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John  Shea
  • Anthropology Department
    Stony Brook University
    Stony Brook, NY 11794-4364  USA
  • 631-632-7665

John Shea

A comparison of Pleistocene handaxes and other long core-tools (LCTs) with modern-day portable personal electronic devices supports the hypothesis that LCTs' sizes and shapes reflect design for ease of handcarrying. Occurrences of... more
A comparison of Pleistocene handaxes and other long core-tools (LCTs) with modern-day portable personal electronic devices supports the hypothesis that LCTs' sizes and shapes reflect design for ease of handcarrying. Occurrences of handaxes and other LCTs in the archaeological record after 1.6-1.8 Ma signal a novel strategy of habitual shaping stone tools for efficient transport, a strategy unique to the Genus Homo.
Research Interests:
This paper argues against recognising a 'generic Middle Stone Age (MSA)' as a formal taxon for use in African prehistoric archaeology. Surveying 46 Eastern African MSA stone tool assemblages reveals wild mismatches between what an... more
This paper argues against recognising a 'generic Middle Stone Age (MSA)' as a formal taxon for use in African prehistoric archaeology. Surveying 46 Eastern African MSA stone tool assemblages reveals wild mismatches between what an undifferentiated or 'generic' MSA is supposed to do and what it almost certainly will do. A
generic MSA will reduce African prehistoric archaeology’s
potential contribution to human origins research. If one were
searching for a way in which to make Africa’s stone tool evidence
irrelevant to human origins research, then one could hardly do
better than to offer archaeologists a generic MSA to which to
assign lithic assemblages. At the editors’ invitation, the paper also
comments briefly on several of the other contributions to this
special issue of Azania.
Archeologists have long assumed that earlier hominins were obligatory stone tool users. This assumption is deeply embedded in traditional ways of describing the lithic record. This paper argues that lithic evidence dating before 1.7 Ma... more
Archeologists have long assumed that earlier hominins were obligatory stone tool users. This assumption is deeply embedded in traditional ways of describing the lithic record. This paper argues that lithic evidence dating before 1.7 Ma reflects occasional stone tool use, much like that practiced by nonhuman primates except that it involved flaked-stone cutting tools. Evidence younger than 0.3 Ma is more congruent with obligatory stone tool use, like that among recent humans. The onset of habitual stone tool use at about 1.7 Ma appears correlated with increased hominin logistical mobility (carrying things). The onset of obligatory stone tool use after 0.3 Ma may be linked to the evolution of spoken language. Viewing the lithic evidence dating between 0.3-1.7 Ma as habitual stone tool use explains previously inexplicable aspects of the Early-Middle Pleistocene lithic record.
... News. Paleoanthropology in puerto rico. Matthew L. Sisk 1 ,; John J. Shea 2. Article first published online: 22 DEC 2006. ... How to Cite. Sisk, ML and Shea, JJ (2006), Paleoanthropology in puertorico. Evolutionary Anthropology:... more
... News. Paleoanthropology in puerto rico. Matthew L. Sisk 1 ,; John J. Shea 2. Article first published online: 22 DEC 2006. ... How to Cite. Sisk, ML and Shea, JJ (2006), Paleoanthropology in puertorico. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 15: 201–203. ...
Recent advances in the study of ancient DNA recovered from fossils and cave sediments have profoundly changed our views on the biological and cultural interactions between populations and lineages of fossil Homo in the Later Pleistocene... more
Recent advances in the study of ancient DNA recovered from fossils and cave sediments have profoundly changed
our views on the biological and cultural interactions between populations and lineages of fossil Homo in the Later
Pleistocene of Eurasia. A spatiotemporally complex picture emerges, with multiple population admixture and
replacement events. Focusing on the evidence from Western Eurasia, we consider here how the mapping out of
between-species interactions based on fossil and material cultural evidence is being replaced by a broader
approach. Traditional narratives about human migrations and the biological and/or cultural advantages of our
own species over the Neanderthals are now giving way to the study of the biological and cultural dynamics of
past human populations and the nature of their interactions in time and space.
The Unstoppable Human Species explains how humans became invulnerable to all but the most severe, biosphere-level, extinction threats. John Shea argues we owe our unstoppability to our global diaspora, a condition humans accomplished... more
The Unstoppable Human Species explains how humans became invulnerable to all but the most severe, biosphere-level, extinction threats.  John Shea argues we owe our unstoppability to our global diaspora, a condition humans accomplished during prehistoric times.  How did they do it?  How did early humans survive long enough to become our ancestors?  Long before agriculture allowed large-scale migrations, early humans dispersed in small numbers over short distances again and again over thousands of years.  As they dispersed, they integrated a suite of Ancestral Survival Skills to overcome challenges they faced in new habitats.  By placing “how did they survive?” questions front and center, The Unstoppable Human Species offers up an original, iconoclastic, and thought-provoking perspective on human evolution.
