The Origins of Ground-Edge Axes: New Findings from Nawarla Gabarnmang, Arnhem Land

Home , Chopping tool, Hohle Fels, Spirit Cave (Thailand)

The Origins of Ground-edge Axes: New Findings from Nawarla Gabarnmang, Arnhem Land

The Origins of Ground-edge Axes: New Findings from Nawarla Gabarnmang, Arnhem Land (Australia) and Global Implications for the Evolution of Fully Modern Humans

Jean-Michel Geneste, Bruno David, Hugues Plisson, Jean-Jacques Delannoy & Fiona Petchey

The grinding of stone to make sharp cutting edges did not evolve with the emergence of biologically modern humans in Africa, but late in the Pleistocene at the completion or near- completion of the Out-of-Africa 2 migration. Here we discuss the earliest securely-dated fragment of ground-edge axe from Australia, dated at 35,500 cal. bp, an age slightly older or comparable to the earliest ages for edge-grinding from the Pacific Ocean’s western seaboard. In this region ground-edge axes did not evolve with the emergence of agriculture, nor for the clearance of forests, but, rather, as socially mediated technology, part of the development of symbolic storage that is the hallmark of the evolution of cognitively modern humans at the geographical end, during, or following, Out-of-Africa 2.

The world’s earliest stone tools date to 2.52–2.60 mil- manipulations (de Beaune 2000; 2003), long-distance lion years ago and predate the earliest known Homo trade (Bon 2009, 241–63; Hovers & Braun 2009) and species along the Gona River of the Afar region of fully linguistically mediated group behaviour (Bicker- Ethiopia, eastern Africa (Semaw et al. 1997). Even ton 2003; d’Errico et al. 2003; Gamble & Coward 2009; older knapped stone tools are posited to exist, with Vanhaeren & d’Errico 2006). Each of these components the recent discovery of cut marks on 3.4 million-year- of social life, from complex multi-component tools old bones from Dikika attributed to Australopithecus to environmental manipulations, is permeated with afarensis, also in Ethiopia (McPherron et al. 2010). Such symbolic storage because it incorporates very particu- early core and flake tools were all manufactured by lar ways of doing things subject to human cognisance. freehand percussion, although bipolar debitage is These ‘ways of doing’ result in particular material also found in Oldowan times (Braun et al. 2009; Clark signatures to all kinds of products, from objects to & Kleindienst 2001; de la Torre et al. 2003; de la Torre lived landscapes. While such products may be seen & Mora 2009). as ‘economic production’, they also involve a socio- With the evolution of Homo sapiens between economy of symbolic meaning and reproduction. 200,000 and 100,000 years ago emerged a broad range However, such technological and cognitive innova- of technological and cognitive innovations (e.g. Dea- tions did not suddenly come in a single package with con & Deacon 1999) that over time came to incorporate the evolution of biologically fully modern humans new forms of symbolic behaviour including rock art (for a review of the evidence, see Habgood & Franklin (Henshilwood et al. 2002; Conard & Bolus 2003; 2008; 2008). Rather, over the tens of thousands of years Conard et al. 2003; d’Errico et al. 2010; Parkington et following the first emergence of biologically modern al. 2005), complex multi-component tools (Mellars humans during the Middle Stone Age by 100,000 et al. 2007; Zilhão & d’Errico 2003), environmental years ago in Africa (Anton & Swisher 2004; Field et

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Open University Library, on 18 Jan 2020 at 01:12:01, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774312000017 Jean-Michel Geneste et al.

al. 2007), new technologies and symbolic behaviours grinding with an abrading tool, such as ground-edge were gradually and cumulatively added out of Africa. axes and ground flakes, from the abrading tools used Sahul, that region on the extreme eastern edge of the to manufacture various materials such as objects of Out-of-Africa 2 migration route, has a crucial part to adornment, plant produce, stone tools, and miner- play in understanding those behavioural traits that als for the production of pigments, such as files emerged following, versus prior to, the out of Africa and grinding stones. Globally, and concerning raw migration, for innovations identified in Sahul will materials other than stone, the oldest-known cases indicate post-migration inventions that emerged sub- of grinding are found on bone tools from Swartkrans sequent to Homo sapiens’ early behavioural develop- and Drimolen (Backwell & d’Errico in press; d’Errico ments. Identifying such post-migration developments & Backwell 2009). enables a better understanding of the extent to which In Europe, fine, intentionally abraded shallow biologically modern humans became behaviourally bowls in sedimentary rocks and calcite have been modern in a process of ongoing developments. found in residential sites attributed to the Mousterian. One of these traits of modernity concerns ‘sym- The discovery of stone receptacles for the preparation bolic storage’, which many authors have identified as of ochre at Cioarei Cave is testimony to the intentional originating in Africa but continuing to unfold during transformation of blocks of stone by pounding and and subsequent to the Out-of-Africa 2 migration (e.g. abrasion (Carciumaru et al. 2010). Habgood & Franklin 2008; Wadley 2001). Symbolic Generally, scraped and abraded pigments are storage cannot in itself be reduced to short-term ergo- most notably found at habitation sites dating from nomic efficiency, although this does not mean that it the end of the Middle Palaeolithic. In the southwest works counter to adaptive principles. Rather, symbolic of France, more than 500 fragments of red (iron storage in material culture concerns the way in which oxides, haematite, goethite) and black (manganese objects store information about meaning, meanings dioxide) pigments were ground for decoration and that relate to one’s physical and socio-cultural loca- thus symbolic expression by Homo neanderthalensis tion. Symbolic storage imbues things, physical and during the Mousterian. There are now more than 70 non-physical, with a presence enhanced by social sites that have yielded such pigments; at Pech de l’Azé value. By adding social meaning, symbolic storage rockshelter these go as far back as 50–60,000 bp (Sor- also socially structures use-value, for meaning comes essi & d’Errico 2007; d’Errico et al. 2009). In the cave into being in social and cultural codes, in culturally of Blombos in South Africa, red-ochre crayons were engaged social interaction. striated by abrasion during use in the Middle Stone Here we report on the discovery of the oldest Age, 70,000 years ago and presumably by Homo sapiens fragment of ground-edge axe in the world, and the (Henshilwood et al. 2002; Henshilwood & d’Errico origins of ground-edge axes, as one such innovation 2005; d’Errico et al. 2010). Grinding tools and abraded indicative of symbolic storage that took place follow- objects appear sporadically during the European ing Out-of-Africa 2 along the Southern Arc dispersal Upper Palaeolithic after 30,000 bp and include pestles, route as humans crossed from Africa to southern Asia handstones, cupules and shallow stone bowls (de into northeast Asia and Australia between 70,000 Beaune 2000; 2004). The earliest grinding tools used for and 50,000 years ago (cf. Balme et al. 2009). We argue plant-food processing in Europe come from Bilancino that this innovation cannot be understood simply in II in Italy (dated to 28,298±301 cal. bc), Kostenki 16 in abstract technological terms, but must also consider Russia (31,904±698 cal. bc) and Pavlov VI in the Czech the evolution of symbolic behaviour as socially medi- Republic (29,482±288 cal. bc) (Revedin et al. 2010). At ated technology. the Upper Palaeolithic occupation site of Kostenki IV (Aleksandrovskaya) on the Russian plains, mortars The origins of grinding and pestles have also been reported from levels dated to 23,000–21,000 bp (Semenov 1964 [1957], 137, fig. 67). Despite the manufacture and use of flaked stone tools In Europe there is also firm evidence for the by hominins in Ethiopia more than two million years grinding of stone in the manufacture of portable and ago (McPherron et al. 2010; Semaw et al. 1997), the fixed rock art during the Upper Palaeolithic. In France shaping of stone tools by grinding does not appear shallow bowls ground in stone used for mixing pig- in human evolution until about 35,500 years ago ments and lamps for the burning of animal fat are anywhere in the world, coincident in time with the symmetrically shaped and decorated, such as those emergence of naturalistic rock imagery (Clottes 2007; of Lascaux and of Solvieux (Sackett 1999, figs. 4.7, 4.8; Parkington et al. 2005; Valladas et al. 2001). Here we de Beaune 2000; 2004). Further to the east at Denisova distinguish between tools intentionally shaped by Cave in Siberia a finely polished bracelet dated to 2

