A recent study by anthropologists from the University of Missouri and Arizona State University reveals a significant leap in stone tool complexity around 600,000 years ago, suggesting a sudden increase in hominin knowledge. This development may help explain how modern humans and our ancestors became highly proficient at adapting to new environments.
University of Missouri anthropologist Jonathan Paige and Arizona State University anthropologist Charles Perreault, who authored the study, propose that this leap in tool-making sophistication could potentially predate the divergence of Neanderthals and modern humans, indicating a shared feature of both lineages.
Analyzing stone tool manufacturing techniques across 3.3 million years of human evolution, the researchers ranked 62 tool-making sequences found at 57 sites by their complexity. The artifacts ranged from the oldest in Africa to ancient tools from Eurasia, Greenland, Sahul, Oceania, and the Americas.
Their findings show that until 1.8 million years ago, stone tool manufacturing sequences were relatively simple, consisting of two to four procedural units. Over the next 1.2 million years, the complexity increased to seven procedural units. However, it wasn’t until approximately 600,000 years ago that tool complexity surged to a new level, requiring up to 18 procedural units.
This significant technological advancement suggests a cumulative culture, where knowledge and innovations are passed down and built upon through generations. Paige and Perreault define cumulative culture as “the accumulation of modifications, innovations, and improvements over generations through social learning.” They explain that this allows individuals to use and advance technologies without fully understanding every aspect, thereby expanding the collective knowledge pool.
The researchers highlight the benefits of cumulative culture, which increases the chance of solving problems through generations of trial and error, akin to biological evolution. This process may have also driven the selection of genes that enhance learning, contributing to traits such as increased brain size and prolonged life history, which are key to human uniqueness.
While the study provides strong evidence of cumulative culture’s presence near the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, Paige and Perreault acknowledge that such cultural intelligence might have arisen even earlier, in ways not easily preserved archaeologically. Early hominins may have developed complex social, foraging, and technological behaviors reliant on cumulative culture, which are not visible in the archaeological record.
Regardless of the exact timing or technology, reliance on cumulative culture likely played a crucial role in shaping many of humanity’s unique features, offering a deeper understanding of our evolutionary history. For more information, refer to the full study by Jonathan Paige and Charles Perreault.