Early North African Acheulean techno-economic systems at Thomas Quarry I - L1 (Casablanca, Morocco).

North Africa is a key area for understanding cultural processes that led to the Acheulean pan - African emergence and expressions and the related hominin population dynamics. Unfortunately, little is known about the early Acheulean in this vast area of the African continent due to the scarceness of archaeological sites in stratigraphic context with reliable chronometric data, human remains, and technological analyses of the lithic industries. Here, we present the first comprehensive techno-economic analysis of the early Acheulean assemblage from Thomas Quarry I - Unit L1 (ThI-L1, Casablanca, Morocco), which is the earliest Acheulean site of North Africa, unambiguously dated to 1.3 Ma. Fieldwork has unearthed faunal remains and a lithic collection containing over 3800 artefacts, which represents one of the largest series for the early African Acheulean. The assemblage is mainly composed of quartzites and to a lesser extent of silicites, both abundantly available near the site. Previously published results of the silicite study revealed two different productions for the extraction of small flakes and of bladelet-like flakes. In this work, we analyse the techno-economic systems of the quartzite assemblage. Two distinct quartzite productions co-occur, one devoted to the manufacture of Large Cutting Tools (LCTs), the other focused on the extraction of small-medium sized flakes. LCTs were usually produced from large cobbles, less often from large flakes detached mainly using the entame core method. The main technical objective was to obtain large pointed tools and, more rarely, large tools with a transversal cutting edge. Results support the existence of a strong synergy between conceptual and operational schemes regulated by the ability to anticipate the final tool morphology and to apply standardized shaping procedures to manufacture recurrent morphotypes. Quartzite small-medium sized flakes were produced by a diversity of flaking methods adapted to the cobble blank morphologies and were not retouched. The results allow to assess that the earliest technical expression of the Acheulean in North Africa is characterised by a high diversification of the stone knapping outcomes, the complexity of the mental templates, and the flexible structure of the operational schemes.

First high resolution chronostratigraphy for the early North African Acheulean at Casablanca (Morocco).

The onset of the Acheulean, marked by the emergence of large cutting tools (LCTs), is considered a major technological advance in the Early Stone Age and a key turning point in human evolution. The Acheulean originated in East Africa at ~ 1.8-1.6 Ma and is reported in South Africa between ~ 1.6 and > 1.0 Ma. The timing of its appearance and development in North Africa have been poorly known due to the near-absence of well-dated sites in reliable contexts. The ~ 1 Ma stone artefacts of Tighennif (Algeria) and Thomas Quarry I-Unit L (ThI-L) at Casablanca (Morocco) are thus far regarded as documenting the oldest Acheulean in North Africa but whatever the precision of their stratigraphical position, both deserve a better chronology. Here we provide a chronology for ThI-L, based on new magnetostratigraphic and geochemical data. Added to the existing lithostratigraphy of the Casablanca sequence, these results provide the first robust chronostratigraphic framework for the early North African Acheulean and firmly establish its emergence in this part of the continent back at least to ~ 1.3 Ma.

Dedicated core-on-anvil production of bladelet-like flakes in the Acheulean at Thomas Quarry I - L1 (Casablanca, Morocco).

The ability to produce large cutting tools (LCTs) is considered as the technological marker of the Acheulean and the indicator of a greater technological complexity compared to the previous Oldowan. Although Acheulean techno-complexes are also composed of a concurrent core-and-flake technology, the iconic handaxes have attracted more attention than any other lithic component. Consequently, little is known of the small and medium-sized flake productions (small flaking), especially starting from 1 Ma, when handaxe and cleaver manufacture becomes intensive and widespread across Africa, including the Atlantic coastal regions of Morocco. Research at Thomas Quarry I yielded a rich early Acheulean lithic assemblage, mainly composed of quartzite LCTs and small flaking, together with a small-sized flint production. Here, we report a particular aspect of this flint assemblage, i.e. a flint bladelet-like flake production. This process represents a discrete technical behaviour among those related to small flaking both in quartzite and flint: pebbles were flaked using the bipolar-on-anvil technique repeatedly employing a specific method to produce bladelet-like flakes. This production represents the oldest dated occurrence of bladelet-like technology in Africa and reveals technical competencies hitherto unknown for these periods, providing further elements for the techno-economic diversification of the African Acheulean.

Earliest African evidence of carcass processing and consumption in cave at 700 ka, Casablanca, Morocco.

