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Biface Distributions and the Movius Line: a Southeast Asian Perspective B IFACE dISTRIBUTIONS ANd the MOVIUS LINE: A Southeast Asian perspective Adam Brumm1 and Mark W. Moore2 Abstract The ‘Movius Line’ is the putative technological demarcation line mapping the easternmost geographical distribution of Acheulean bifacial tools. It is traditionally argued by proponents of the Movius Line that ‘true’ Acheulean bifaces, especially handaxes, are only found in abundance in Africa and western Eurasia, whereas in eastern Asia, in front of the ‘line’, these implements are rare or absent altogether. Here we argue, however, that the Movius Line relies on classifying undated surface bifaces as Acheulean on typological grounds alone, a long-standing and widely accepted practice in Africa and western Eurasia, but one that is not seen as legitimate in eastern Asian contexts. A review of the literature shows that bifaces are relatively common as surface finds in Southeast Asia and on this basis we argue that the Movius Line is in need of reassessment. Figure 1 Map showing the Movius Line and key localities mentioned in the text. The received idea is that ‘true’ Acheulean bifaces only occur behind the Movius Line, in Africa and western Eurasia, and are Introduction absent to the east and southeast of the demarcation boundary. Stone artefacts resembling Acheulean bifaces have been recovered in situ from non-modern hominin contexts in (1) the Bose Basin of southern … the evolution of flint technology through prehistory was a China, (2) Ngebung 2 at Sangiran, Java, and at (3) Wolo Sege and (4) cumulative process: new tricks were added, but there were no Liang Bua on the island of Flores, eastern Indonesia. extinctions (Johansen and Stapert 1995:1). 1992, 1998; Lycett and Bae 2010). This view is based on various Acheulean biface technology emerged in East Africa ca 1.76 lines of evidence (cf. Moore 2010, in press), but to many million years ago (Ma) (Lepre et al. 2011) and the extent of its researchers the purported absence of Acheulean artefacts east subsequent distribution has important implications. It has long of the Movius Line remains the decisive factor (Corvinus 2004; been argued that a technological boundary, the ‘Movius Line’, Dennell 2009; Keates 2002; Lycett and Bae 2010; Norton and Bae separates Acheulean technologies of Early and Middle Pleistocene 2009; Pope and Keates 1994; Schick 1994). Africa/western Eurasia from simpler, ‘least-effort’ core-and-flake This paper critiques the Movius Line and the key evidence industries of equivalent age in eastern Asia (Dennell 2009; Keates used to define it: the purported lack of bifaces in Southeast Asian 2002; Lycett and Bae 2010; Lycett and Gowlett 2008; Lycett and Palaeolithic assemblages. The Movius Line is widely accepted Norton 2010; Mulvaney 1970; Norton and Bae 2009; Norton to represent a significant pattern in the empirical data (Lycett et al. 2006; Petraglia and Shipton 2008; Pope and Keates 1994; and Bae 2010). However, we argue here that it continues to be Schick 1994; Simanjuntak et al. 2010; Wang 2005) (Figure 1). defined largely on the basis of African and western Eurasian The manufacture of Acheulean bifaces, especially handaxes, is bifaces found outside stratigraphic contexts and ascribed to the said to require complex production routines and the ability to Acheulean on typological grounds alone. This is not seen as a fashion tools into preconceived designs, implying advanced legitimate practice in Southeast Asia and elsewhere in the Far East, cognitive capabilities (Gowlett 2006; Wynn 1995, 2002). Core- where bifaces are common as undated surface finds but, lacking and-flake assemblages, alternatively, are widely thought to reflect a dated context, are routinely considered products of modern the simplest approach to stone tool manufacture (Pelegrin 2005; human cultures. Dating African and western Eurasian surface Roche 2005; Shea 2006; Wynn 2002). Few researchers today finds as Acheulean while dismissing similar Southeast Asian would support Movius’ (1948) contention that the apparently and Far Eastern artefacts is a case of shifting the goalposts, one uncomplicated lithic technologies of Pleistocene eastern Asia that potentially distorts Acheulean evidence in the Palaeolithic indicate ‘cultural retardation’; however, it is generally agreed that Old World. early hominin tool-making in this region was technologically simpler than that in Palaeolithic Africa/western Eurasia (Clark Acheulean Bifaces The term ‘Acheulean biface’ encompasses a range of large bifacial 1 Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Northfields forms, including handaxes, cleavers, picks, knives, lanceolates Avenue, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia [email protected] and unifaces (Clark and