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C. Shipton et al., in Recent Advances in Acheulian Culture Studies in India (K.Paddayya and S.G. Deo Eds.), pp. 23-36 [2014] © Indian Society for Prehistoric and Quaternary Studies, Pune Empirical Differences between the Earlier and Later Acheulian in India Ceri Shipton,.S. Mishra1, K. Paddayya1, Sushama G. Deo1, J.N. Pal2, N. Roseboom3, C. Gaillard3, M.C. Gupta2 and Y. Hou4 School of Social Science University of Queensland Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia E-mail: c.shipton@uq.edu.au 1. Department of Archaeology, Deccan College, Pune 411006, India 2. Department of Ancient History, Culture and Archaeology, University of Allahabad, Allahabad 211002, India 3. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Departement de Prehistoire du Museum national d’histoire naturelle, 1 rue rene Panhard, 75013 Paris, France 4. Institute of Vetebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xizhimenwai Street, Beijing 100044, P.R. China Abstract The Indian Acheulian is now known to have endured for around one and a half million years. Several authors have identified temporal patterns in behaviour, particularly in relation to shaped bifaces, which may be discerned over this vast timescale. These chronological trends include a decrease in mean biface size; an increase in the relative thinness of bifaces; a decrease in the elongation of bifaces; an increase in biface flake scar density; a decrease in the shape variation of bifaces; an increase in the size variation of bifaces; a decrease in the proportion of bifaces in an assemblage; an increase in the use of flake blanks; and an increase in the use of cryptocrystalline materials. Here we statistically test these patterns by comparing a series of four earlier Acheulian assemblages from Isampur, Morgaon, Chirki-onPravara and Singi Talav with a series of four later Acheulian assemblages from Teggihalli II,Mudnur X, Bhimbetka IIIF-23, and Patpara. Our results indicate that many of the proposed patterns are real, and we offer some interpretations as to what they represent for the evolution of hominin behaviour and cognition. Introduction Since Robert Bruce Foote’s discovery of Acheulian bifaces at Pallavaram and Attirampakkam 150 years ago, hundreds of Acheulian sites have been found across India (Mishra 1994). In the last 25 years the advancement of dating techniques has allowed for the upper and lower time limits of the Indian Acheulian to be ascertained in absolute years. Firstly, Uranium-Thorium dating of calcrete in association with artefacts at several sites pushed the age of the Acheulian back beyond 350 thousand years (Mishra 1995). Argon-Argon dating of Toba tephra associated with heavy duty picks at Bori increased the age to 670 thousand years (Mishra et al. 1995). Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) dating of bovid teeth from Acheulian levels at Isampur produced a date of 1.27 Ma (Blackwell et al. 2001). Most recently, cosmogeneic dating of the deep levels at Attirampakkam yielded some of the oldest dates for the Acheulian in the world, with a mean age of 1.51 Ma (Pappu et al. 2011), but possibly as old as 1.77 Ma. At the other end of the spectrum three Acheulian sites in the Son Valley have been dated with Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) to just 140-131 Kyr making them among the youngest Recent Advances in Acheulian Culture Studies in India Acheulian found anywhere in the world (Haslam et al., 2011; Shipton et al., in press). The duration of the Acheulian in India is thus approximately 1.5 million years; 10,000 times longer than the eventful 150 years since Bruce Foote’s first Acheulian discovery. Given this vast timescale it is unsurprising that several researchers have suggested there may be temporal trends in the Indian Acheulian (Misra 1978; Gaillard et al. 1986; Mishra 2007; Paddayya 2007; Shipton et al. 2009a; Shipton 2013). The observed patterns usually relate to the diagnostic artefacts of the Acheulian, the shaped bifaces that we call handaxes and cleavers. The trends include a decrease in mean biface size but an increase in the relative thinness of bifaces; a decrease in the elongation of bifaces but an increase in biface flake scar density and a decrease in the shape variation of bifaces but an increase in the size variation of bifaces; and an increase in the use of flake blanks and cryptocrystalline materials. While these trends have been noted, there has been relatively little statistical testing; hence they remain somewhat tentative. The goal of this article is to quantitatively compare these variables across a sample of earlier and later Acheulian assemblages. While the chronology of the Indian Acheulian is not yet refined enough to confidently assign ages to many individual sites, a few assemblages can at least be divided into earlier and later groups (Gaillard et al. 2010a). Palaeomagnetic chronologies have enabled assignation of some sites to one side or the other of the Matuyama-Brunhes polarity switch 0.78 Ma ago. In this study we use this