30,000 bp is made of semi-precious ground chloritolite but not in others. In Western Europe, ground axes first (Derevianko et al. 2008), although the indirect dat- appear during the Mesolithic in the United Kingdom, ing, in a complex stratigraphy with superior Bronze Ireland, Scandinavia and Russia and increase signifi- age levels, is questionable. From France to Siberia, cantly in frequency during the Neolithic (Hernek 2005; female (‘Venus’) figurines from the early and middle Pailler & Sheridan 2009). phases of the Upper Palaeolithic evidence the use of The first ground-edge axes are found at the grinding and polishing stone technology to produce beginning of the Mesolithic in Ireland, such as at figurative objects with presumably high social value. Lough Boora (Co. Offaly), in habitation levels dated Examples dating to the Aurignacian and Gravettian to 7160–6260 bc. In Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the between 30,000 and 25,000 bp include the famous stone numerous ground-edge axes reliably dated to the and ivory figurines from Galgenberg, Willendorf, Mesolithic indicate that edge-grinding had appeared Grimaldi, Sireuil, Tursac and Kostenki for example by the eighth millennium bc, well before the com- (Conard 2009; Leroi-Gourhan 1995; Neugebauer- mencement of Neolithic lifeways (Pailler & Sheridan Maresch 1989; Svoboda 2008). 2009, 31–2). In the Near East, tools to grind grain and vege- In Siberia the oldest ground axes date to 20,000 bp table fibre are well known from Natufian levels dated in the valley of Yenisei (Oda & Keally 1973, 19, cited to 15,000 bp (Bar-Yosef 1998, fig. 11; 2002). In southern by Anderson & Summerhayes 2008, 49). On the Rus- Africa, grinding stones and the abrasion of stone dates sian plain and in northern Russia ground axes make to the Late Stone Age from 8500 bp onwards (Ambrose their appearance around 8500 bp during the Meso- 1998). Ground shell artefacts are found in the Moluccas lithic; at Zamostje the surfaces of about 50 per cent 12,000 bp (Bellwood 1997, 187, cited in Anderson & of axes are entirely ground, and at Nijnee Veretje 1 Summerhayes 2008, 51). they are nearly completely ground (Lozovski 1996). In Australia, stones used for grinding have In the Near East, ground-stone objects make their been discovered at Malakunanja II bracketed by appearance at the end of the Natufian as containers 61,000±13,000 and 45,000±9000 year-old TL dates and tools for the processing of plant foods rather than (Roberts et al. 1990, 153), although little has been pub- as axe-heads. In Sultanian tool kits, between 10,300 bp lished about these stones. Pieces of use-striated hae- and 9300 bp, limestone celts are present (Bar-Yosef matite occur in the same date-context at Malakunanja 1998, fig. 11). In northwestern and Saharan Africa, II (Roberts et al. 1990, 153), and also at Nauwalabila ground-edge axes begin to appear after the Capsian 1 in close association with a 53,400±5400 year-old which developed between 8500 and 6500 bp (Philipp- TL date (Jones & Johnson 1985; Roberts et al. 1993). son 2005; Smith 2005). Elsewhere in Africa it is in Use-striated ochre is also found at Sandy Creek 1 the Late Stone Age and with agro-pastoralists that on Cape York Peninsula dated at 31,900+700/–600 bp ground-edge axes become common, often in associa- (Cole et al. 1995, 154). While there are claims for tion with other ground objects. At Border Cave in grinding stones dating back to 33,300±530 bp from southern Africa, as early as 38,000 bp the transition Cuddie Springs (Fullagar & Field 1997), the chrono- from the Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age saw stratigraphic integrity of this site has been seriously the development of a microlithic industry associated questioned by a number of authors (e.g. Brook et al. with more ‘modern’ assemblages such as bone points 2007; David 2002, 169–76; Gillespie & David 2001; and bored stones shaped and perforated by abrasion Gillespie & Brook 2006), and cannot at this stage (Beaumont et al. 1978; Sadr et al. 2006, 405). be taken as reliable evidence (see also Habgood & Unlike the contiguous region of Europe–Africa– Franklin 2008 for an excellent review of the antiquity west Asia–north Asia, eastern Asia and the New of grinding stones and ochre use in Australia). Guinea–Australian region of Sahul present a different These findings indicate that the appearance of scenario. grinding tools for the production of objects of art, with In southern China a ground-edge stone axe implications for the production of visual symbolism, from layer 4 at Bailiandong Cave in Guangxi Pro- have a long antiquity around the world, with most vince is dated by two radiocarbon determinations examples coming from late Pleistocene levels onwards of 19,350±180 bp and 20,960±150 bp (Zhao et al. 2004, in direct association with modern Homo sapiens. 132). At the site of Liyuzui also in Guangxi Province a ground-edge axe is bracketed by radiocarbon dates of The earliest ground-stone axes 21,025±450 bp and 11,450±150 bp. Terminal Pleistocene ages have also been assigned to ground-edge tools Grinding as a technology to create functional stone from Dushizai Cave and Huangyandong Cave (both tools has a similar antiquity in some parts of the world of Guangdong Province). There are also less certain 3

terminal Pleistocene ‘polished’ stones from Xianren- trench parallel and adjacent to Trezise’s original pit dong Cave and Diatonghua Cave (Zhao et al. 2004). and obtained charcoal from the nearby stratigraphy In Japan the oldest ground-edge axes date to to reveal an age of 31,900+700/–600 bp for the basal c. 30,000–23,000 bp, the earliest from Stratum Xb of rubble that is said to have contained the axe. As the the Musashidai site in Tokyo (Oda & Keally 1992, axe was supposedly found at the base of the rubble, 25). Approximately 60 per cent of the more than 200 Morwood and Trezise (1989, 81) argued that the ground-edge or waisted axe-like implements that radiocarbon determination ‘provides a minimum age have been found below the AT marker tephra on for the edge-ground axe’. However, the original axe Honshu and Kyushu are ground. While poorly dated, had long been lost and its supposed basal chrono- these tools are older than the AT marker tephra dated stratigraphic positioning was compromised by the to sometime between 21,000 and 22,000 bp (Machida amateur enterprise and lack of rigorous scientific & Arai 1983, cited in Oda & Keally 1992, 25). Until procedures, prompting serious doubts about the recently these artefacts represented the oldest evi- reliability of the Sandy Creek 1 claims. dence of edge grinding in the world, with Australia’s Pleistocene axes dating to a broadly similar age. Nawarla Gabarnmang Pleistocene ground-edge axes have been excavated from northern Australian sites since the 1960s Nawarla Gabarnmang is a newly-rediscovered site (White 1967). Most of these tools come from Arnhem in Jawoyn Aboriginal country in southwestern Arn- Land in the centre-north of the country: examples hem Land (Fig. 1). Located on top of the escarpment made on porphyritic dolerite, quartz dolerite and in the Kombolgie Formation, it is a highly unusual hornfels are known from the lowermost Levels IIIa horizontally-bedded but intercalated stable hard and IIIb at Malangangerr, dated from 18,000±400 bp orthoquartzite and softer and less stable quartz sand- to 22,900±1000 bp respectively (Schrire 1982, 84, 107). stone formation which has over a geologically-long At Nawamoyn, porphyritic dolerite and hornfels period been subjected to in situ weathering of the bed- ground-edge axes have also been found in Lev- rock through hydration and solution processes along els IIIa and IIIb, the latter dated to 21,450±380 bp bedding planes and fissure lines. The end-product is (Schrire 1982, 118, 143). At Nauwalabila 1, fragments a double-ended cave with sub-horizontal ceiling rang- of ground-edge axes were recovered as far down as ing from 1.75 m to 2.45 m above the floor level. Across Unit 45 (149 cm below ground), originally estimated the more open and thus easily accessed part of the site from the extrapolated depth-age curve to date to is a natural grid-shaped alignment of 36 stone pillars 15,000–16,000 bp (Jones & Johnson 1985, 216) and (Fig. 2) each separated by fissure lines along which the subsequently shown to date to sometime between bedrock has weathered away from ground to ceiling, 12,330±120 and 18,330±280 bp by an extensive AMS leaving behind the pillars as relicts of weathering radiocarbon dating programme using ABOX pre- processes. The archaeological implication of these treatment (Bird et al. 2002, 1065) and 13,500±900 geomorphological features is highly significant: a spa- and 30,000±2400 years old by OSL dating (Roberts tious cave, 19 m long by 19 m wide shelters expansive et al. 1993, 58). Chemically-weathered imported culturally-bearing sediments entirely protected from porphyritic dolerite flakes likely to have come from rainfall. Despite the low pH (3.71–5.93) and thus high ground-edge axes were also found as far down as acidity values of its sediments (as is the case across Unit 70 at depths of 2.13–2.43 cm below ground and all of Arnhem Land generally), the implication is thereby dating to sometime between 30,000±2400 and that ancient cultural remains have a better chance of 53,400±5400 years ago by OSL (Roberts et al. 1993, 58), being preserved in this site than in any other known but these artefacts are too weathered and decom- archaeological site in Arnhem Land. posed for surface features including traces of grind- In May 2010, two 50 cm × 60 cm archaeological ing to have preserved (Jones & Johnson 1985, 196–7, excavations (Squares A and B) were undertaken in dif- 216–18, 297). To the west at Widgingarri Shelter 1 in ferent parts of the site to test its archaeological poten- the Kimberley, fragments of ground-edge axes have tial. Here we report on Square A only (Fig. 3). Excava- been reported from spit 17 dated to 27,610±600 bp tion was undertaken in mean 1.8 cm-thick arbitrary (O’Connor 1990, 194, 246–51). To the east of Arn- Excavation Units (XU) following Stratigraphic Units hem Land, a local amateur dug a hole at the site of (SU) where visible in situ until bedrock was reached Sandy Creek 1 in Cape York Peninsula in the 1960s, 66.2 cm below surface. Cultural materials ≥2.0 cm retrieving an edge-ground axe supposedly from 3 m observed in situ were plotted in three dimensions (9' 10") below ground (Morwood & Trezise 1989). (3-D) and bagged separately. Charcoal samples In 1989 archaeologist Mike Morwood excavated a were also plotted in 3-D and individually bagged 4