Kleindienst 2001; Kleindienst 1962; 2 Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology, University of New England, Armidale NSW 2351, Australia [email protected] McNabb et al. 2004) (Figure 2). Handaxes, cleavers and picks are the classic types. Handaxes are defined by a polythetic set of 32 Number 74, June 2012 Adam Brumm and Mark W. Moore A B C Figure 2 Acheulean biface types. A: Bifacial flint handaxe from Boxgrove, southeast England (photograph by A. Brumm). B: Cleaver from unspecified locality (after Debénath and Dibble 1994 Figure 11.106). C: Quartzite trihedral pick from Casablanca, Morocco (after Inizan et al. 1999: Figure 17). Scales are 50 mm. Number 74, June 2012 33 Biface distributions and the Movius Line: A Southeast Asian perspective characteristics (e.g. Crompton and Gowlett 1993; Wynn 1995). identified as Acheulean (Stapert 1981; see also Adams 1999; Saville They are commonly identified as bifacially flaked stones with a 1997). As Johansen and Stapert (1995:1) remarked, for instance: generally elongate or ovate plan form and approximate bilateral ‘In the Netherlands and elsewhere, rough-outs of Neolithic axes symmetry around the long axis (e.g. Clark and Kleindienst 2001; have repeatedly been interpreted as handaxes … In Denmark, Gowlett 1986, 1990; Kleindienst 1962; Roe 1964, 1968, 1994; preforms of bifacial tools such as daggers, spearheads and sickles Wynn 1979, 1995). Cleavers are bifaces, often made on large flakes may resemble Palaeolithic handaxes’. Similarly, Otte (2003:186) (Sharon 2009), with an unretouched distal edge oriented in a noted that ‘Mousterian bifacial pieces have been interpreted as perpendicular or slightly oblique direction to the long axis of the evidence for an Acheulean presence in Greece [and in] Central blank (Gowlett 1988; Inizan et al. 1999; Texier and Roche 1995). Asia, elongated Levallois cores, which are, of necessity, “bifacial”, Picks comprise large, thick, retouched tools with high-backed have been confused with true Acheulean bifaces’. Johansen and planoconvex or triangular cross-sections and robust pointed Stapert (1995:26) therefore advised a cautionary approach to tips resulting from unifacial, bifacial or trihedral reduction of the classification of stray finds of implements which bear some heavy cobbles or large flakes (Bar-Yosef and Goren-Inbar 1993; resemblance to handaxes: ‘Typology is simply not good enough Isaac 1977; Kleindienst 1962; Leakey 1971). Acheulean bifaces, for confidently cataloguing artefacts as [Acheulean], when these in particular handaxes, are widely interpreted as butchery tools have been found without a stratigraphic context’. (e.g. Jones 1980; Machin et al. 2007; Mitchell 1997; Schick and Toth 1993), although other functions have been inferred (e.g. The Movius Line Kohn and Mithen 1999; Whittaker and McCall 2001). Very The Movius Line is the widely adopted division between the few microwear or residue analyses have produced convincing handaxe-making hominins of Lower Palaeolithic Africa and evidence for the functions of any of these artefacts (Shea 2006; western Eurasia and the non-handaxe-making hominins of but see Binneman and Beaumont 1992; Domínguez-Rodrigo et East and Southeast Asia (Lycett and Bae 2010). It was first al. 2001; Keeley 1980, 1993; Mitchell 1997). proposed by the Harvard archaeologist Hallam Movius (1907- The earliest known bifaces identified as Acheulean date to 1987) following his 1930s fieldwork in Burma and Java (Movius around 1.76 Ma in Africa (Gibbon et al. 2009; Lepre et al. 2011), 1944, 1948, 1949). The Southeast Asian Palaeolithic assemblages, and the Acheulean tool-making ‘tradition’ is generally thought Movius argued, were characterised by crude chopper-chopping to have disappeared by ca 100,000 years ago (Ka) (Lycett and tools and contained few, if any, true Acheulean handaxes, Gowlett 2008). In spite of this vast time span, and despite which were inferred to be common on sites throughout Africa, frequent assumptions to the contrary, there are no attributes of Europe, the Levant and the Indian subcontinent. Movius Acheulean bifaces that are chronologically unique. Bifaces that proposed the concept of a technological demarcation line in are essentially typologically identical to Acheulean handaxes order to delineate the easternmost distribution of handaxes. He appear in multiple periods in the prehistoric and historical argued that, beyond the Movius Line (see Coon 1966:47-48), records (Johansen and Stapert 1995; Otte 2003; Stapert 1981). early hominins in eastern Asia were biologically and culturally For example, in terms of the latter, Tindale (1949) recorded static due to genetic isolation from populations in Africa and Aboriginal people in the Gulf of Carpentaria making Acheulean- western Eurasia (Movius 1944, 1948).
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