convenient boundary, lying approximately halfway through the Indian Acheulian, to divide our assemblages into two groups. The Key Sites (Fig. 1) Isampur Isampur is located in the Hunsgi Valley in Karnataka, on the eastern edge of the Deccan plateau, roughly in the centre of peninsula India (Paddayya and Petraglia 1997). The site occurs on a siliceous limestone pediment on the western edge of 24 a 2-3 m deep palaeo-drainage channel that has silted up since the hominin occupation (Paddayya et al. 1999; Petraglia et al. 1999). Acheulian artefacts were discovered here by Paddayya in 1982-83 field season after much of the black and brown clayey silts overlying the limestone pediment were removed to serve as fill material for the embakment of an irrigation canal. The artefacts occur in a thin horizon (15 - 30 cm), set in a hard matrix of carbonate rich brown silt lying on the bedrock. Taphonomic study attests to the high integrity of the site, particularly Trench 1, as proved by the non-rounded condition of artefacts and natural clasts, presence of very small artefacts (< 1 cm3) and horizontal orientation of the artefacts. ESR dating of two fossilized Bos teeth put the age of hominin occupation at Isampur at 1.2 ± 0.17 Ma, assuming a linear uptake model (Paddayya et al. 2002). The limestone bedrock weathers in a predictable way leaving joint-bounded slabs of thicknesses varying from 2 to 20 cm. The slab pieces from bedrock at Isampur were being pried out by hominins for lithic manufacture. The larger slabs were being used as giant cores for obtaining cleaver blanks, while the smaller slabs were being shaped into handaxes (Shipton et al. 2009b). Teggihalli II Teggihalli II is located in the Baichbal Valley, about 200 m from the Doddahalla stream. Here Acheulian artefacts, mostly of limestone, and a small amount of fossil fauna were found in a discrete patch, within a brown clayey silt matrix (Paddayya 2007). Farming activities and the resultant soil erosion resulted in the recent deflation of the overlying deposits, but the artefacts were still buried by a metre of sediment and appeared to be undisturbed. A Uranium-Thorium date on a fossilized tooth from the cultural layer produced an age of 287 Kyr (Szabo et al. 1990). Unlike Isampur and some other sites in the Hunsgi and Baichbal Valleys where artefacts lay directly on the bedrock or in the eroding gruss, at Teggihalli the Empirical Differences between the Earlier and Later Acheulian in India artefact bearing horizon is separated from the bedrock by around 1m of culturally sterile silt (Paddayya 2007). Fig. 1: The location of the study sites within the Indian Subcontinent. 1. The Hunsgi and Baichbal Valleys (including Isampur, Teggihalli II and Mudnur X); 2. Morgaon; 3. Chirki-onPravara; 4. Bhimbetka; 5. Patpara; 6. Singi Talav. Mudnur X Mudnur X is also located in the Baichbal Valley, about 2 km upstream from Teggihalli II where the Tallahalli stream meets the Doddahalla stream. Three discrete artefact clusters were found here in a distinct 10-15 cm thick horizon within the same brown clayey silt layer that occurs at Teggihalli II (Paddayya 2007). At Mudnur X the Acheulian horizon was some 4 m above the bedrock and 2 m below the present ground surface. As with the above mentioned sites from Hunsgi and Baichbal Valleys, the majority of the artefacts from Mudnur X were made on the siliceous limestone that can be found in the Valley. basaltic landscape. The site occurs near the bank of the seasonal Karha river, a tributary of the Bhima. Excavations at the site produced large basalt artefacts, derived from sandy basalt gravels laid down by flash floods in a braided stream (Deo et al. 2007; Mishra et al. 2009). The fresh condition of the excavated artefacts and the presence of relatively small pieces indicate the site has not undergone much post-depositional disturbance. A palaeomagnetic study of the Morgaon sequence indicates that the deposits fall within the Matuyama period (Sangode et al. 2007), while lenses of Toba Tephra occur stratigraphically above the Acheulian horizon (Gaillard et al. 2010a). Morgaon Morgaon is located in Maharashtra on the western side of the Deccan plateau in a Chirki-on-Pravara The site of Chirki is located on the Pravara river, near Nevasa town in Maharashtra, in 25 Recent Advances in Acheulian Culture Studies in India the central part of Deccan plateau. Acheulian artefacts occur in a basal colluvial gravel on top of the basalt bedrock, sealed by a fluvial cross-bedded gravel, which is in turn capped by a black fissured clay (Corvinus 1983). While some of the smaller artefacts may have been winnowed from the site the bifaces are in fresh condition and have not undergone much post-depositional transport. Paleomagnetic study of the black fissured clay at the site of Laxmi Nala a few kilometres upstream showed that it belonged to the Matuyama period. Therefore the underlying gravels, which also occur in the Laxmi Nala, may be assigned to this period as well (Sangode et al. 2007). A Uranium-Thorium date on calcrete in the artefact-bearing layer at Laxmi Nala produced