The driving force behind tool-stone selection in the African Middle Stone Age.

In the Stone Age, the collection of specific rocks was the first step in tool making. Very little is known about the choices made during tool-stone acquisition. Were choices governed by the knowledge of, and need for, specific properties of stones? Or were the collected raw materials a mere by-product of the way people moved through the landscape? We investigate these questions in the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of southern Africa, analyzing the mechanical properties of tool-stones used at the site Diepkloof Rock Shelter. To understand knapping quality, we measure flaking predictability and introduce a physical model that allows calculating the relative force necessary to produce flakes from different rocks. To evaluate their quality as finished tools, we investigate their resistance during repeated use activities (scraping or cutting) and their strength during projectile impacts. Our findings explain tool-stone selection in two emblematic periods of the MSA, the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, as being the result of a deep understanding of these mechanical properties. In both cases, people chose those rocks, among many others, that allowed the most advantageous trade-off between anticipated properties of finished tools and the ease of acquiring rocks and producing tools. The implications are an understanding of African MSA toolmakers as engineers who carefully weighed their choices taking into account workability and the quality of the tools they made.

Birch tar production does not prove Neanderthal behavioral complexity.

Birch tar production by Neanderthals-used for hafting tools-has been interpreted as one of the earliest manifestations of modern cultural behavior. This is because birch tar production per se was assumed to require a cognitively demanding setup, in which birch bark is heated in anaerobic conditions, a setup whose inherent complexity was thought to require modern levels of cognition and cultural transmission. Here we demonstrate that recognizable amounts of birch tar were likely a relatively frequent byproduct of burning birch bark (a natural tinder) under common, i.e., aerobic, conditions. We show that when birch bark burns close to a vertical to subvertical hard surface, such as an adjacent stone, birch tar is naturally deposited and can be easily scraped off the surface. The burning of birch bark near suitable surfaces provides useable quantities of birch tar in a single work session (3 h; including birch bark procurement). Chemical analysis of the resulting tar showed typical markers present in archaeological tar. Mechanical tests verify the tar's suitability for hafting and for hafted tools use. Given that similarly sized stones as in our experiment are frequently found in archaeological contexts associated with Neanderthals, the cognitively undemanding connection between burning birch bark and the production of birch tar would have been readily discoverable multiple times. Thus, the presence of birch tar alone cannot indicate the presence of modern cognition and/or cultural behaviors in Neanderthals.

A previously undescribed organic residue sheds light on heat treatment in the Middle Stone Age.

South Africa has in recent years gained increasing importance for our understanding of the evolution of 'modern human behaviour' during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). A key element in the suite of behaviours linked with modern humans is heat treatment of materials such as ochre for ritual purposes and stone prior to tool production. Until now, there has been no direct archaeological evidence for the exact procedure used in the heat treatment of silcrete. Through the analysis of heat-treated artefacts from the Howiesons Poort of Diepkloof Rock Shelter, we identified a hitherto unknown type of organic residue - a tempering-residue - that sheds light on the processes used for heat treatment in the MSA. This black film on the silcrete surface is an organic tar that contains microscopic fragments of charcoal and formed as a residue during the direct contact of the artefacts with hot embers of green wood. Our results suggest that heat treatment of silcrete was conducted directly using an open fire, similar to those likely used for cooking. These findings add to the discussion about the complexity of MSA behaviour and appear to contradict previous studies that had suggested that heat treatment of silcrete was a complex (i.e., requiring a large number of steps for its realization) and resource-consuming procedure.

Knapping force as a function of stone heat treatment.

We propose a quantitative framework for understanding the knapping force requirements imposed by different raw materials in their unheated and heat-treated states. Our model interprets stone tool knapping as being the result of cracks formed during the first impact with a hammer stone, followed by continued stressing of these cracks that eventually leads to flake detachment. We combine bending strength, indentation fracture resistance and "Griffith" crack lengths of flint and silcrete to obtain functions identifying critical forces for flaking without or after heat treatment. We argue that these forces are a key factor for understanding the "knappability" of different raw materials, because only forces with 100N or less can be used for very precise strike control. Our model explains for the first time why experimental knappers frequently observe that flint (a stronger material, which, in our case, has a strength above 100 MPa) is easier to knap than silcretes (which is relatively weaker with strength values at or below 60 MPa). Our findings allow for understanding the differences between heat-treated and untreated flint and silcrete in terms of knapping quality, and they allow to compare the qualities of different raw materials.

