In a recently published paper, anthropologists Jonathan Paige of the University of Missouri and Charles Perreault of Arizona State University have shared their analysis of stone tool manufacturing techniques across 3.3 million years of human evolution. Their research suggests a sudden increase in hominin knowledge and tool complexity around 600,000 years ago, contributing to the unique adaptability of modern humans and our ancestors.
The study involved ranking 62 tool-making sequences in order of their complexity for tools found across 57 sites. The researchers found that until 1.8 million years ago, stone tool manufacturing sequences ranged between two and four procedural units in length. However, over the next 1.2 million years, there was a significant increase in tool complexity, with sequences reaching up to seven procedural units.
The real game-changer came around 600,000 years ago, where tool complexity skyrocketed, requiring up to 18 procedural units. Paige and Perreault propose that this large technological advancement relied on knowledge passed on from previous generations, creating a cumulative culture where generations of improvements and modifications accumulate over time through social learning.
This cumulative culture has a number of benefits, allowing for the solving of problems through generations of trial and error, similar to how evolution operates through random mutations and natural selection. It also allows for the use and advancement of technologies without needing a full understanding of their development, leading to an ever-increasing pool of knowledge and the associated behaviors.
The researchers also suggest that genes affecting learning may have been selected for as a result of this gene-culture coevolution process. This could have contributed to an increase in relative brain size, a prolonged life history, and other key traits underlying human uniqueness.
While the team’s findings provide strong evidence for the presence of cumulative culture near the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, they also note that this type of cultural intelligence may have arisen even earlier in our evolutionary history in ways that aren’t as easily preserved. It is possible that early hominins relied on cumulative culture to develop complex social, foraging, and technological behaviors that are not visible in the archaeological record.
Despite the exact details of the technology or timing, the researchers believe that reliance on cumulative culture may have played a crucial role in shaping many of humanity’s unique features. This research was published in the prestigious journal, PNAS.
The study sheds light on a crucial turning point in human evolution and provides insights into the cultural intelligence of our ancestors. The sudden increase in technology complexity around 600,000 years ago marked a critical boom in human technological advancement, leading to the development of behaviors and traits that define us as a species.