an age of at least 350 Kyr (Gaillard et al. 2010b). The artefacts from Chirki are made of basalt an amygdaloidal basalt available at the site and a more compact basalt from a dyke several kilometres away (Corvinus 1983). Bhimbetka IIIF-23 Bhimbetka is a complex of sandstone rockshelters on the northern edge of the Vindhayan hills in Madhya Pradesh. Rockshelter IIIF-23 is one of the largest in the complex and excavation here produced a continuous 3.5 m deep sequence spanning from the microlithic to the Acheulian period (Misra 1978). Three Acheulian-bearing layers (6, 7 and 8) were exposed and these measured around 2.4 m in total thickness. The presence of occasional handaxes and cleavers in the Middle Palaeolithic assemblage of layer 5, together with the presence of Levallois technology in Layer 6, indicates a gradual transition from the Acheulian to the Middle Palaeolithic at the site (Misra 1978). The Acheulian artefacts are similar in character throughout the sequence so the industry may be broadly assigned to the Late Acheulian. The artefacts are in very fresh condition and occur in horizontally bedded floors indicating they were deposited in situ by hominins occupying the shelter. Nearly all artefacts were made on orange quartzitic sandstone, 26 with the bifaces made on a purplish iron rich variety that is particularly hard, while the smaller artefacts were made on a yellowish softer variety (Misra 1978). The yellowish quartzitic sandstone is available on and around the shelter while the purplish variety occurs as a discrete vein some distance away. The cortex on some of the cleavers is weathered, showing that the purplish quartzite was obtained from the regolith, similarly to the nearby site of Adamgarh (Joshi 1964). Patpara Patpara is another transitional Acheulian to Middle Palaeolithic assemblage from a site in the Son valley in Madhya Pradesh. The Son river flows northwards and eastwards from the Vindhyan and Maikal hills of central India, and is a major tributary of the Ganga. The site occurs on the northern side of an east-west trending quartzitic sandstone ridge in the middle part of the Son valley (Blumenschine et al. 1983). Associated Acheulian and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts were excavated from red-brown gravelly and sandy clays, at three different localities (Shipton et al., in press). The artefacts are very fresh and have undergone minimal post-depositional transport although they may have clustered in local topographic lows (Blumenschine et al. 1983). Statistically indistinguishable OSL ages of 137 and 140 Kyr were obtained from two Acheulian bearing horizons at Patpara locality III (Haslam et al. 2011). The artefacts are made both on the local quartzitic sandstone of the ridge and from chert probably obtained from the Kaimur Hills several kilometres away. Singi Talav On the edge of the Thar desert in western Rajasthan, hominin occupation has been observed around the Didwana palaeo-lake. In the Singi Talav depression, 2 km south of Didwana town, two levels of Acheulian occupation were exposed and these were interpreted as occurring on a lakeshore (Misra et al. 1982). The same lacustrine deposits occur at the site of Amarpura 3 km to the west of Didwana where they are particularly thick, with the Acheulian Empirical Differences between the Earlier and Later Acheulian in India artefacts also occurring in the upper Amarpura section (Gaillard et al. 1986). The upper part of the Amarpura lacustrine sequence was dated by ESR to 797 Kyr (Kailath et al. 2000), and based on stratigraphic correlation (Gaillard 1985) this is regarded as a minimum date for the Acheulian layers at Singi Talav (Gaillard et al. 2010b). The Singi Talav artefacts are in fresh condition and there is little difference between the two occupation layers except in the proportions of artefact types (Gaillard et al. 2010b). Bifaces from Singi Talav were made on schistose quartzite slabs, small flake tools were struck from a different homogenous quartzite; and polyhedrons, spheroids and hammerstones were made on a coarsegrained quartzite. Table 1: Comparison of mean values for length, refinement, elongation and flake scar density between earlier and later assemblages Volume Refinement Elongation Flake scar density Age Earlier Later Earlier Later Earlier Later Earlier Later N 178 111 178 111 178 111 178 110 Mean 284567 128721 0.5657 0.4429 1.5890 1.4848 0.1028 0.2029 SD 209066 76750 0.12706 0.09841 0.25574 0.20267 0.05106 0.12792 Significance P<0.001 P<0.001 P<0.001 P<0.001 Table 2. The relationship (r2 linear) between biface dimensions for each assemblage Isampur Morgaon Chirki SingiTalav Teggihalli II Mudnur X Bhimbetka Patpara Length-Width 0.54 0.101 0.544 0.542 0.777 0.577 0.351 0.774 Length-Thickness 0.459 0.301 0.422 0.687 0.439 0.34 0.003 0.684 Analysis The assemblages were divided into two groups for statistical analyses. The first group of assemblages older than 780 Kyr comprised Isampur, Morgaon, Chirki and Singi Talav; the second group of assemblages younger than 780 Kyr comprised Teggihalli II, Mudnur X, Bhimbetka