To date, in Africa, evidence for animal processing and consumption in caves routinely used as living spaces is only documented in the late Middle Pleistocene of the North and South of the continent and postdates the Middle Pleistocene in East Africa. Here we report the earliest evidence in a North-African cave (Grotte des Rhinocéros at Casablanca, Morocco) of cut, percussion and human gnawing marks on faunal remains directly associated with lithic knapping activities in the same space and in a well-documented stratified context. Ages for this Acheulean site are provided by the dating of herbivorous teeth to 690-720 ka and 520-550 ka (lower and upper sets) by combined Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and U-series techniques. Traces of butchery on gazelle, alcelaphin, and zebra bones demonstrate that hominins had primary access to herbivore carcasses. Hominins brought and consumed meat in the cave, as documented by herbivore bones bearing human tooth marks concentrated in a circumscribed area of the excavation. In Africa, this site provides the earliest evidence for in situ carcass processing and meat-eating in cave, directly associated with lithic production and demonstrates the recurrent use by early Middle Pleistocene hominins of a North African cave site 400 000 years before that by Homo sapiens at Jebel Irhoud (Morocco).

Two Acheuleans, two humankinds: From 1.5 to 0.85 Ma at Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopian highlands).

The Acheulean is the longest-lasting human cultural record, spanning approximately 1.5 Ma and three continents. The most comprehensive sequences are found in East Africa, where, in largescale syntheses, the Lower Pleistocene Acheulean (LPA) has often been considered a uniform cultural entity. Furthermore, the emergence and development of Acheulean technology are seen as linked to the emergence and evolution of Homo ergaster/erectus. The criterion for grouping together different lithic assemblages scattered over space and time is the presence of large cutting tools (LCTs), more than of any other component. Their degree of refinement has been used, in turn, as a parameter for evaluating Acheulean development and variability. But was the East African LPA really uniform as regards all components involved in lithic productions? The aim of this paper is to evaluate the techno-economic similarities and differences among LPA productions in a specific micro-regional and environmental context, i.e. at Melka Kunture, in the Ethiopian highlands, and in a specific period of time: between ≈1.5 Ma, when some of the earliest Acheulean complexes appeared, and 1.0-0.85 Ma, when LCTs productions became intensive and widespread. Our detailed comparative analyses investigate all aspects and phases of the chaînes opératoires. Since hominin fossil remains were discovered at some of the analyzed sites, we also discuss differences among lithic productions in relation to the changing paleoanthropological record. Our studies show that at Melka Kunture the LPA techno-complexes cannot be grouped into a single uniform entity. The assembled evidence points instead to "two Acheuleans" well-defined by a strong discontinuity in various aspects of techno-economic behaviors. This discontinuity is related to a major step in human evolution: the transition from Homo ergaster/ erectus to Homo heidelbergensis.

Pleistocene Hominins as a Resource for Carnivores: A c. 500,000-Year-Old Human Femur Bearing Tooth-Marks in North Africa (Thomas Quarry I, Morocco).

In many Middle Pleistocene sites, the co-occurrence of hominins with carnivores, who both contributed to faunal accumulations, suggests competition for resources as well as for living spaces. Despite this, there is very little evidence of direct interaction between them to-date. Recently, a human femoral diaphysis has been recognized in South-West of Casablanca (Morocco), in the locality called Thomas Quarry I. This site is famous for its Middle Pleistocene fossil hominins considered representatives of Homo rhodesiensis. The bone was discovered in Unit 4 of the Grotte à Hominidés (GH), dated to c. 500 ky and was associated with Acheulean artefacts and a rich mammalian fauna. Anatomically, it fits well within the group of known early Middle Pleistocene Homo, but its chief point of interest is that the diaphyseal ends display numerous tooth marks showing that it had been consumed shortly after death by a large carnivore, probably a hyena. This bone represents the first evidence of consumption of human remains by carnivores in the cave. Whether predated or scavenged, this chewed femur indicates that humans were a resource for carnivores, underlining their close relationships during the Middle Pleistocene in Atlantic Morocco.

The Unknown Oldowan: ~1.7-Million-Year-Old Standardized Obsidian Small Tools from Garba IV, Melka Kunture, Ethiopia.

The Oldowan Industrial Complex has long been thought to have been static, with limited internal variability, embracing techno-complexes essentially focused on small-to-medium flake production. The flakes were rarely modified by retouch to produce small tools, which do not show any standardized pattern. Usually, the manufacture of small standardized tools has been interpreted as a more complex behavior emerging with the Acheulean technology. Here we report on the ~1.7 Ma Oldowan assemblages from Garba IVE-F at Melka Kunture in the Ethiopian highland. This industry is structured by technical criteria shared by the other East African Oldowan assemblages. However, there is also evidence of a specific technical process never recorded before, i.e. the systematic production of standardized small pointed tools strictly linked to the obsidian exploitation. Standardization and raw material selection in the manufacture of small tools disappear at Melka Kunture during the Lower Pleistocene Acheulean. This proves that 1) the emergence of a certain degree of standardization in tool-kits does not reflect in itself a major step in cultural evolution; and that 2) the Oldowan knappers, when driven by functional needs and supported by a highly suitable raw material, were occasionally able to develop specific technical solutions. The small tool production at ~1.7 Ma, at a time when the Acheulean was already emerging elsewhere in East Africa, adds to the growing amount of evidence of Oldowan techno-economic variability and flexibility, further challenging the view that early stone knapping was static over hundreds of thousands of years.

