What can lithics tell us about hominin technology's ‘primordial soup’? An origin of stone knapping via the emulation of Mother Nature

Abstract The use of stone hammers to produce sharp stone flakes—knapping—is thought to represent a significant stage in hominin technological evolution because it facilitated the exploitation of novel resources, including meat obtained from medium‐to‐large‐sized vertebrates. The invention of knapping may have occurred via an additive (i.e., cumulative) process that combined several innovative stages. Here, we propose that one of these stages was the hominin use of ‘naturaliths,’ which we define as naturally produced sharp stone fragments that could be used as cutting tools. Based on a review of the literature and our own research, we first suggest that the ‘typical’ view, namely that sharp‐edged stones are seldom produced by nonprimate processes, is likely incorrect. Instead, naturaliths can be, and are being, endlessly produced in a wide range of settings and thus may occur on the landscape in far greater numbers than archaeologists currently understand or acknowledge. We then explore the potential role this ‘naturalith prevalence’ may have played in the origin of hominin stone knapping. Our hypothesis suggests that the origin of knapping was not a ‘Eureka!’ moment whereby hominins first made a sharp flake by intention or by accident and then sought something to cut, but instead was an emulative process by hominins aiming to reproduce the sharp tools furnished by mother nature and already in demand. We conclude with a discussion of several corollaries our proposal prompts, and several avenues of future research that can support or question our proposal.

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Publication Details

Journal
Archaeometry
Published
2025-03-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/arcm.13075
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
22.69

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article

What can lithics tell us about hominin technology's ‘primordial soup’? An origin of stone knapping via the emulation of Mother Nature

Danielle A. Macdonald, Stephen J. Lycett, Briggs Buchanan, Robert S. Walker et al.
2 citations
Archaeometry
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
22.69
article

What can lithics tell us about hominin technology's ‘primordial soup’? An origin of stone knapping via the emulation of Mother Nature

Danielle A. Macdonald, Stephen J. Lycett, Briggs Buchanan, Robert S. Walker, Tomos Proffitt, G. Logan Miller, Jonathan Paige, Michelle R. Bebber, Emma M. Finestone, Jeffrey I. Rose, Roman Garba, C. Owen Lovejoy, Metin I. Eren, Justin Pargeter, Rebecca Biermann Gürbüz, Anne Grunow, Erica Maletic, Teal R. Riley, Mary Ann Raghanti, David M. Singer, Joseph D. Ortiz, Joseph Benson, Alastair Key, Adela Cebeiro
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Abstract The use of stone hammers to produce sharp stone flakes—knapping—is thought to represent a significant stage in hominin technological evolution because it facilitated the exploitation of novel resources, including meat obtained from medium‐to‐large‐sized vertebrates. The invention of knapping may have occurred via an additive (i.e., cumulative) process that combined several innovative stages. Here, we propose that one of these stages was the hominin use of ‘naturaliths,’ which we define as naturally produced sharp stone fragments that could be used as cutting tools. Based on a review of the literature and our own research, we first suggest that the ‘typical’ view, namely that sharp‐edged stones are seldom produced by nonprimate processes, is likely incorrect. Instead, naturaliths can be, and are being, endlessly produced in a wide range of settings and thus may occur on the landscape in far greater numbers than archaeologists currently understand or acknowledge. We then explore the potential role this ‘naturalith prevalence’ may have played in the origin of hominin stone knapping. Our hypothesis suggests that the origin of knapping was not a ‘Eureka!’ moment whereby hominins first made a sharp flake by intention or by accident and then sought something to cut, but instead was an emulative process by hominins aiming to reproduce the sharp tools furnished by mother nature and already in demand. We conclude with a discussion of several corollaries our proposal prompts, and several avenues of future research that can support or question our proposal.

Archaeometry
Andrews University (US), British Antarctic Survey (GB), Kent State University (US), University of St Andrews (GB), University of Johannesburg (ZA), Cleveland Museum of Natural History (US), New Mexico Consortium (US), Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Prague (CZ), New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (US), Czech Academy of Sciences, Nuclear Physics Institute (CZ), Department of Archaeology (LK), Illinois State University (US), The Ohio State University (US), New York University (US), University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US), University of Algarve (PT), University of Missouri (US), University of Tulsa (US)
Kent State University
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
22.69
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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