IIIF-23 and Patpara. All bifaces were measured for Isampur, Singi Talav, Teggihalli II, Mudnur X and Patpara, while samples of over 30 bifaces were taken for Chirki, Morgaon and Bhimbetka IIIF-23. Width-Thickness 0.435 0.002 0.297 0.439 0.406 0.283 0.01 0.497 For illustrating the variation in biface length, thickness to width ratio, length to width ratio, and flake scar density we created box plots of each variable by assemblage (Figs. 2-5). These figures show that bifaces from the younger assemblages tend to be smaller, relatively thinner, less elongate, and have higher flake scar densities. These are not hard and fast rules as there are exceptions with Mudnur X having thicker and more elongate bifaces than those of Morgaon, while the Bhimbetka bifaces have low flake scar densities. Despite these 27 Recent Advances in Acheulian Culture Studies in India exceptions there are clearly discernible patterns in these variables, so we tested the significance of the difference in mean values for the early and late bifaces (Table 1). Unequal variances t-tests produced highly significant differences between earlier and later bifaces for each of the variables (Table 1). Fig. 2: Box plot of biface volume in cubic millimetres. Horizontal lines show the median value, boxes show interquartile range, bars show the 90th and 10th percentiles. Open circles denote outliers defined as 1.5 to 3 times the interquartile range beyond the interquartile range, while asterisks denote outliers greater than 3 times the interquartile range. Assemblages are ordered by mean value. Fig. 2 shows the variation in biface volume for each of the assemblages with Isampur having the highest variation in volume. We used a D’AD test to test the difference in the coefficient of variation (standard deviation divided by the mean) between the early and late assemblages 28 and found that the higher variation in the earlier Acheulian sample could be due to chance (p=0.1). In addition the sample could be biased by the fact that Isampur is a quarry and manufacturing locale and may contain both newly made and worn out bifaces. Empirical Differences between the Earlier and Later Acheulian in India Fig. 3: Box plot of biface thickness to width ratio (refinement) To explore changing patterns of blank preference we plotted blank type by site (Fig. 6). Fig. 6 shows that most of the later assemblages are dominated by flake blanks, while the earlier assemblages, with the exception of Morgaon, have more of a mixture of blanks. A chi-squared test comparing blank types between the earlier and later assemblages was significant at the p<0.001 level, suggesting that there is a strong preference for flake blanks over cobbles and slabs in the later Acheulian (cobbles and slabs were grouped together for this test). To test the hypothesis that there was a preference for cryptocrystalline materials in the later Acheulian we conducted a Fisher’s Exact test on the frequency of bifaces made on cryptocrystalline materials (such as chert and quartz) versus those made on microcrystalline materials (such as quartzite, limestone, basalt, dolerite and schist) (Table 3). The test showed that there is no significant difference (p=0.4129) in the selection of these materials for biface manufacture between the earlier and later traditions. 29 Recent Advances in Acheulian Culture Studies in India Fig. 4: Box plot of biface length to width ratio (elongation) Fig. 5: Box plot of biface flake scar density in scars per square cm 30 Empirical Differences between the Earlier and Later Acheulian in India Fig. 6: Blank type by assemblage Table 3: The frequency of bifaces made on microcrystalline and cryptocrystalline materials for the earlier and later Acheulian Earlier Later Microcrystalline 176 111 Cryptocrystalline 7 7 Discussion In the forgoing pages we have assessed purported trends in the Indian Acheulian using quantitative analyses. Our results show that some of the trends, such as increasing biface shape standardization and an increasing preference for cryptocrystalline materials in biface manufacture, are illusory. It could be that cryptocrystalline materials were being favoured for tools other than bifaces, but that is beyond the scope of this article. Most of the previously identified trends in Acheulian bifaces are however supported by the above analyses. There are often exceptions within these trends which indicate that we are not dealing with absolute distinctions but only general trends that may be influenced by multiple aspects of behaviour. The metric analyses revealed four important temporal distinctions in Acheulian bifaces: later bifaces tend to be smaller, relatively thinner and shorter, and have higher flake scar densities (Fig. 7). While there are exceptions to these trends, in combination they are reliable indicators of whether a biface assemblage belongs to the earlier or later Acheulian. 