Toward the end of the Pleistocene, the world experienced a mass extinction of megafauna. In North America these included its proboscideans—the mammoths and mastodons. Researchers in conservation biology, paleontology, and archaeology have... more
Toward the end of the Pleistocene, the world experienced a mass extinction of megafauna. In North America these included its proboscideans—the mammoths and mastodons. Researchers in conservation biology, paleontology, and archaeology have debated the role played by human predation in these extinctions. They point to traces of human butchery, such as cut marks and other bone surface modifications (BSM), as evidence of human-animal interactions—including predation and scavenging, between early Americans and proboscideans. However, others have challenged the validity of the butchery evidence observed on several proboscidean assemblages, largely due to questions of qualitative determination of the agent responsible for creating BSM. This study employs a statistical technique that relies on three-dimensional (3D) imaging data and 3D geometric morphometrics to determine the origin of the BSM observed on the skeletal remains of the Bowser Road mastodon (BR mastodon), excavated in Middletow...
For the first two thirds of our evolutionary history, we hominins were restricted to Africa. Dating from about two million years ago, hominin fossils first appear in Eurasia. This volume addresses many of the issues surrounding this... more
For the first two thirds of our evolutionary history, we hominins were restricted to Africa. Dating from about two million years ago, hominin fossils first appear in Eurasia. This volume addresses many of the issues surrounding this initial hominin intercontinental dispersal. Why did hominins first leave Africa in the early Pleistocene and not earlier? What do we know about the adaptations of the hominins that dispersed-their diet, locomotor abilities, cultural abilities? Was there a single dispersal event or several? Was the hominin ...
This paper asks why we expect to find standardization among prehistoric stone tools. It argues this expectation results from early archaeologists' experience living in industrialized societies, a wild mismatch with the world their... more
This paper asks why we expect to find standardization among prehistoric stone tools. It argues this expectation results from early archaeologists' experience living in industrialized societies, a wild mismatch with the world their Pleistocene forebears inhabited. It further argues that in searching for evidence of lithic standardization, archaeologists must be alert for "mirages," things that can create the illusion of standardization. Pre-industrial lithic standardization seems most likely to have emerged from attaching stone tools to handles ("hafting"), and from using stone tools as "passive lithic social media."
In Stone Tools in Human Evolution John Shea argues that over the past three million years hominins’ technological strategies shifted from occasional tool use, much like that seen among living non-human primates, to a uniquely human... more
In Stone Tools in Human Evolution John Shea argues that over the past three million years hominins’ technological strategies shifted from occasional tool use, much like that seen among living non-human primates, to a uniquely human pattern of obligatory tool use. Examining how the lithic archaeological record changed over the course of human evolution, he compares tool use by living humans and non-human primates, and predicts how the archaeological stone tool evidence should have changed as distinctively human behaviors evolved. Those behaviors include using cutting tools, logistical mobility (carrying things), language and symbolic artifacts, geographic dispersal and diaspora, and residential sedentism (living in the same place for prolonged periods). Shea then tests those predictions by analyzing the archaeological lithic record from 6500 years ago to 3.5 million years ago.
Lithic miniaturization was one of our Pleistocene ancestors' more pervasive stone tool production strategies and it marks a key difference between human and non‐human tool use. Frequently equated with “microlith” production, lithic... more
Lithic miniaturization was one of our Pleistocene ancestors' more pervasive stone tool production strategies and it marks a key difference between human and non‐human tool use. Frequently equated with “microlith” production, lithic miniaturization is a more complex, variable, and evolutionarily consequential phenomenon involving small backed tools, bladelets, small retouched tools, flakes, and small cores. In this review, we evaluate lithic miniaturization's various technological and functional elements. We examine archeological assumptions about why prehistoric stoneworkers engaged in processes of lithic miniaturization by making small stone tools, small elongated tools, and small retouched and backed tools. We point to functional differences that motivate different aspects of lithic miniaturization and several instances where archeological systematics have possibly led archeologists to false negative findings about lithic miniaturization. Finally, we suggest productive avenues by which archeologists can move closer to understanding the complex evolutionary forces driving variability in lithic miniaturization.
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in different environmental and economic settings can... more
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in different environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well-studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground-penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monumental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) constructed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa's earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by...