Mechanical properties of lithic raw materials from Kazakhstan: Comparing chert, shale, and porphyry.

The study of lithic raw material quality has become one of the major interpretive tools to investigate the raw material selection behaviour and its influence to the knapping technology. In order to make objective assessments of raw material quality, we need to measure their mechanical properties (e.g., fracture resistance, hardness, modulus of elasticity). However, such comprehensive investigations are lacking for the Palaeolithic of Kazakhstan. In this work, we investigate geological and archaeological lithic raw material samples of chert, porphyry, and shale collected from the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (henceforth IAMC). Selected samples of aforementioned rocks were tested by means of Vickers and Knoop indentation methods to determine the main aspect of their mechanical properties: their indentation fracture resistance (a value closely related to fracture toughness). These tests were complemented by traditional petrographic studies to characterise the mineralogical composition and evaluate the level of impurities that could have potentially affected the mechanical properties. The results show that materials, such as porphyry possess fracture toughness values that can be compared to those of chert. Previously, porphyry was thought to be of lower quality due to the anisotropic composition and coarse feldspar and quartz phenocrysts embedded in a silica rich matrix. However, our analysis suggests that different raw materials are not different in terms of indentation fracture resistance. This work also offers first insight into the quality of archaeological porphyry that was utilised as a primary raw material at various Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor from 47-21 ka cal BP.

The Plant-Like Structure of Lance Sea Urchin Spines as Biomimetic Concept Generator for Freeze-Casted Structural Graded Ceramics.

The spine of the lance sea urchin (Phyllacanthus imperialis) is an unusual plant-akin hierarchical lightweight construction with several gradation features: a basic core-shell structure is modified in terms of porosities, pore orientation and pore size, forming superstructures. Differing local strength and energy consumption features create a biomimetic potential for the construction of porous ceramics with predetermined breaking points and adaptable behavior in compression overload. We present a new detailed structural and failure analysis of those spines and demonstrate that it is possible to include at least a limited number of those features in an abstracted way in ceramics, manufactured by freeze-casting. This possibility is shown to come from a modified mold design and optimized suspensions.

Strength, elasticity and the limits of energy dissipation in two related sea urchin spines with biomimetic potential.

The calcitic spines of the sea urchins Heterocentrotus mamillatus and H. trigonarius are promising role models for lightweight applications, bone tissue scaffolds and energy dissipating processes due to their highly porous and organized structure. Therefore, mechanical properties including Young's Modulus, strength, failure behaviour and energy dissipation efficiency have been investigated in depth with uniaxial compression experiments, 3-point bending tests and resonance frequency damping analysis. It was found that despite a very similar structure, H. trigonarius has a significantly lower porosity than H. mamillatus leading to a higher strength and Young's Moduli, but limited ability to dissipate energy. In order to show reliable energy dissipation during failure in uniaxial compression, a transition porosity of 0.55-0.6 needs to be exceeded. The most effective structure for this purpose is a homogeneous, foam-like structure confined by a thin and dense shell that increases initial strength and was found in numerous spines of H. mamillatus. Sharp porosity changes induced by dense growth layers or prominent wedges of the spines' radiating building principle act as structural weaknesses, along which large flakes can be spalled, reducing the energy dissipation efficiency considerably. The high strength and Young's Modulus at the biologically necessary high porosity levels of the spines is useful for Heterocentrotus and their construction therefore remains to be a good example of biomimetics. However, the energy dissipative failure behaviour may be regarded as a mere side effect of the structure.

Strength-size relationships in two porous biological materials.