31 Recent Advances in Acheulian Culture Studies in India Fig. 7: A cleaver from Morgaon (above) and a handaxe from Patpara (below). Note the differences in flake scar density and thinness between the two. The decrease in size and the increase in flake scar density may reflect greater reduction of bifaces in the later Acheulian. As bifaces are flaked they will accrue more flake scars whilst their volume is reduced. This is particularly true of bifaces made on flake blanks which start out with few flake scars. Bifaces which are small because they are heavily reduced will have high flake scar densities, but those that are small because they are made on small flakes or clasts will not (Shipton 2011). The later Acheulian bifaces with high scar densities from Teggihalli II, Mudnur X and Patpara are thus small because they are highly reduced. Increased reduction may have a number of non-mutually exclusive explanations. 32 Knapping actions are not rigid templates imposed on the stone, but rather represent dynamic outgrowths resulting from a practical understanding of the changing stone morphology and its potentials (Roux and Brill 2005). Flake scar density reflects the number of flaking decisions made while repeatedly reevaluating the object in order to arrive at a target form. Greater flake scar densities on bifaces indicate greater employment of dynamic planning. Increased reduction may also reflect enhanced re-sharpening of bifaces as a result of greater curation. In the Hunsgi and Baichbal valleys the bifaces from Teggihalli II and Mudnur X occur further away from their raw material sources than those at Isampur and other Empirical Differences between the Earlier and Later Acheulian in India sites with large, low scar density bifaces (Shipton 2013). It has been suggested that biface re-sharpening preferentially reduces the tip (McPherron 2006), which may be one explanation for why later bifaces are less elongate. Alternatively the shift away from elongate bifaces may reflect cultural divergence from the ancestral African Acheulian, which is characterized by more elongate bifaces. A pattern supported by this study is the increasing preference for flake blanks in the later Acheulian. This may reflect the increasing use of prepared core techniques for the production of standardized flakes. In India and elsewhere, the later Acheulian is often associated with prepared core techniques, foreshadowing the preference for small prepared cores in the succeeding Middle Palaeolithic period (DeBono and GorenInbar 2001; Petraglia et al. 2003; Sharon and Beaumont 2006). The use of core preparation again suggests greater planning in the later Acheulian. Bifaces in the later Indian Acheulian are relatively thinner than those of the earlier Acheulian. This temporal pattern has been observed across assemblages throughout the Acheulian world (Shipton 2013). Producing a thin tool is perhaps the most challenging aspect of biface manufacture. A thin biface often requires the production of a large, thin flake blank. This involves careful preparation of a large core and striking a precise forceful blow at such an angle as to facilate the removal of a large flake, without either shattering the stone or striking ineffectually (Edwards 2001). Alternatively, producing a thin lenticular profile from an amorphous nodule or a rounded cobble is equally challenging, as the starting form is far removed from the end goal. Making a thin biface requires sufficiently invasive flakes to be struck to thin the piece whilst maintaining adequate width for an extensive cutting edge (Callahan 1990). This may involve using soft hammers at the later stages of reduction and careful platform preparation. Step fractures must also be avoided or removed to allow flakes to travel across the surface (Edwards 2001). The smaller and thinner a biface is, the more liable it is to break due to endshock during manufacture. Avoiding endshock requires delicate and precise flaking, as well as cushioning the blow by coordinating between the striking hand and the hand in which the biface is held. Producing a thin biface thus requires both planning and dexterity. Due to these difficulties the thin bifaces typical of the later Acheulian can only be replicated by modern knappers after lengthy periods of practice (Bradley and Sampson 1986; Edwards 2001). The pattern of thinner bifaces in the later Acheulian may be attributed to an evolutionary increase in hominin skill, with more skilled knappers being able to flake more delicately and precisely as well as anticipating and removing potential barriers to reduction. A quantitative approach allows perceived patterns in the archaeological record to be assessed objectively. In this article we have demonstrated the veracity of many proposed temporal trends in the Indian Acheulian. Our inferences about the causes of this variation suggest some trends may relate to evolving hominin cognition, in particular increases in planning and dexterity. In other words, the vast time span of the Indian Acheulian has the potential to reveal much about the evolution of the human mind. Acknowledgements We would like to thank M. Yogesh, Jose Raphael, Tosabanta Padhan and Burhan Ahmad for assistance during data collection. 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