This paper proposes that complex projectile weaponry was a key strategic innovation driving Late Pleistocene human dispersal into western Eurasia after 50 Ka. It argues that complex projectile weapons of the kind used by ethnographic... more
This paper proposes that complex projectile weaponry was a key strategic innovation driving Late Pleistocene human dispersal into western Eurasia after 50 Ka. It argues that complex projectile weapons of the kind used by ethnographic hunter-gatherers, such as the bow and arrow, and spearthrower and dart, enabled Homo sapiens to overcome obstacles that constrained previous human dispersal from Africa to temperate western Eurasia. In the East Mediterranean Levant, the only permanent land bridge between Africa and Eurasia, stone and bone projectile armatures like those used in the complex weapon systems of recent humans appear abruptly ca 45–35 Ka in early Upper Paleolithic contexts associated with Homo sapiens fossils. Such artifacts are absent from Middle Paleolithic contexts associated with Homo sapiens and Neandertals. Hypotheses concerning the indigenous vs. exogenous origins of complex projectile weaponry in the Levant are reviewed. Current evidence favors the hypothesis that com...
The invention and widespread use of projectile weaponry is a characteristic presumed to exist only with Homo sapiens. However, as finds of wooden material during the early development of projectile weapons are extremely rare, this remains... more
The invention and widespread use of projectile weaponry is a characteristic presumed to exist only with Homo sapiens. However, as finds of wooden material during the early development of projectile weapons are extremely rare, this remains a contentious topic. Recent work has proposed a series of ballistically-significant morphological characteristics of stone points that yield information about their potential use. Here
Abstract This essay is an attempt to analyze the changes that occurred between the Epi paleo lithic and the Early Neolithic at two sites in the southern Levant: Final Natufian Eynan (Level Ib) and PPNA Netiv Hagdud. Architectural remains,... more
Abstract This essay is an attempt to analyze the changes that occurred between the Epi paleo lithic and the Early Neolithic at two sites in the southern Levant: Final Natufian Eynan (Level Ib) and PPNA Netiv Hagdud. Architectural remains, graves, faunal remains, floral remains, and symbols are examined using a structuralist approach in order to look for possible interactions between the villagers, as well as their relationship to the world they lived in. An attempt is then made to determine the differences between the behaviors of the inhabitants of the two sites. The data suggest that more modifications occurred in the interactions between the populations and the external world than in the interrelations between humans. These changes appear to favor hierarchical rather than egalitarian interaction, eventually leading to a new system of self-identification based on “analogism
Megalithic architecture is associated with spread of food production in many parts of the world, but archaeological investigations have focused mainly on megalithic sites among early agrarian societies. Africa offers the opportunity to... more
Megalithic architecture is associated with spread of food production in many parts of the world, but archaeological investigations have focused mainly on megalithic sites among early agrarian societies. Africa offers the opportunity to examine megalithic construction - and related social phenomena - among mobile herders and hunter-gatherers with no access to domestic plants. In northwest Kenya, several megalithic "pillar sites" are known near Lake Turkana, but few have seen systematic research. This paper presents the results of archaeological survey and test excavations at four pillar sites in West Turkana 2007-2009, and describes the sites' spatial arrangements, depositional sequences, and material culture. Radiocarbon dates suggest that pillar sites near Lothagam were used ca. 4300 B.P. (uncalibrated), just as early herding began near Lake Turkana, while pillar sites near Kalokol may be slightly later (ca. 3800 B.P.). Comparisons of material culture point to possib...
Research Interests:
Trampling has long been recognized as a potential obstacle to lithic microwear analysis, but the magnitude of its effects have not yet been objectively evaluated. A blind test was conducted in which the effects of trampling on the... more
Trampling has long been recognized as a potential obstacle to lithic microwear analysis, but the magnitude of its effects have not yet been objectively evaluated. A blind test was conducted in which the effects of trampling on the preservation of use-wear traces ...
Lithic miniaturization was one of our Pleistocene ancestors' more pervasive stone tool production strategies and it marks a key difference between human and non-human tool use. Frequently equated with "microlith" production,... more
Lithic miniaturization was one of our Pleistocene ancestors' more pervasive stone tool production strategies and it marks a key difference between human and non-human tool use. Frequently equated with "microlith" production, lithic miniaturization is a more complex, variable, and evolutionarily consequential phenomenon involving small backed tools, bladelets, small retouched tools, flakes, and small cores. In this review, we evaluate lithic miniaturization's various technological and functional elements. We examine archeological assumptions about why prehistoric sto-neworkers engaged in processes of lithic miniaturization by making small stone tools, small elongated tools, and small retouched and backed tools. We point to functional differences that motivate different aspects of lithic miniaturization and several instances where archeological systematics have possibly led archeologists to false negative findings about lithic miniaturization. Finally, we suggest pro...
