The Middle Pleistocene in transition : lithic assemblages and changing social relations between OIS 12 and 6 in Europe and Africa

Abstract

The core argument demonstrates that the archaeological notion of transitions is untenable. They structure the past into blocks of time, thereby amalgamating behaviour patterns and establishing universal interpretations that are situated outside of hominid action. Within the current framework a transition is a historical junction point in chronological time, organised according to change and variation in archaeological assemblages. Several models have been proffered to explain change, but the underlying framework through which transitions are established has rarely been questioned, because of their key role in the interpretation of hominid evolution.

This traditional framework is critiques and two themes are addressed to re-contextualise Middle Pleistocene archaeological interpretation. Firstly, in an exploration of the concepts of temporality and the taskscape, it is argued that time and space are mutually produced through hominid action. This alters the interpretation of change and variation, which is my second theme. I conclude that they exist in unison, as change is a constant although inconsistent process of transformation.

Undermining the notion of fixed points of transition renders research focusing on origin points, and therefore modern humans origins, implausible. Current discourse on hominid identity draws on the structural opposition of 'modern' versus 'archaic' humans for interpretation. In contrast, I locate hominid identities through the exploration of social praxis, offering a way of linking recent social theory with the practice of lithic analysis to interpret changing hominid identities. The transformation from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic is characterised in five case studies that analyse Middle Pleistocene lithic assemblages from the UK, France and South Africa. I demonstrate that there is no single identity for Acheulean, Middle Stone Age or Middle Palaeolithic hominids, and show how non-linear transformations in the detailed analysis of lithic artefacts and the surrounding taskscape can portray changing relations in hominid social life.

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