A Human Deciduous Tooth and New 40Ar/39Ar Dating Results from the Middle Pleistocene Archaeological Site of Isernia La Pineta, Southern Italy.

Isernia La Pineta (south-central Italy, Molise) is one of the most important archaeological localities of the Middle Pleistocene in Western Europe. It is an extensive open-air site with abundant lithic industry and faunal remains distributed across four stratified archaeosurfaces that have been found in two sectors of the excavation (3c, 3a, 3s10 in sect. I; 3a in sect. II). The prehistoric attendance was close to a wet environment, with a series of small waterfalls and lakes associated to calcareous tufa deposits. An isolated human deciduous incisor (labelled IS42) was discovered in 2014 within the archaeological level 3 coll (overlying layer 3a) that, according to new 40Ar/39Ar measurements, is dated to about 583-561 ka, i.e. to the end of marine isotope stage (MIS) 15. Thus, the tooth is currently the oldest human fossil specimen in Italy; it is an important addition to the scanty European fossil record of the Middle Pleistocene, being associated with a lithic assemblage of local raw materials (flint and limestone) characterized by the absence of handaxes and reduction strategies primarily aimed at the production of small/medium-sized flakes. The faunal assemblage is dominated by ungulates often bearing cut marks. Combining chronology with the archaeological evidence, Isernia La Pineta exhibits a delay in the appearance of handaxes with respect to other European Palaeolithic sites of the Middle Pleistocene. Interestingly, this observation matches the persistence of archaic morphological features shown by the human calvarium from the Middle Pleistocene site of Ceprano, not far from Isernia (south-central Italy, Latium). In this perspective, our analysis is aimed to evaluate morphological features occurring in IS42.

An older origin for the Acheulean at Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopia): techno-economic behaviours at Garba IVD.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the emergence of the Acheulean at Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopia) was dated to 1 Ma (million years ago), based on the typo-metrical analysis of the lithic assemblage of Garba XIIJ. Older sites such as Gombore I, Karre I, and Garba IV (1.7-1.5 Ma) were classified as Oldowan/Developed Oldowan. Consequently, the Oldowan and the Acheulean at Melka Kunture were interpreted as two distinct technologies separated by a chronological gap of 0.5 Ma. The archaeostratigraphic unit D of Garba IV, dated to ~1.5 Ma, yielded one of the richest Early Stone Age lithic series in East Africa. In this paper, a review traces methods of technological analysis, based on the concept of chaîne opératoire, to update our knowledge of the techno-economic behaviours at this site. The results show two major elements characteristic of cultural changes in the Melka Kunture sequence: (1) the emergence of a new chaîne opératoire focused on large flake/large cutting tool (LCT) production, and (2) a large variability of small débitage modalities with systematic preparation of the striking platform and the appearance of a certain degree of predetermination. These technological traits are shared by the contemporaneous sites in East Africa and are considered to be typical of the early Acheulean. This suggests an older origin for the Acheulean at Melka Kunture, 0.5 Ma than previously inferred.

A chronological framework for a long and persistent archaeological record: Melka Kunture, Ethiopia.

New (40)Ar/(39)Ar geochronological data for several volcanic ash horizons from Melka Kunture, Ethiopia, allow for significantly more precise age constraints to be placed upon the lithostratigraphy, archaeology and paleontology from this long record. Ashes from the Melka Kunture Formation at Gombore yielded the most reliable age constraints, from 1.393 ± 0.162 Ma(2) (millions of years ago) near the base of the section to 0.709 ± 0.013 Ma near the top. Dating the Garba section proved more problematic, but the base of the section, which contains numerous Oldowan obsidian artifacts, may be >1.719 ± 0.199 Ma, while the top is securely dated to 0.869 ± 0.020 Ma. The large ignimbrite from the Kella Formation at Kella and Melka Garba is dated to 1.262 ± 0.034 Ma and pre-dates Acheulean artifacts in the area. The Gombore II site, which has yielded two Homo skull fragments, 'twisted bifaces,' and a preserved butchery site, is now constrained between 0.875 ± 0.010 Ma and 0.709 ± 0.013 Ma. Additional ashes from these and other sites further constrain the timing of deposition throughout the section. Integration with previously published magnetostratigraphy has allowed for the first time a relatively complete, reliable timeline for the deposition of sediments, environmental changes, archaeology, and paleontology at Melka Kunture.