Abstract
This article attempts to synthesize the growing amount of information available using concrete examples from some key sites in Africa and Europe to draw conclusions concerning hominin cognition levels, degree of technological advancement and adaptive skills. Sites with Mode 1 or Oldowan type industries are now known outside of Africa; around the Mediterranean Basin and also in central, southern and eastern Asia. Although Africa remains the most probable origin for the first hominin populations to occupy Eurasia, little is known of their paleodemography or cultural transmission modes. Technological studies may provide some answers to questions about raw material procurement patterns and tool manufacturing capacities for hominin groups occupying Eurasia between around 2.0 and 0.8 Ma. What can they tell us about hominin migration patterns? How might comparative lithic assemblage studies be used to discern cultural exchange?
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Barsky, D. (2009). An Overview of Some African and Eurasian Oldowan Sites: Evaluation of Hominin Cognition Levels, Technological Advancement and Adaptive Skills. In: Hovers, E., Braun, D.R. (eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Oldowan. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9060-8_4
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