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Re: Technology & Intelligence
Matthew Hill (mhill@WATARTS.UWATERLOO.CA)
Fri, 10 Feb 1995 16:30:57 -0500
On Fri, 10 Feb 1995, SS51000 wrote:
> The transition from Oldowan tools to Upper Paleolithic blades
> *correlated* with an approximate tripling of hominid cranial capacities.
Looked at a bit more closely, the rough tripling corresponded with the
the several transitions from Oldowan tools to Middle Paleolithic
Flake Industries.
The transition from the Middle Pal. to Upper Paleolithic Blades in Europe
at least correlated with a reduction in hominid cranial capacities
according to most secondary sources.
However, that may only be for Neandertal dominated populations.
Has anyone redone the old figures treating a wider range of Archaic H. saps.?
Cranial capacity, of course, tells us nothing about structure as we have
often been reminded.
It seems to me that, following Wynn and looking at the archaeological
site evidence, that a big behavioural break occurs sometime around the .5
MYA mark or slightly later. Up until then, with the possible exception
of controlling fire, I can't see that H. erectus was in any position to
feel technologically superior to the later australopiths.
Matthew Hill (MHILL@WATARTS.UWATERLOO.CA)
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