Archeologists commonly suppose that among complex projectile weapons humans use as subsistence aids, the spearthrower-and-dart preceded bow-and-arrow use. And yet, neither ethnographic nor archeological records furnish any robust evidence... more
Archeologists commonly suppose that among complex projectile weapons humans use as subsistence aids, the spearthrower-and-dart preceded bow-and-arrow use. And yet, neither ethnographic nor archeological records furnish any robust evidence for spearthrower-and-dart use in Africa. Instead, evidence grows apace for ever-more ancient bow-and-arrow use. Here we explore these findings and their implications for models of early Homo sapiens behavior.
... value attached to blade technology in modern human origins research almost certainly reflects the historical priority of Paleolithic research in Eu-rope, where ... A complete red deer maxilla on the pelvis of Amud 7 is the only... more
... value attached to blade technology in modern human origins research almost certainly reflects the historical priority of Paleolithic research in Eu-rope, where ... A complete red deer maxilla on the pelvis of Amud 7 is the only claimed instance of Late MP mortu-ary furniture (Rak et ...
This paper proposes a new agenda for prehistoric archaeology, one focused on how ancient humans solved basic survival problems. It illustrates this approach using contrasts between living humans and apes and explores an archaeological... more
This paper proposes a new agenda for prehistoric archaeology, one focused on how ancient humans solved basic survival problems.  It illustrates this approach using contrasts between living humans and apes and explores an archaeological application in current debate about European Neanderthal fire use.
Reynolds and Riede (2019) argue that European Upper Palaeolithic cultural taxonomy has become unworkably complex and that it impedes progress towards the integration of archaeology with new findings from other scientific fields. While I... more
Reynolds and Riede (2019) argue that European Upper Palaeolithic cultural taxonomy has become unworkably complex and that it impedes progress towards the integration of archaeology with new findings from other scientific fields. While I agree with the first part of thisargument (Shea 2017), I have reservations about the second.
ABSTRACT Mughr el-Hamamah (Jordan) Layer B contains an Early Upper Palaeolithic stone tool assemblage dating to around 39–45 kya CAL B.P. This assemblage is unusual in that it samples human forager activities around the ecotone between... more
ABSTRACT
Mughr el-Hamamah (Jordan) Layer B contains an Early Upper Palaeolithic stone tool assemblage
dating to around 39–45 kya CAL B.P. This assemblage is unusual in that it samples human forager
activities around the ecotone between the Transjordanian Plateau and the palaeo-lake (Lake Lisan)
that filled much of the Jordan Valley during Late Pleistocene times. This paper describes that
assemblage, comparing it to other Levantine Upper Palaeolithic assemblages of equivalent
antiquity. The Mughr el-Hamamah Layer B assemblage appears most similar to Early Ahmarian
assemblages, but it departs from typical such assemblages in ways that may reflect local
conditions’ influence on human activities carried out in and near the cave. Mughr el-Hamamah
raises new questions about changes in residential mobility, off-site provisioning and foraging
activity, and on-site task diversity in the Early Upper Palaeolithic period.
Trampling has long been recognized as a potential obstacle to lithic microwear analysis, but the magnitude of its effects have not yet been objectively evaluated. A blind test was conducted in which the effects of trampling on the... more
Trampling has long been recognized as a potential obstacle to lithic microwear analysis, but the magnitude of its effects have not yet been objectively evaluated. A blind test was conducted in which the effects of trampling on the preservation of use-wear traces were measured. The results of this test suggest that even moderate amounts of human trampling may significantly alter the appearance of lithic microwear traces.
... Figure 3 View to the east of gravel ''drape'' covering Galana Boi Formation sediments (foreground) at Kabua/ Kadokorinyang ... We thank the staff of the National Museums of Kenya,... more
... Figure 3 View to the east of gravel ''drape'' covering Galana Boi Formation sediments (foreground) at Kabua/ Kadokorinyang ... We thank the staff of the National Museums of Kenya, particularly Idle Farah (Director), Purity Kiura, Emma Mbua, Christine Ogola, and Frederick Myanthi ...
