Biomechanical Strategies during Oldowan and Acheulean Stone Tool Production by Erin Marie S. Williams B.A. in Anthropology, 2000, Grinnell College M.A. in Anthropology, 2007, The George Washington University M.Phil in Hominid Paleobiology, 2008, The George Washington University A dissertation submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 15, 2011 Dissertation directed by Alison S. Brooks Professor of Anthropology and Brian G. Richmond Associate Professor of Anthropology The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University certifies that Erin Marie S. Williams has passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of February 28, 2011. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. Biomechanical Strategies during Oldowan and Acheulean Stone Tool Production Erin Marie S. Williams Dissertation Research Committee: Alison S. Brooks, Professor of Anthropology, Dissertation Co-Director Brian G. Richmond, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dissertation Co-Director Peter W. Lucas, Professor of Anthropology, Committee Member Adam D. Gordon, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University at Albany—SUNY , Committee Member ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to three sets of educators: To my teachers and professors, starting with Geneva Ballard and Anne Miller in the nursery school at church, for my formal education, To Bella-Boo, Charlie-Choo, John-J, Greggy-Goo and ‘Ria-Roo Sprenkel and C-Bear, Anna-Banana, Katie-Did, and ‘Tuffer Gass, for my informal education, and To my mom and dad, Sara Lou and David Williams, for teaching me most of what resides in between the two. iii Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking my primary graduate school advisor, Dr. Alison S. Brooks. Alison’s Paleolithic Archaeology class was the first class I took in graduate school, and her early assistance and support gave me the confidence to apply to the Hominid Paleobiology Doctoral Program. To me, Alison is the consummate scientist and role model. She cares a great deal for all of her students and treats everyone in the scientific community with dignity and respect. Alison has walked me through a number of joyful and trying experiences while I have been at GWU, and I do not think it is unwarranted to say that I would have not made it this far, or perhaps even into the program, without Alison’s guidance. I would also like to thank Dr. Brian G. Richmond, who may have been surprised when he realized that I’d snuck in and stuck myself among his students, as well. Brian is one of the best teachers I have ever had the privilege to study with and I know that he has exercised enormous patient teaching me about biomechanics, anatomy, and physics during my time at GWU, for which I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Brian for always cushioning his critiques with at least one positive statement before getting to the “issues,” and for talking me back from the cliff’s edge when I thought that I had erased NPR’s FTP site and possibly taken down their website, as well. Dr. Peter W. Lucas served as the third adviser in my advisory trifecta. Peter helped me look at things from unique perspectives and challenged me to investigate the underlying causes governing why systems work as they do. He has consistently been a source of iv encouragement and support and he is the only academic I know that gets as excited about experiments as my father does about life in general. I was sad to see Peter pick up and move to another continent and I will miss his sly jokes and watching him doodle on his tablet. Dr. Adam D. Gordon has also acted as one of my main advisors since the collection of my pilot data. Adam has an amazing ability to take the most difficult concepts and slice them up into manageable pieces that make sense to me. He also has a mysterious way of guiding students to craft better experiments without dictating protocol from on high, which helped me learn far more than I would have otherwise. I am grateful for the enormous amount of the time he dedicated towards my education and dissertation. I also appreciate Adam’s good humor and his continual reminders that THIS IS FUN! The four people listed above formed the core of researchers that helped guide me through the dissertation process. They all read multiple drafts of grants and manuscripts, listened to dozens of podium and poster presentations, and let me find the right answers on my own time. I have been lucky to learn from them and their help has meant a great deal to me. I would also like to thank Dr. Daniel Schmitt, who served as one of my external committee members. Dan is another teacher that manages to make difficult concepts less intimidating. He has been supportive of me and my research from the early stages, and his excitement made me more excited. Dan has been willing to discuss my questions and to loan me rather expensive equipment on what has turned out to be a long term basis. I am grateful for all that Dan has done for me. v Dr. Dietrich Stout also served as an external committee member, and helped usher me through the final stages of the process. I am grateful for Dietrich’s thoughtful comments and discussions of my research. I am also grateful to Dr. Bernard Wood, first and foremost for all of his hard work over the years as the Director of the Hominid Paleobiology Doctoral Program. Bernard is not one to mince words or to leave Ts uncrossed, which means that manuscripts that pass across his desk come out cleaner (notwithstanding the abundance of red ink) and presentations that he previews paint a coherent picture and are free from spelling and grammatical errors. I appreciate the time he takes with all of us making sure that we are “stage ready.” I am particularly grateful for his help in securing the postdoc I received and for his help at the end of my dissertation process. I am endlessly grateful to the faculty and students of The Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology and I am proud to be counted as one of their peers. The people that make up our department support one another personally and professionally in a variety of ways, and they made the long hours far more enjoyable than one may imagine they would be. I would like to thank our faculty and postdocs for all of the instruction they gave me and for making graduate school comfortable and fun, including: Dr. Robin Bernstein, Dr. Shannon McFarlin, Dr. Chet Sherwood, Dr. Muhammad Spoc(ter), and Dr. Erin Vogel. I would particularly like to thank Chet and Erin for their helpful discussions regarding cognition and statistics, respectively. I would also like to thank all of my fellow Hom/Pal students, past and present, for creating an atmosphere free from competition and full of mutual support and respect, including: Jen Baker, Iowa Bauernfeind, Kallista Bernal, Serena Bianchi, soon-to-be Dr. J-9 Chalk, Habiba Chirchir, Dr. Piz-aul Constantino, vi double-Dr. Rui Diogo, Du-Du Du, Dr. T Faith, soon-to-be Dr. Felicia Gomez, Dr. Deej Green, Kevin Hatala, Dr. Amanda Henry, Dr. Griff, Dr. Lisa Nevell, Liz Renner, Kestopher Schroer, Cheryl Stimpson, Dr. Robin Teague, Dr. Matt Skinner and Andrew Zipkin. Thanks are due in particular to Amy, Kevin, and Tyler for their assistance in all things related to cognition (Amy) and statistical help (Kevin and Tyler), respectively. I am grateful to Deej, J-9, Amanda, and X-tyna for their help in avoiding holiday moments, and acknowledge that many sticky situations were avoided with the help of their proof reading and editing. J, you are clever and have lovely brown eyes. Before entering the PhD program, I was a Masters student in the Anthropology department at GWU. A number of people made that experience easier and more enjoyable and I thank them for their help and support during that time. They include: Dr. Kitty Allen, Dr. Robin Bernstein, Dr. Alison Brooks, Dr. Richard Grinker, and Dr. Stephen Lubkemann. I would particularly like to thank Alison and Robin for their constant support and encouragement and for writing the references that helped me get into the PhD program. Dr. Rick Potts and Jenny Clark at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History were also extremely kind and supportive while I worked towards my MA, and I appreciate all of their help, from the job (and air mattress) they gave me to their tolerance of my odd working hours. Our program functions as well as it does in large part because we have a lot of support from the larger GWU community. Within the Anthropology department I am grateful to the entire administrative staff, particularly Jonathan Higman, Savannah Fetterolf, Goby Mann, and Amanda Warner. Hom/Pal students also receive an additional helping hand from the CASHP Administrator, and I feel lucky to have received a great deal vii of help from the four that worked in this position while I was a student in the program:, Kayla Jarvis, Gaby-Baby Mallozzi, Phillip Williams, and Sophie Thibodeau. In the larger GWU community, I am grateful to Iva Beatty and Geri Rypkema for all of the administrative help they have given me over the years. I am also extremely grateful to Dr. Tara Wallace and the GW chapter of the Edward A.