According to the Weibull theory for brittle materials, the mean experimental strength decreases with test specimen size. For the brittle parts of an organism this would mean that becoming larger in size results automatically in reducing strength. This unfavorable relationship was investigated for two porous, biological materials that are promising concept generators for crack deflective and energy dissipative applications in compressive overloading: the quasi-brittle coconut endocarp and the brittle spines of the sea urchin Heterocentrotus mamillatus. Segments in different volumes were prepared and tested in uniaxial compression experiments. Failure of both materials is Weibull distributed underlining that it is caused by statistically distributed flaws in the structure. However, the coconut endocarp has a much higher Weibull modulus (m = 14.1-16.5) than the spines (m = 5). The more predictable failure of the endocarp is probably attributed to a rather homogeneous microstructural design and water bound in the structure. In terms of the spines it was found that the Weibull modulus is structure dependent: More homogeneous spines feature a higher Weibull modulus than spines with a heterogeneous structure. Whereas the nearly dense endocarp exhibited, although less pronounced, the expected decrease in strength with increase in size, the spines showed a failure independently of size. This remarkable behavior may be explained with their highly porous internal structure. Small and large spines consist of struts of similar size, which constitute the porous internal structure, potentially limiting the flaw size to the size of the strut regardless of the spine size. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Scaling is an important aspect of the biomimetic work process, since biological role models and structures have rarely the same size as their technical implementations. The algorithms of Weibull are a standard tool in material sciences to describe scaling effects in materials whose critical strength depends on statistically distributed flaws. The challenge is to apply this theory (developed for homogeneous, isotropic technical materials) to brittle and quasi-brittle biological materials with hierarchical structuring. This study is a first approach to verify whether the Weibull theory can be applied to the coconut endocarp and to sea urchin spines in order to model their size/volume/property-relations.

Early Evidence for the Extensive Heat Treatment of Silcrete in the Howiesons Poort at Klipdrift Shelter (Layer PBD, 65 ka), South Africa.

Heating stone to enhance its flaking qualities is among the multiple innovative adaptations introduced by early modern human groups in southern Africa, in particular during the Middle Stone Age Still Bay and Howiesons Poort traditions. Comparatively little is known about the role and impact of this technology on early modern human behaviors and cultural expressions, due, in part, to the lack of comprehensive studies of archaeological assemblages documenting the heat treatment of stone. We address this issue through an analysis of the procedure used for heating and a technological analysis of a lithic assemblage recovered from one Howiesons Poort assemblage at Klipdrift Shelter (southern Cape, South Africa). The resulting data show extensive silcrete heat treatment, which adds a new dimension to our understanding of fire-related behaviors during the Howiesons Poort, highlighting the important role played by a heat treatment stage in the production of silcrete blades. These results are made possible by our new analytical procedure that relies on the analysis of all silcrete artifacts. It provides direct evidence of a controlled use of fire which took place during an early stage of core exploitation, thereby impacting on all subsequent stages of the lithic chaîne opératoire, which, to date, has no known equivalent in the Middle Stone Age or Middle Paleolithic record outside of southern Africa.

EOS calculations for hydrothermal diamond anvil cell operation.

The hydrothermal diamond anvil cell (HDAC) is an excellent tool for high-temperature, high-pressure (hydrothermal) experiments. For an accurate determination of pressure induced by a certain temperature in an isochoric sample chamber volume, an equation of state (EOS) of water can be used instead of direct measurement. This paper reviews the theoretic background and provides all needed equations for the application of EOS of water to HDAC experiments summarizing state-of-the-art knowledge and incorporating up-to-date thermodynamic data. The p-T conditions determined using the IAPWS-95 formulation for the thermodynamic properties of ordinary water are in agreement with values obtained from direct methods or other established EOS formulations. In particular, (1) the calculation of density through the (a) melting point or (b) homogenization method along with determining (2) pressure as a function of density and temperature or (3) density as a function of pressure and temperature is explained. As a new aspect in the context of HDAC operations, the critical influence of nucleation and a strategy to overcome this problem are discussed. Furthermore, we have derived new polynomial equations, which allow the direct calculation of the fluid phase's density from the melting temperature. These are implemented in a spreadsheet program, which is freely available for interested users.