Table 1. Radiocarbon data from Nawarla Gabarnmang, Square A. * = δ13C value measured, but not reported. See text for calibration references. Conventional Depth below δ13C‰ XU SU radiocarbon age Calibrated age Lab no. ground (cm) (±0.2) (bp) 320–280, 170–150 bp (68%) 1 1 0.3 24.7 250±30 Wk-28123 430–360, 330–270, 190–140, 20–10 bp (95%) 280–250, 230–170, 160–130, 120–70, 40–10 bp (68%) 3 2 6.1 26.0 142±30 Wk-28614 290–0 bp (95%) 1520–1400 bp (68%) 5 3 8.3 23.0 1560±30 Wk-28615 1530–1380 bp (95%) 2350–2300, 2240–2180 bp (68%) 6 3 6.7 24.6 2264±30 Wk-28124 2350–2290, 2260–2150 bp (95%) 2310–2240, 2180–2170, 2160–2120 bp (68%) 8 3 13.0 26.2 2165±30 Wk-28612 2310–2060 bp (95%) 9600–9530 bp (68%) 11 3–4 interface 17.4 25.1 8616±34 Wk-28611 9670–9520 bp (95%) 10,180–10,130, 10,070–10,010, 10,000–9940 bp (68%) 12 3–4 interface 19.9 26.4 8924±31 Wk-28125 10,200–10,110, 10,090–9910 bp (95%) 10,560–10,480, 10,470–10,420 bp (68%) 14 3–4 interface 21.8 25.3 9287±30 Wk-28613 10,580–10,380, 10,320–10,300 bp (95%) 11,190–11,090, 10,920–10,900 bp (68%) 16 4 23.0 na* 9670±34 Wk-28126 11,200–11,070, 10,960–10,860, 10,850–10,800 bp (95%) 13,840–13,710 bp (68%) 18 4 25.2 27.1 11,907±40 Wk-28619 13,910–13,610 bp (95%) 14,220–14,000 bp (68%) 20 4 28.9 25.4 12,261±43 Wk-28622 14,800–14,760, 14,550–13,920 bp (95%) 15,080–14,790, 14,750–14,660 bp (68%) 23 4 34.4 25.2 12,599±42 Wk-28617 15,200–14,520, 14,300–14,280 bp (95%) 21,410–21,050 bp (68%) 24 4–5 interface 37.8 26.1 17,722±64 Wk-28128 21,480–20,810, 20,700–20,560 bp (95%) 15,240–14,940 bp (68%) 25 4–5 interface 38.5 25.2 12,746±43 Wk-28620 15,570–14,870, 14,830–14,770 bp (95%) 36,120–36,020, 35,340–34,730 bp (68%) 28 5 46.5 23.7 30,615±309 Wk-28616 36,260–35,820, 35,640–34,620 bp (95%) 36,420–35,200 bp (68%) 29 5 46.1 25.4 31,316±618 Wk-28130 37,110–34,690 bp (95%) 36,280–35,760, 35,740–35,070 bp (68%) 31 5 52.7 24.7 31,063±595 Wk-28131 36,710–34,650 bp (95%) 36,170–35,960, 35,460–34,850 bp (68%) 31 5 51.2 24.2 30,761±314 Wk-28621 36,290–35,760, 35,710–34,720 bp (95%)

for AMS radiocarbon dating. All other excavated than 30,000 bp, and thus representing the oldest sediments were sieved in 2.1 mm mesh sieves and securely dated ground-edge implement in the world. all retained materials bagged for laboratory sorting The deepest and oldest layer is SU5 with a at the Monash University archaeology laboratories. thickness ranging from 7 cm to 31 cm, depending Relatively large pieces of wood charcoal were found on the uneven bedrock configuration and whether throughout the excavation, sometimes in extremely a sediment-filled narrow fissure in the bedrock is large quantities measured by the hundreds of grams included. The ground-edge axe fragment comes from per XU, thus offering unprecedented opportuni- XU30 in SU5, at a depth between 47.7 cm and 50.4 cm ties for radiocarbon dating in Arnhem Land. Here below ground. The buried stones within these XUs we report the significant finding of a confirmed lay horizontally flat, and thus parallel to the configu- fragment of ground-edge axe sandwiched midway ration of the SU in which they lay, indicating a lack between four AMS radiocarbon determinations, of significant post-depositional turbation. No roots each on a single fragment of charcoal dated to more or rootlets were evident at this depth; indeed plants 5

Coo VAN DIEMEN GULF pe E r C ast All re ig e a k to r R i ver

S o u r t e h v i A R l r l

o g

Wildman a

a t

g r

i R

l v

t s e Nawamoyn

r River W Jimeri Paribari Ngarradj Warde Djobkeng Malangangerr Malakunanja

E as t A ll iga to M r Ri ver ag ela Cre ve ek Ri r n r a e v m i

d R l i r

o W t

g i l

A Nangalawurr

s e Nawulandja Spirit Cave,Yiboiog W Ki’na Anbangbang

Jim J i D m Cr ea ee th k A d de r C Bala-uru reek Nauwalabila 1 Djuwarr 1

S o u t h Nawarla A l l i g Gabarnmang a t o r R iv e r

a r

ry e

v R i iv

e R r

n Riv sso er r rgu e Fe v i R e n wetlands ri e th a

0 30 Katherine km Figure 2. Nawarla Gabarnmang, showing stone pillars, Figure 1. Location of Nawarla Gabarnmang, with excavation Square B in the foreground. The site is northern Australia. extensively decorated with rock paintings.

‘EAST’ ‘SOUTH’ cm 0 SU1 xu1 xu1 SU1 xu2 xu2 SU2 xu3 xu3 SU2 bedrock xu4 xu4 xu5 xu5 10 xu6 xu6 xu7 xu7 xu8 xu8 SU3 SU3 xu9 xu9 xu10 xu10 xu11 xu11 xu12 xu12 not excavated 20 xu13 xu13 xu14 xu14 xu15 xu15 xu16 xu16 xu17 xu17 xu18 xu18 xu19 xu19 xu20 SU4 xu20 30 xu21 xu21 bedrock xu22 pedestal xu22 xu23 SU4 xu23 xu24 (not excavated) xu25 xu24 xu25 xu26 40 xu26 xu27 xu27 xu28 SU5 xu28 xu29 SU5 bedrock xu29 50 xu30 xu30 bedrock ? xu31 xu31 bedrock xu32 xu32 rock xu33 xu34 xu33 xu35 60 xu34 xu36 charcoal xu35 xu36 not excavated Figure 3. East and south root 70 not excavated sections of Square A,

rootlets (indicative) Nawarla Gabarnmang.

