rev Anthrop 33:319–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silk JB, Kaldor E, Boyd R (2000) Cheap talk when interests conflict. Anim Behav 59:423–432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skyrms B (2004) The stag hunt and the evolution of social structure. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Soressi M, D’Errico F (2007) Pigments, gravures, parures: les comportements symboliques controversés des Néandertaliens. In: Vandermeersch B, Maureille B, Coppens Y (eds) Néandertaliens. Biologie et cultures. Éditions du CTHS, Documents Préhistoriques, 23, Paris, pp 297–309

  • Sosis R, Alcorta C (2003) Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: the evolution of religious behavior. Evol Anthrop 12:264–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sosis R, Kress HC, Boster JC (2007) Scars for war: evaluating alternative signaling explanations for cross-cultural variance in ritual costs. Evol Hum Behav 28:234–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stiner MC (2010) Shell ornaments from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic layers of Klissoura Cave 1 by Prosymnia, Greece. Eurasia Prehist 7:287–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiner MC, Gopher A, Barkai R (2009) Cooperative hunting and meat sharing 400–200 kya at Qesem Cave, Israel. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:13207–13212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stiner MC, Kuhn S, Güleç E (2013) Ornaments as artifacts and reflections of site function at the early Upper Paleolithic site of Üçağizli Cave I (Hatay Province, Turkey). J Hum Evol 64:380–398

    Google Scholar 

  • Surovell TA, Finely J, Smith GM et al (2009) Correcting temporal frequency distributions for taphonomic bias. J Archaeol Sci 36:1715–1724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Svoboda J (2007) The Gravettian on the Middle Danube. Paléo 19:203–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Taborin Y (1993) La parure en coquillage au Paléolithique. XXIX Supplément “Gallia Préhistoire”. CNRS, Paris

  • Texier PJ, Porraz G, Parkington J et al (2010) A Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:6180–6185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torney CJ, Berdahl A, Couzin ID (2011) Signalling and the evolution of cooperative foraging in dynamic environments. PLoS Comput Biol 7(9):e1002194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanhaeren M, d’Errico F (2006) Aurignacian ethno-linguistic geography of Europe revealed by personal ornaments. J Archaeol Sci 33:1105–1128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanhaeren M, d’Errico F, Stinger C et al (2006) Middle Paleolithic shell beads in Israel and Algeria. Science 312:1785–1788

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White R (1992) Beyond art: toward an understanding of the origins of material representation in Europe. Ann Rev Anthrop 21:407–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White R (1993a) A social and technological view of Aurignacian and Castelperronian personal ornaments in France. In: Cabrera Valdès Z (ed) El origen del hombre moderno en el suroeste de Europa. Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia, Madrid, pp 327–357

    Google Scholar 

  • White R (1993b) Technological and social dimensions of “Aurignacian-age” body ornaments across Europe. In: Knecht H, Pike-Tay A, White R (eds) Before Lascaux: the complex record of the early Upper Paleolithic. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 277–299

    Google Scholar 

  • White R (1995) Ivory personal ornaments of Aurignacian age: technological, social, and symbolic perspectives. In: Hahn J (ed) Le travail et l’usage de l’ivoire au Paléolithique supérieur. Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Roma, pp 29–62

    Google Scholar 

  • White R (2003) Prehistoric art: the symbolic journey of humankind. Harry N. Abrams, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wobst HM (1977) Stylistic behavior and information exchange. In: Cleland EH (ed) For the director: research essays in honor of James B. Griffin. University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers, Ann Arbor, pp 317–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Wynn T, Coolidge F (2004) The expert Neanderthal mind. J Hum Evol 46:467–487

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zahavi A, Zahavi A (1997) The handicap principle: a missing piece of Darwin’s puzzle. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Zilhão J (2005) Burial evidence for the social differentiation of age classes in the early Upper Paleolithic. In: Vialou D, Renault-Miskowsky J, Patou-Mathis M (eds) Comportement des hommes du Paléolithique moyen et supérieur en Europe: territoires et milieux. ERAUL 111, Liège, pp 231–241

    Google Scholar 

  • Zilhão J, Angelucci DE, Badal-García E et al (2010) Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments by Iberian Neandertals. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107:1023–1028

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zollman KJ, Bergstrom CT, Huttegger SM (2013) Between cheap and costly signals: the evolution of partially honest communication. Proc R Soc Lond B 280:20121878. doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1878

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I am greatly indebted to Kim Sterelny and Peter Hiscock for organizing an extraordinarily stimulating workshop and inviting me to participate in it. I also thank them and other workshop participants for their insightful comments on my presentation. As always, my thinking about human evolution, and about ornaments in particular, owes a great deal to my wife and collaborator, Mary Stiner.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Steven L. Kuhn

Authors
  1. Steven L. Kuhn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven L. Kuhn.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kuhn, S.L. Signaling Theory and Technologies of Communication in the Paleolithic. Biol Theory 9, 42–50 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-013-0156-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-013-0156-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation