Modeling the formation of Early Stone Age artifact concentrations

Abstract

The nature of stone artifact concentrations at early Plio-Pleistocene sites in East Africa is evaluated with regard to hominid transport behaviors responsible for their formation. These archaeological occurrences indicate ranging behaviors involving deliberate and repeated transport of flaked stone artifacts. The stone transported to archaeological sites within the time range of Homo habilis indicates planned transport of tools or material for tool manufacture to an extent far beyond transport behaviors reported among living apes, even stone hammer-using chimpanzees. Analysis of technological evidence in a lithic assemblage at a Plio-Pleistocene site at Koobi Fora (c. 1·5 ya) indicates on-site manufacturing activities and transport of flaked stone both to and from the site locale. Possible explanations for transport of stone artifacts are discussed in view of hominid strategies of environmental exploitation and resource utilization. A model is proposed for planned, habitual transport of artifacts by hominids positively correlated with distance of planned foraging range. In this model, larger-scale sites tended to develop at locales favorably located near abundant resources, where stone imports were high but export was relaxed due to the proximity of resources to be processed.