Figure 4. A) Side, dorsal and ventral views of the Pleistocene Nawarla Gabarnmang ground-edge axe fragment from Square A. B) Close-up view of the ground surface of the Pleistocene ground-edge axe fragment. C) Close-up view of the ground surface (away from the cutting edge) of the late Holocene ground-edge axe from Square B. D) Close-up view of the ground surface (at the cutting edge) of the late Holocene ground-edge axe from Square B. E) Late Holocene ground- edge axe from Square B, Nawarla Gabarnmang. 7

tend not to grow today anywhere within the driplines Technical description of the fragment of at the site. Sediments in each of the five Stratigraphic ground-edge axe Units consist of compact and well-consolidated loamy sands produced by chemical alteration of the sur- The stone raw material is crystalline, of a basaltic type rounding sandstone bedrock and accumulated aeolian with reasonably fine crystals. The surface is beige in sediments. The terminal Pleistocene sediments of colour and chemically altered. It has been affected by SU4, incorporating the last glacial maximum into the contact with clay deposits, and residual red staining Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, consist of a layer of in spaces between grains suggests the presence of exfoliated sandstone roof-fall rocks infilled with com- iron oxide. Thin-sectioning for petrographic analysis pact loamy sands sealing the underlying SU5 (which cannot be undertaken because of the high historical contains the fragment of ground-edge axe reported and cultural value of the piece. here) from overlying sediments. While a proportion The object is a thin flake detached by percussion of these sediments arguably originated directly from from a straight edge. It measures 2.55 cm × 3.93 cm the bedrock, in particular from minor fallen roof or and 0.61 cm in thickness (Fig. 4). The ventral surface pillar material, another, more important proportion reveals the crystalline structure of the rock. The point originated externally, transported a short distance of impact from which the flake was detached can be through aeolian processes to be deposited into the site clearly distinguished. The flake exhibits no evidence and thus forming significant proportions of the soft of further modification following detachment. Its mor- deposit. At the very base of Square A and upwards for phology shows that it was removed from the upper a few centimetres only above bedrock (but well below surface of the original tool. The percussion angle was the lowermost radiocarbon determinations), a concen- close to 90° with the adjacent side, and the precision tration of rounded gravel-sized sediments indicates of the percussion angle and force combined with the transport along narrow and shallow channels etched thinness of the flake indicates that it was removed into the bedrock by water action during a period prior intentionally. to the deposition of the present soft sediments. The dorsal surface of the flake is smooth, slightly Throughout much of the excavated sequence convex in width and slightly less convex in length. above the thin concentration of very basal gravels, Under acute-angled light it exhibits grinding stria- stone artefacts mainly made of quartzite and chert tions along its entire length, created by a material number in the thousands, but preliminary analysis necessarily of greater hardness and abrasiveness of the entire excavated deposit indicates that the than the flake itself. The flake was ground smooth fragment of ground-edge axe reported here is a rare with a relatively fine-grained raw material. Likely example of volcanic rock found. We note that high- candidates are the quartz sandstone or ortho- quality quartzite for the manufacture of long cutting quartzite bedrock of the Kombolgie Formation, found edges is available in large quantities within the site across much of Arnhem Land and of which Nawarla itself, whose ceiling was also a quartzite quarry. Gabarnmang is a part. Four charcoal samples were taken for radio- The distribution and structure of the abraded carbon determination from the lower excavation units surface indicates that grinding was intentional. The (XU27 to XU31 in SU5) surrounding the fragment of abraded surface contains a homogeneous central pla- ground-edge axe. These four near-basal determina- teau, ground smooth along its upper reaches, below tions continue a sequence of an additional 14 AMS which along its slope the relief becomes coarser with radiocarbon ages from the surface down, in good an increasing density of shallow surface depressions, chrono-stratigraphic order. These samples were vestiges of prior hammer dressing or of the original prepared at the Waikato Radiocarbon Dating Labo- surface of the rock. ratory in New Zealand using a standard acid-base- On this plateau can be distinguished under acid treatment (Olsson 1986). Graphite targets were binocular microscope (10× magnification) sets of prepared by the reduction of cryogenically-purified superimposed and criss-crossing striations notable

CO2 to graphite, using hydrogen over pre-cleaned for their short length (0.5 cm on average). Some sets iron powder at 550°C. The radiocarbon results were are more pronounced, in particular among the longer calibrated using IntCal09 (Reimer et al. 2009) in OxCal striations. This suggests either a disparity in the size v4.1.7 (Bronk Ramsey 2010) and produced a combined of the grains on the grinding stone used (if this was statistically indistinguishable age of 36,230–35,880 the case this disparity should also be seen in their and 35,580–34,850 cal. bp, equivalent to a mean age of distribution across the flake, which it is not) or, more 35,400±410 cal. bp for the four SU5 samples (95.4 per likely, variations in the down-force employed during 2 cent prob.; χ 3:0.05 = 1.232 < 7.815). grinding, further re-enforcing an intentional cause. 8

The ends of the abraded striations along the edge dorsal surface evenly ground to a slight convexity of the flake are flush with the detachment edge. There prior to its detachment, exhibits all the characteris- is no evidence of subsequent modification in the form tics of a lateral fragment of the cutting surface of a of retouch or subsequent grinding. We are therefore ground-edge axe. The percussion angle is close to 90° dealing with a fragment of an originally larger ground with the dorsal surface, and the precision of applica- object that can be further investigated microscopically. tion of percussion force combined with the thinness The cutting edge of ground-edge stone axes is of the removal indicates an intentional action. The generally characterized by their unidirectional final removal of the flake was aimed at thinning a side abrasion, either longitudinal or transverse (Fig. 4D). of the axe, near its lateral margin and fairly close The ground flake from Nawarla Gabarnmang cannot to the effective cutting edge so as to remove a small therefore come from the cutting edge itself of the axe, protuberance indicated by a concentration of short, given the positioning of its abrasions and the multi- multidirectional striations. directional distribution of its striations. Ground-edge stone axes are usually only partially ground, and in Archaeological implications Arnhem Land no examples of fully-ground tools are known. The axe is usually manufactured from a large The advent of ground-edge axes around the world has flake or core blank initially shaped by percussion. On been widely heralded as a technological achievement some axes only the cutting edge is ground, but grind- of ecological, environmental and adaptive innova- ing can also be found on the adjacent sides. For an axe tion and efficiency that enabled the cutting of trees to work efficiently, the zone of contact with the worked for clearing, the working of timber, branches or bark, material needs to be smooth. Residual surface protru- extraction of prey from natural hollows, hollowing sions thus need to be flattened and ground smooth to of dugout canoes, working of wood towards the eliminate friction points that would limit the capacity construction of tools and complex installations and of the cutting edge to penetrate. Any coarseness along the like. In the Northern Hemisphere, explanations the cutting edge would counter the work of the axe as for the onset of edge grinding typically evoke the a tool of penetration. Consideration of these functional exploitation of forest landscapes where axes are seen characteristics can be seen on the known complete as highly efficient, adaptive tools that emerged as a ground-edge axes from Arnhem Land, one example result of increasing post-glacial demographic pres- of which was also excavated at Nawarla Gabarnmang, sures necessitating deforestation and the clearing of in late Holocene levels in XU24 of Square B (Fig. 4E). land in preparation for agriculture and a sedentary This late Holocene axe enables better under- lifestyle (Lewin & Foley 2003; Toth & Schick 2009). standing of the Pleistocene ground flake, as the most Other explanations would see ground-edge axes in salient aspect of the former’s cutting edge is that it Neolithic Europe used in wood-working and for cut- has been reduced by grinding against a fine-grained ting thinner items than tree-trunks. There is a very abrasive material, with very short and highly localized rich organic material culture in northern Europe that criss-crossing movements resulting in sets of intersect- used wood for anything from houses to snow-shoes ing striations (Fig. 4C) reminiscent in structure and or baskets, and these small but sharp axes would have distribution of those on the Pleistocene ground flake been useful for those. (Fig. 4B). The left side of the late Holocene axe’s cutting In Australia, explanations revolving around the edge has a morphology that is entirely comparable to clearing of early Holocene forests for agriculture do the detached Pleistocene flake, wider than long, from not hold, firstly because ground-edge axes precede a removal surface partially ground and detached by by many millennia the last glacial maximum, and percussion from an unground rectilinear edge. secondly because they were not typically used for Although the Pleistocene flake does not intersect deforestation in a move towards agriculture and the cutting chord of the original tool, the sum of its sedentism. On the other hand, ground-edge axes were observed technological traits excludes the possibi- here produced into the late nineteenth century ad, and lity that we are dealing with an artefact that was continue to be made today in the neighbouring island ground after the production of the flake, or a portion of New Guinea (Pétrequin & Pétrequin 1993). of grinding stone or percussion tool, and no other Ethnographic sources indicate that the exchange similar Aboriginal object is known from ancient or of ground-edge axes was integrated with regional more recent, ethnographic times other than ground- circulation networks of prestige goods, kinship rela- edge axes. Therefore, we can safely conclude that the tions and ceremonial activities informed by local Pleistocene ground flake from Nawarla Gabarnmang, and regional cosmologies (see Paton 1994; Sharp wider than it is long, with large straight butt and a 1952; Thomson 1949). Ground-edge axes played an 9

important role in the dissemination of cosmologi- The question remains as to why, if at all, ground- cal understandings of the world and their symbolic edge axes deserve special consideration greater than representations. The universal lesson here is that that applied to flaked artefacts as objects of symbolic the construction, use and geographical circulation storage. We suggest that in themselves, flaked and of objects such as ground-edge axes are mediated by ground tools are no different in this sense. What is the way that people understand the world to operate different in the case of ground-edge axes is two-fold: cosmologically, and in doing so the object becomes a 1. The social aesthetics of symmetry. Ground-edge axes vehicle of socially-mediated symbolic storage. Under- are produced as symmetrical or near-symmetrical standing the manufacture, trade, function and use of objects, and this aesthetic dimension gives them ground-edge axes in Australia, and by implication added symbolic weight (we would extend this elsewhere, requires us to go beyond their utilitarian same argument to other symmetrical objects roles as chopping tools to see them as objects of high including Acheulian ‘hand-axes’, as others have social repute accessed between groups through the done before us). Grinding is a short-cut to sym- way their raw materials and originary landscapes metry; here it is not so much grinding itself that is were imbued with meaning and cosmological powers at issue, for symmetry can also be created by flak- that connect people to places and to the ancestors (cf. ing, but that grinding facilitates symmetry beyond Brumm 2010). Owing to their highly-localized position flaking for most stone workers. Their relatively in the landscape, stone quarries, and in this regard large size enhances their potential to be seen at a ground-edge axe quarries in particular owing to their distance, and in this their aesthetic value crosses intensified and therefore embedded work effort as from the hidden to the public, affording ground- highly curated quarried objects, also externalize ter- edge axes a heightened sense of social prestige. ritorial understandings and their culturally-specific 2. The symbolism of efficiency. The success of an axe as cosmological dimensions (Thomson 1949). It is this a cutting or chopping tool resides in the angular spatio-temporal landscape inscription of objects that smoothness of its cutting edge. Other than melting takes place when stone-axe quarries are accessed, metal (and prior to the advent of recent synthetic axes are manufactured, and exchanged, conferring products), stone grinding is the most efficient extended notions of value and utilitarianism onto their technological process known for creating a smooth handlers that go beyond their immediate economic cutting edge on an axe. This edge-efficiency worth as chopping tools. In those exchanges came renders ground-edge axes not only the most effi- the passing of values, meanings and symbolic under- cient chopping tools, but also gives them a high standings not only of the objects themselves, but of symbolic value as ‘state of the art’. the lived and meaningful landscapes which connected Ground-edge axes are thus social investments in groups with their resources as cosmological-territorial aesthetism and symbols of efficacy; what is at stake inscriptions. here is not only the productive efficiency of the tool, In relating the ancient, 35,500-year-old fragment but its socially-reproductive value (symbolic value of ground-edge axe from Nawarla Gabarnmang to enhances the maintenance of knowledge). Symbolic ethnographic observations of the cosmological sig- storage operates in all objects, not only ground-edge nificance of axes in Aboriginal Australia, we are not axes, but the latters’ social symbolism is enhanced arguing for continuity in meaning across this vast by the foregoing qualities. Because the extraction period of time or from Australia to Europe, but for of stone from localized quarries and the prolonged the universal point that objects are always socially working of the stone into ground edges is geared to meaningful — and thus always have social value and the manufacture of a non-expedient tool that can be thus social use-value over and above their more conven- used anytime in the near or distant future, a ground- tionally considered ‘economic efficiency’ — through edge axe’s immediate work value transforms the tool’s the way that places and things are cosmologically delayed-use value through its prolonged social value. mediated in social interaction. Here we consider The temporal space in this delay of value from the this issue through the example of stone axes, as a immediate work of manufacture to a potential future tool conventionally thought of only for its extractive use allows for its social exchange, and in doing so potential. The above principle of the social value of for its radical re-orientation from a functional tool objects applies just as much to things made and held to a symbol of prestige where the material attracts by peoples of Europe, the Americas or Australia, as it and embodies social meaning replete with flexible, does to cognitively fully-modern peoples of the past re-definable use-values. Simply put, a ground-edge and of the now (for greater exposition of this topic, see axe’s functional value remains dormant until the axe e.g. Appadurai 1986; Dant 1999). is put into use, its on-going (i.e. non-dormant) mate- 10

rial existence as possession not only allowing but also With the Nawarla Gabarnmang fragment of requiring, by virtue of its retention, the object to accrue ground-edge axe, now the oldest in the world, the meaning in its social embeddedness. This social reten- excavated sites of Arnhem Land have arguably pro- tion of the object, used or unused, directs its social duced one of the most significant set of ground-edge value; and the knowledge of its social presence and axes of the Pleistocene. This poses questions as to how material possibility from then-on causes a sociality of and why it is here along the western Pacific rim that its material presence even in the event of its particular stone edge-grinding appears to have first evolved, absence (i.e. through memory + meaningfulness, the without denying the possibility of subsequent inde- damage, destruction or disappearance of individual pendent inventions elsewhere. We conclude with axes attain social meaning as a momentum towards three observations that enable a better appraisal of curation, renewal and access of ground-edge axes into this question. the future). In these senses a ground-edge axe is an 1. Hunter-gatherer populations of the Southern example of heightened ‘symbolic storage’. Hemisphere adopted the grinding of rock for the Edge-grinding enhanced symbolic storage in manufacture of ground-edge axes well before their stone in a new way evident only after the arrival counterparts in Mesolithic and Neolithic Europe. of Homo sapiens along the western rim of the Pacific, This discovery has archaeological implications indicative of the continued cognitive evolution of, or very different from those that have prevailed in at least the application of symbolic cognitive abilities the standard explanations of the Northern Hemi- to a new material realm by, modern humans following sphere. the Out-of-Africa 2 migration. In the Northern Hemisphere excluding east Asia, and in Europe in particular, the grinding of Conclusion stone occurs only during the Upper Palaeolithic after 30,000 bp, as evidenced by examples of Because of the high investment in effort and time mobiliary and fixed (rock) art. Yet the application required for their manufacture as an efficient, large, of grinding on the edges of axes appears much later, socially-visible, portable symmetrical tool, as well between 8500 and 5000 bp and in association with as the limited distribution of raw material sources, changing environmental, ecological and economic ground-edge axes attain high regional symbolic conditions. Thus late Mesolithic–Neolithic tech- value steeped in the cosmologies of their makers and nological innovations such as the onset of edge- receivers, rendering them worthy of exchange as grinding have been directly attributed to the func- socially-valued objects, often over very long distances tional practicalities of intensified food production, (e.g. Brumm 2010). This social layer of heightened sedentism, and restructured subsistence impera- non-utilitarian value, we argue, represents a level of tives (Lewin & Foley 2003; Toth & Schick 2009). human cognition and symbolism that grew from the These are economic and adaptive approaches to Out-of-Africa 2 migration as early biologically fully- technological innovation that, while themselves modern Homo sapiens populations adapted to new relevant components of change, have usually (but landscapes and their social configurations. not always) come as exclusive explanations at the The discovery of the Nawarla Gabarnmang cost of symbolic interpretations of a kind seen ground-edge axe fragment confirms that the oldest to operate ethnographically in other parts of the ground-edge axes appeared in northern Australia globe. The problem with such explanations is that, around 35,500 years ago, many millennia before their by themselves, they silence meaning outside of independent invention in the contiguous region of economic rationalism. At Nawarla Gabarnmang, Africa, Europe and western Asia. The implication of and Arnhem Land generally, we argue that the its timing and of the geographical distribution of the onset of the world’s earliest ground-edge axe world’s oldest known ground-edge axes suggests a technology some 35,500 years ago was at its core continued process of symbolic evolution subsequent embedded in symbolic dimensions that allowed to the Out-of-Africa 2 migration and associated with people to interact meaningfully with each other the development of behavioural modernity. That the and with their landscapes and their products, in earliest, Pleistocene ground-edge axes emerged in a the process enhancing the socially-structured and utilitarian context untethered to post-glacial reforesta- value-laden movement of goods and the construction, population packing, anthropogenic deforestation, tion of socially meaningful territory, stone sources the advent of agriculture or sedentism indicates that included. We argue that here ground-edge axes other kinds of explanations are required. The Austra- were adopted because they aided subsistence and lian ethnographic evidence is salutary in this regard. made certain tasks more efficient, but in doing so 11

they took on important new social and symbolic and use; such time investment extends the period roles that served to cement social and environmen- of manufacture into a future use-time through tal (territorial) relations. the tool’s social value expressed as maintenance 2. Irrespective of their spatial and temporal distri- and care. This social value is itself encoded in the butions and of our explanatory frameworks, the cosmological meanings attached to sources as land- grinding of stone in the production of ground-edge scape features that are themselves given meaning axes is embedded in the gambit of social realities. through origin stories and the like, while at the In this sense ground-edge axes remain inseparable same time also encapsulating the tool’s functional from the lithic raw material sources from which utility. Social value thus becomes embedded into they came: their lives endure as ancestry, or histori- an object’s exchange value through its extraction, cal artefacts. This is because a ground-edge axe’s transformation, use-potential, curation, main- originary landscape is symbolically transported tenance and trade in a network of inter-personal across the landscape as the tool is moved around relations. In this sense, as highly-curated and by people (whether carried by an individual or shaped objects originating from localized sources traded between individuals and groups), spatially subject to territorial circumscription, ground-edge expanding its meaningfulness (and modifying its axes gain a level of symbolic value unmatched by specific meanings) along the way. Such objects live more expedient tools typical of most percussion- only in the eyes of their owners, onlookers and the flaked artefacts. The act of owning and carrying a communities in which they make their mark. ground-edge axe thus gives the owner more than The onset of ground-edge technology some an economic advantage by which to cut down 35,500 years ago in northern Australia, following trees or work wood, but also social value as the the Southern Arc dispersal out of Africa, and the extended work-value of an object originating from subsequent emergence of similar technologies in a source that itself is already imbued with mean- other parts of the world, indicate a common cog- ing and prestige through its territorially-mediated nitive and symbolic process of spatial expansion cosmological identity. and transference of meaning through and into the The implications of these findings are either that: material, a process significantly enhanced among 1. edge-grinding to make cutting or chopping edges fully modern Homo sapiens. first developed in Sahul, past the eastern edge of 3. In light of the above, subsistence-based economic Wallacea and the Sunda shelf where a sea crossing arguments are not, in themselves, sufficient to was required to the east of the Asian continent. understand the origins and adoption of ground- Such a scenario would see the earliest invention edge technology towards the manufacture of of edge-grinding taking place geographically past, stone axes, although questions of tool efficiency and therefore after, the terrestrial completion of are an important component of the issue. While the Out-of-Africa 2 migration to the eastern Asian ground-edge axes arguably possess more efficient seaboard; cutting or chopping edges, their high manufactur- 2. the global temporal pattern, currently showing that ing and maintenance costs, coupled with their use the earliest ground-edge stone tools in northern as occasional chopping rather than systematic Australia predate similar tools in eastern Asia by forest-clearance tools in Australian contexts, high- 1000 to 4000 years, does not reflect the true geo- light their importance as items of social value that, graphical chronology, a problem of sampling limi- while requiring a consideration of their extractive tations at a global scale; in this case yet-unknown potential, are not reducible to such functional, east Asian ground-edge tools would predate the extractive abilities. Here a ground-edge axe’s earliest Australian evidence; or symbolic value is other and, in this, more than the 3. an as-yet undiscovered common ancestral axe- sum of its functional values. Ground-edge axes making tradition exists at the geographic way- are highly-curated, more-or-less symmetrical and point between colonization of eastern Asia and lasting tools usually made of volcanic raw materi- Sahul. als found in highly-localized sources subject to If the early Australian and east Asian ground-edge territorial circumscription, unlike sandstone or technology are historically related (i.e. the two quartzite tools which, in Arnhem Land at least, regional cases are homologous and thus are not can be obtained from widespread sources across independent inventions), which is suggested by their a vast landscape. The considerable work-time spatial proximity and near-contemporaneity, Option 1 invested in the manufacture of a ground-edge axe would indicate initial invention in Sahul (Australia- extends its value beyond its immediate production New Guinea) with a back-migration subsequently 12

introducing the technology into eastern Asia via Acknowledgements Sunda. Option 2 would see an original invention of edge-grinding technology in eastern Asia soon We thank the Jawoyn Association Aboriginal Corporation followed by its dispersal into Australia by incoming Committee, and Margaret Katherine, Sybil Ranch, Preston populations. This would indicate evidence for the Lee, Wes Miller and Ray Whear, for inviting and caring for arrival of people bearing ground-edge axes into an us during research in their country. Thanks to Ben Gunn and Lance Syme for assistance in the field, Luke Weatherley for already-occupied Australia, presumably from Sunda, sorting, Laure Dubreuil of the Department of Anthropology, shortly before 35,000 years ago, some 15,000 years Trent University, Canada for advice concerning grinding after the initial colonization of Sahul. Option 3 would stones of the Near East, and Chris Clarkson, Francesco see future locations of ground-edge axe manufacture d’Errico and two anonymous referees for useful comments located close to the way-point between a branching of on earlier drafts. We thank the Australian Research Council dispersing populations into eastern Asia and Sahul. for QEII Fellowship DP0877782 to BD and ARC Linkage This would also imply that early axe-making techno- Grant LP110200927 to enable this research to take place. logy will one day be detected in Southeast Asia. At this stage, which of these three options is Jean-Michel Geneste correct is difficult to determine with the available Centre national de la préhistoire, ministère la culture evidence. Insufficient archaeological sampling in et de la communication eastern Asia and northern Australia, and insufficient Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, PACEA, UMR 5199 precise and accurate dating, render also insufficient F-33400 Talence the resulting spatial history. One hint as to the more France likely option comes not from the earliest evidence Email: [email protected] of edge-grinding itself, but rather of flaked waisted (as evidence of hafting) axe technology, the earliest Bruno David evidence also coming from Sahul. At Bobongara in School of Geography and Environmental Science the Huon Peninsula (Groube et al. 1986) and at Kosipe Monash University (Summerhayes et al. 2010) in the highlands of Papua Clayton, Victoria 3800 New Guinea, unground, symmetrical flaked and Australia waisted axes have been recovered from archaeological Email: [email protected] contexts securely dated to ≥40,000 and 44,000–49,000 years ago respectively. In contrast, the earliest flaked Hugues Plisson and waisted stone axes in eastern Asia come from Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, PACEA, UMR 5199 Hoabinhian and Middle Jomon sites, and are dated to F-33400 Talence the early- and mid-Holocene respectively (for reviews, France see Anderson & Summerhayes 2008; Golson 2001). On Email: [email protected] this basis, the current evidence suggests that ground- edge axes emerged in situ in northern Australia from Jean-Jacques Delannoy locally invented waisted (hafted) axe technology some EDYTEM - UMR 5204 du CNRS 8000 to 15,000 years after the invention of hafted flaked Environnements, Dynamiques et Territoires de la Montagne axes in Sahul rather than in eastern Asia. Golson Centre Interdisciplinaire Scientifique de la Montagne (2001) suggested that the spread of what were then Université de Savoie F 73376 apparently very early waisted and ground-edge Le Bourget du Lac Cedex axes across northern Australia-Papua New Guinea France indicates the presence of an ancient and innovating Email: [email protected] sphere of cultural interaction in northern Sahul. In any case, there is no indication at this stage that edge- Fiona Petchey grinding technology arrived in Australia with the first Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory Australians, nor is there indication of its invention University of Waikato in eastern Asia around the time of the colonization Hamilton, 3240 of Australia. On this basis, and with an absence of New Zealand earlier evidence elsewhere in the world, the invention Email: [email protected] of edge-grinding technology at or subsequent to the completion of the Out-of-Africa 2 migration seems References secure, with implications for developing symbolic Ambrose, S., 1998. Chronology of the Later Stone Age and practices as outlined in this article. 13

food production in East Africa. Journal of Archaeological University of Oxford, Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. Science 25, 377–92. Brook, B.W., D.M.J.S. Bowman, D.A. Burney et al., 2007. Anderson, A. & G. Summerhayes, 2008. Edge-ground and Would the Australian megafauna have become waisted axes in the western Pacific islands: implica- extinct if humans had never colonised the continent? tions for an example from the Yaeyama Islands, south- Comments on ‘A review of the evidence for a human ernmost Japan. Asian Perspectives 47, 45–58. role in the extinction of Australian megafauna and Anton, S. & C.C. Swisher, 2004. Early dispersals of Homo an alternative explanation’ by S. Wroe and J. Field. from Africa. Annual Review of Anthropology 33, 271–96. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 560–64. Appadurai, A., 1986. The Social Life of Things: Commodities Brumm, A., 2010. ‘The falling sky’: symbolic and cosmo- in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- logical associations of the Mt William greenstone versity Press. axe quarry, central Victoria, Australia. Cambridge Backwell, L.R. & F. d’Errico, in press. Drimolen: additional Archaeological Journal 20(2), 179–96. evidence of early hominid bone tool use and modifi- Carciumaru, M., E.C. Nitu & M. Tutuianu-Carciumaru, 2010. cation. First attempt at exploring inter-site variability. Témoignages symboliques au Moustérien. Unpub- Paper presented at the Palaeontological Society of lished paper presented at the IFRAO International Southern Africa meeting, Matjiesfontein, 11–15 Sep- Congress, Foix-Tarascon-sur-Ariège. tember. Palaeontologia Africana 44. Clark, J.D. & M.R. Kleindienst, 2001. The Stone Age cultural Balme, J., I. Davidson, J. McDonald, N. Stern & P. Veth, 2009. sequence: terminology, typology and raw material, Symbolic behaviour and the peopling of the southern in Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site, vol. III: The Earlier arc route to Australia. Quaternary International 202, Cultures — Middle and Earlier Stone Age, ed. J.D. Clark. 59–68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 34–65. Bar-Yosef, O., 1998. The Natufian culture in the Levant, Clottes, J., 2007. At the origins of art: new discoveries of threshold to the origins of agriculture. Evolutionary decorated caves, in Discovery! Unearthing the New Anthropology 6(5), 159–77. Treasures of Archaeology, ed. B.M. Fagan. London: Bar-Yosef, O., 2002. The Natufian culture and the Early Thames and Hudson, 114–19. Neolithic: social and economic trends in southwestern Cole, N.A., A. Watchman & M.J. Morwood, 1995. Chro- Asia, in Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal nology of Laura rock art, in Quinkan Prehistory: the Hypothesis, eds. P. Bellwood & C. Renfrew. (McDonald Archaeology of Aboriginal Art in S.E. Cape York Peninsula, Institute Monographs.) Cambridge: McDonald Insti- Australia, eds. M.J. Morwood & D.R. Hobbs. (Tempus tute for Archaeological Research, 113–26. 3.) St Lucia: The University of Queensland, Anthropol- Bellwood, P., 1997. Prehistory of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago. ogy Museum, 147–61. Honolulu (HI): University of Hawai’i Press. Conard, N.J., 2009. A female figurine from the basal Auri- Beaumont, P.B., H. De Villiers & J.C. Vogel, 1978. Modern gnacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany. man in sub-Saharan Africa prior to 49,000 years bp: Nature 459, 248–52. a review and evaluation with particular reference to Conard, N.J. & M. Bolus, 2003. Radiocarbon dating the Border Cave. South African Journal of Science 74, 409–19. appearance of modern humans and the timing of de Beaune, S.A., 2000. Pour une archéologie du geste: broyer, cultural innovations in Europe: new results and new moudre, piler, des premiers chasseurs aux premiers agri- challenges. Journal of Human Evolution 44, 331–71. culteurs. Paris: CNRS. Conard, N.J. & M. Bolus, 2008. Radiocarbon dating the de Beaune, S.A., 2003. Du grain à moudre sur les Néander- late Middle Paleolithic and the Aurignacian of the taliens. La Recherche 360, 56–9. Swabian Jura. Journal of Human Evolution 55, 886–97. de Beaune, S.A., 2004. The invention of technology: prehis- Conard, N.J., G. Dippon & P. Goldberg, 2003. Chronostrati- tory and cognition. Current Anthropology 45, 139–64. graphy and archeological context of the Aurignacian Bickerton, D., 2003. Symbol and structure: a comprehen- deposits at Geißenklösterle, in The Chronology of the sive framework for language evolution, in Language Aurignacian and of the Transitional Technocomplexes: Dat- Evolution, eds. M.H. Christiansen & S. Kirby. Oxford: ing, Stratigraphies, Cultural Implications, eds. J. Zilhão Oxford University Press, 77–93. & F. d’Errico. (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 33.) Lisbon: Bird, M.I., C.S.M. Turney, L.K. Fifield et al., 2002. Radio- Instituto Português de Arqueologia, 165–76. carbon analysis of the early archaeological site of Dant, T., 1999. Material Culture in the Social World: Values, Nauwalabila 1, Arnhem Land, Australia: implications Activities, Lifestyles. Buckingham: Open University for sample suitability and stratigraphic integrity. Press. Quaternary Science Reviews 21, 1061–75. David, B., 2002. Landscapes, Rock-art and the Dreaming: an Bon, F., 2009. Préhistoire: la fabrique de l’homme. Paris: Seuil. Archaeology of Preunderstanding. London: Leicester Braun, D.R., T.W. Plummer, P.W. Ditchfield, L.C. Bishop University Press. & J.W. Ferraro, 2009. Oldowan technology and raw Deacon, H.J. & J. Deacon, 1999. Human Beginnings in South material variability at Kanjera South, in Interdisciplin- Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age. Clare- ary Approaches to the Oldowan, eds. E. Hovers & D.R. mont: David Philip Publishing. Braun. (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropo- Derevianko A.P., M.V. Shunkov & P.V. Volkov, 2008. A logy.) Dordrecht: Springer, 99–110. Paleolithic bracelet from Denisova Cave. Archaeology, Bronk Ramsey, C., 2010. OxCal Program v. 4.1.7. Oxford Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 34(2), 13–25. 14

d’Errico F. & L. Backwell, 2009. Assessing the function of Coast-Books 14.) Göteborg: University of Göteborg. early hominin bone tools. Journal of Archaeological Hovers, E. & D.R. Braun (eds.), 2009. Interdisciplinary Science 36, 1764–73. Approaches to the Oldowan. (Vertebrate Paleobiology d’Errico, F., C. Henshilwood, G. Lawson et al., 2003. Archaeo- and Paleoanthropology.) Dordrecht: Springer. logical evidence for the emergence of language, sym- Jones, R. & I. Johnson, 1985. A Deaf Adder Gorge: Lindner bolism, and music — an alternative multidisciplinary Site, Nauwalabila 1, in Archaeological Research in perspective. Journal of World Prehistory 17(1), 1–70. Kakadu National Park, ed. R. Jones. (Special Publication d’Errico, F., M. Vanhaeren, C. Henshilwood et al., 2009. 13.) Canberra: Australian National Parks and Wildlife From the origin of language to the diversification of Service, 165–227. languages: What can archaeology and palaeoanthro- Leroi-Gourhan, A., 1995. Préhistoire de l’Art Occidental. Paris: pology say?, in Becoming Eloquent: Advances in the Citadelles et Mazenod. Emergence of Language, Human Cognition, and Modern Lewin, R. & R.A. Foley, 2003. Principles of Human Evolution. Cultures, eds. F. d’Errico & J.-M. Hombert. Amster- Oxford: Blackwells. dam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 13–68. Lozovski, V.M., 1996. Zamostje 2: the Last Prehistoric Hunter- d’Errico, F., C. Henshilwood, M. Vanhaeren, L. Backwell, Fishers of the Russian Plain. Treignes: Éditions du R. Garcia Moreno & R. Rifkin, 2010. The Origin of Cedarc. Symbolic Material Culture: Models, Methods, Data Machida, H. & F. Arai, 1983. Koiki tefura to kokogaku. and Research Perspectives. Unpublished paper prese- Daiyonki Kenkyu 22, 133–48. anted at ‘Pleistocene Art of the World Congress 2010’, McPherron, S.P., Z. Alemseged, C.W. Marean et al., 2010. International Federation of Rock Art Organisations Evidence for stone-tool-assisted consumption of (IFRAO), 6–11 September, Tarascon-sur-Ariège and animal tissues before 3.39 million years ago at Dikika, Foix, France. Ethiopia. Nature 466, 857–60. Field, J.S., M.D. Petraglia & M.M. Lahr, 2007. The southern Mellars, P., K. Boyle, O. Bar-Yosef & C. Stringer (eds.), 2007. dispersal hypothesis and the South Asian archaeologi- Rethinking the Human Revolution. (McDonald Institute cal record: examination of dispersal routes through Monographs.) Cambridge: McDonald Institute for GIS analysis. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology Archaeological Research. 26, 88–108. Morwood, M.J. & P. Trezise, 1989. Edge-ground axes in Fullagar, R. & J. Field, 1997. Pleistocene seed-grinding Pleistocene Australia: new evidence. Queensland implements from the Australian arid zone. Antiquity Archaeological Research 6, 77–90. 71, 300–307. Neugebauer-Maresch, C., 1989. Zum neufund einer Gamble, C. & F. Coward, 2009. Big brains, small worlds: weiblichen statuette bei den rettungsgrabungen an material culture and the evolution of mind. Philosophi- der Aurignacien-Station Stratzing/Krems-Rehberg, cal Transactions of the Royal Society Series B 363, 1969–79. Niederösterreich. Germania 67, 551–9. Gillespie, R. & B.W. Brook, 2006. Is there a Pleistocene O’Connor, S., 1990. 30,000 Years in the Kimberley: a Pre- archaeological site at Cuddie Springs? Archaeology in history of the Islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago Oceania 41, 1–11. and Adjacent Mainland, West Kimberley, Western Gillespie, R. & B. David, 2001. The importance, or impotence, Australia. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of of Cuddie Springs. Australasian Science 22(9), 42. Western Australia, Perth. Golson, J., 2001. New Guinea, Australia and the Sahul con- Oda, S. & C.T. Keally, 1973. Edge-ground stone tools from nection, in Histories of Old Ages: Essays in Honour of the Japanese preceramic culture. Busshitsu Bunka 22, Rhys Jones, eds. A. Anderson, I. Lilley & S. O’Connor. 1–26. Canberra: Pandanus Books, 185–210. Oda, S. & C.T. Keally, 1992. The origin and early develop- Groube, L., J. Chappell, J. Muke & D. Price, 1986. A 40,000 ment of axe-like and edge-ground stone tools in the year old occupation site at Huon Peninsula, Papua Japanese Palaeolithic. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association New Guinea. Nature 324, 453–5. Bulletin 12, 23–31. Habgood, P.J. & N.R. Franklin, 2008. The revolution that Olsson, I., 1986. Radiometric methods, in Handbook of Holo- didn’t arrive: a review of Pleistocene Sahul. Journal of cene Palaeoecology and Palaeohydrology, ed. B. Berglund. Human Evolution 55, 187–222. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons, 273–312. Henshilwood, C.S. & F. d’Errico, 2005. Being modern in the Pailler, Y. & A. Sheridan, 2009. Everything you always Middle Stone Age: individuals and innovation, in The wanted to know about … la néolithisation de la Individual Hominid in Context: Archaeological Investiga- grande Bretagne et de l’Irlande. Bulletin de la Société tions of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Landscapes, Locales Préhistorique Française 106(1), 1–32. and Artefacts, eds. C. Gamble & M. Porr. Abingdon: Parkington, J., C. Poggenpoel, J.-P. Rigaud & P.-J. Texier, Routledge, 244–64. 2005. From tool to symbol: the behavioural context of Henshilwood, C.S., F. d’Errico, R. Yates et al., 2002. The emer- intentionally marked ostrich eggshell from Diepkloof, gence of modern human behavior: Middle Stone Age Western Cape, in From Tools to Symbols: From Early engravings from South Africa. Science 295, 1278–80. Hominids to Modern Humans, eds. F. d’Errico & L. Hernek, R., 2005. Nytt ljus på Sandarnakulturen: om en Blackwell. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University boplats från äldre stenåldern i Bohuslän. (Gotarc Series Press, 475–92. B, Gothenburg Archaeological Thesis 38; Coast to Paton, R., 1994. Speaking through stones: a study from 15

northern Australia. World Archaeology 26, 172–84. emy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Pétrequin, P. & A.-M. Pétrequin, 1993. Ecologie d’un outil: la Thomson, D.F., 1949. Economic Structure and the Ceremonial hache de pierre en Irian Jaya (Indonésie). Paris: CNRS- Exchange Cycle in Arnhem Land. Melbourne: Macmillan. Piaget. de la Torre, I. & R. Mora, 2009. Remarks on the current theo- Philippson, D., 2005. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cam- retical and methodological approaches to the study of bridge University Press. technological strategies of early humans in eastern Reimer, P., M. Baillie, E. Bard et al., 2009. Intcal09 and Africa, in Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Oldowan, Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 eds. E. Hovers & D.R. Braun. (Vertebrate Paleobiology years cal bp. Radiocarbon 51, 1111–50. and Paleoanthropology.) Dordrecht: Springer, 15–24. Revedin, A., B. Arangurenb, R. Becattiniaet al., 2010. Thirty de la Torre, I., R. Mora, M. Domínguez-Rodrigo, L. De Luque thousand-year-old evidence of plant food process- & L. Alcalá, 2003. The Oldowan industry of Peninj and ing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences its bearing on the reconstruction of the technological 107(44), 18,815–19. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/ skills of Lower Pleistocene hominids. Journal of Human pnas.1006993107 Evolution 44(2), 203–24. Roberts, R.G., R. Jones & M.A. Smith, 1990. Thermolumines- Toth, N.P. & K.D. Schick, 2009. The Oldowan: the tool mak- cence dating of a 50,000-year-old human occupation ing of early hominids and chimpanzees compared. site in northern Australia. Nature 345, 153–6. Annual Review of Anthropology 38, 289–305. Roberts, R.G., R. Jones & M.A. Smith, 1993. Optical dating Valladas, H., J. Clottes, J.-M. Geneste et al., 2001. Evolution at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory, indicates of prehistoric cave art. Nature 413, 479. human occupation between 53,000 and 60,000 years Vanhaeren, M. & F. d’Errico, 2006. Aurignacian ethno- ago. Australian Archaeology 37, 58–9. linguistic geography of Europe revealed by personal Sackett, J., 1999.The Archaeology of Solvieux: an Upper Palaeo- ornaments. Journal of Archaeological Science 20, 1–24. lithic Open Air Site in France. (Monumenta Archaeo- Wadley, L., 2001. What is cultural modernity? A general view logica.) Los Angeles (CA): Institute of Archaeology, and a South African perspective from Rose Cottage UCLA. Cave. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11(2), 201–21. Sadr, K., F. Bon, F.-X. Fauvelle-Aymar, D. Gronenborn & B. White, C., 1967. Early stone axes in Arnhem Land. Antiquity Bosc-Zanardo, 2006. Pour un nouveau comparatisme 41, 149–52. Afrique australe-Europe occidentale: regards croisés Zhao, C., X. Wu, T. Wang & X. Yuan, 2004. Early polished de l’archéologie, de l’histoire et de l’ethnologie des stone tools in South China evidence of the transition chasseurs–cueilleurs Bushmen, in Normes techniques from Palaeolithic to Neolithic. Documenta Praehistorica et pratiques sociales: de la simplicité des outillages pré- 331, 131–7. et protohistoriques. XXVe rencontres internationales Zilhão, J. & F. d’Errico, 2003. The chronology of the Aurig- d’archéologie et d’histoire d’Antibes, eds. L. Astruc, F. nacian and transitional technocomplexes: Where do Bon, V. Léa, P.-Y. Milcent & S. Philibert. Antibes: we stand?, in The Chronology of the Aurignacian and of APDCA, 403–16. the Transitional Technocomplexes: Dating, Stratigraphies, Schrire, C., 1982. The Alligator Rivers: Prehistory and Ecology Cultural Implications, eds. J. Zilhão & F. d’Errico. (Tra- in Western Arnhem Land. (Terra Australis 7.) Canberra: balhos de Arqueologia 33.) Lisbon: Instituto Português Australian National University Press. de Arqueologia, 313–49. Semaw, S., P. Renne, J.W.K. Harris et al., 1997. 2.5-million- year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia. Nature 385, Author biographies 333–6. Semenov, S.A., 1964 [1957]. Prehistoric Technology. London: Professor Jean-Michel Geneste manages France’s primary Cory, Adams and Mackay. national rock-art research institution, the Centre National Sharp, L., 1952. Steel axes for stone-age Australians. Human de Préhistoire, and directs the Chauvet Cave International Organisation 11, 17–22. Research Program. He has been Curator of Lascaux for Smith, A.B., 2005. African Herders: Emergence of Pastoral Tradi- more than 20 years and is a Field Director and Research Co- tions. Walnut Creek (CA): Altamira Press. ordinator on the ‘Connecting Country Jawoyn Homeland Soressi, M. & F. d’Errico, 2007. Pigments, gravures, parures: Archaeological Project’ (connectingcountry.arts.monash. les comportements symboliques controversés des edu.au). Néandertaliens, in Les Néandertaliens: Biologie et Cultures, eds. B. Vandermeersch & B. Maureille. Dr Bruno David specializes in the archaeology of the Sahul (Documents préhistoriques 23.) Paris: Éditions du region. He works with Indigenous communities on the CTHS, 297–309. archaeology of rock art and symbolic expressions, tracking Summerhayes, G.R., M. Leavesley, A. Fairbairn et al., 2010. the origins and transformations of ethnographically docu- Human adaptation and plant use in highland New mented cosmological and social traditions back in time by Guinea 49,000 to 44,000 years ago. Science 330(6000), investigating temporal and formal discontinuities in their 78–81. material signatures. He is Project Co-ordinator and Field Svoboda, J. (ed.), 2008. Petrkovice: on Shouldered Points and Director on the ‘Connecting Country Jawoyn Homeland Female Figurines. Brno: Institute of Archaeology, Acad- Archaeological Project’.

Dr Hugues Plisson specializes in use-wear analysis of prehistoric tools. His methodology, based on a synthesis of the Western and Russian schools, has influenced genera- tions of researchers aiming to understand the function of archaeological objects.

Professor Jean-Jacques Delannoy is a geomorphologist and Director of the EDYTEM research laboratory. He is Professor at the Université de Savoie where he teaches karst systems. His work crosses geomorphological and archaeological data to better understand site-formation processes.

Dr Fiona Petchey specializes in the reliable radiocarbon dating of a range of objects including charcoal, shell, pollen and bone. She oversees the pretreatment of small samples for AMS processing.