This is the powerpoint presentation I gave at the 2019 Society for American Archaeology Meetings
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in differ- ent environmental and economic settings... more
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in differ- ent environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well- studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground- penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monu- mental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) con- structed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa’s earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by boulders, a 119.5-m2 mortuary cavity accommo- dated an estimated minimum of 580 individuals. People of diverse ages and both sexes were buried, and ornaments accompanied most individuals. There is no evidence for social stratification. The uncer- tainties of living on a “moving frontier” of early herding—exacer- bated by dramatic environmental shifts—may have spurred people to strengthen social networks that could provide information and assistance. Lothagam North Pillar Site would have served as both an arena for interaction and a tangible reminder of shared identity.
Archeologists have long assumed that earlier hominins were obligatory stone tool users. This assumption is deeply embedded in traditional ways of describing the lithic record. This paper argues that lithic evidence dating before 1.7 Ma... more
Archeologists have long assumed that earlier hominins were obligatory stone tool users. This assumption is deeply embedded in traditional ways of describing the lithic record. This paper argues that lithic evidence dating before 1.7 Ma reflects occasional stone tool use, much like that practiced by nonhuman primates except that it involved flaked-stone cutting tools. Evidence younger than 0.3 Ma is more congruent with obligatory stone tool use, like that among recent humans. The onset of habitual stone tool use at about 1.7 Ma appears correlated with increased hominin logistical mobility (carrying things). The onset of obligatory stone tool use after 0.3 Ma may be linked to the evolution of spoken language. Viewing the lithic evidence dating between 0.3-1.7 Ma as habitual stone tool use explains previously inexplicable aspects of the Early-Middle Pleistocene lithic record. K E Y W O R D S
Research Interests:
The invention of the bow and arrow was a milestone in Late Pleistocene technological evolution. Preservation biases and methodological problems imped our ability to detect its presence in the archaeological record. Currently, South Africa... more
The invention of the bow and arrow was a milestone in Late Pleistocene technological evolution. Preservation biases and methodological problems imped our ability to detect its presence in the archaeological record. Currently, South Africa has the earliest suggested evidence for arrowheads, amongst others, small quartz backed tools dating 65e60 ka. These artefacts' inferred function is based on their small size, micro and macro wear traces and micro-residues recorded on quartz segments from Sibudu Cave. Experimental support for these inferences, or to show that similar artefacts are associated with bow hunting, are however lacking. Here we describe breakage patterns on 150 quartz backed tools hafted as transverse arrowheads and hand-cast spearheads in simulated hunting experiments. These experiments controlled for hafting variability to test the effects of propulsion velocity on the types, patterns and area of diagnostic impact fractures (DIFs). Our results show step terminating bending fracture, spin-off fracture and impactburination frequencies, DIF locations, and ventrally situated DIF frequencies to be robust means of distinguishing arrowheads from spearheads. Our experiments verify previous observations that overall DIF frequencies differentiate between these weapon types. Importantly, we confirm that DIF size is linked to weapon propulsion velocity, but that fracture area is affected by tool area. These findings provide methods for future testing of the hypothesis that bow and arrow technology was in use at least 65 ka in southern Africa and in other regions where quartz was used to tip weapons.
Analogies are an important tool of archaeological reasoning. The Kalahari San are frequently depicted in introductory texts as archetypal, mobile hunter-gatherers, and they have influenced approaches to archaeological, genetic and... more
Analogies are an important tool of archaeological reasoning. The Kalahari San are frequently depicted in introductory texts as archetypal, mobile hunter-gatherers, and they have influenced approaches to archaeological, genetic and linguistic research. But is this analogy fundamentally flawed? Recent arguments have linked the San populations of southern Africa with the late Pleistocene Later Stone Age (c. 44 kya) at Border Cave, South Africa. The authors argue that these and other claims for the Pleistocene antiquity of modern-day cultures arise from a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of cultural and archaeological taxonomies, and that they are a misuse of analogical reasoning.
"Methodological developments and new paleoanthropological data remain jointly central to clarifying the timing and systemic interrelationships between the Middle-Upper Paleolithic (MP-UP) archaeological transition and the broadly... more
"Methodological developments and new paleoanthropological data remain jointly central to clarifying the timing and systemic interrelationships between the Middle-Upper  Paleolithic (MP-UP) archaeological transition and the broadly contemporaneous anatomically modern human-archaic biological turnover. In the recently discovered cave site of Mughr el-Hamamah, Jordan, in  situ flint artifacts comprise a diag- nostic early Upper Paleolithic (EUP)  assemblage. Unusually well-preserved  charcoal from hearths and other anthropogenic features associated with the lithic material were subjected to acid-base-wet oxidation-stepped combustion (ABOx-SC)  pretreatment. This  article presents the ABOx-SC  accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)  radiocarbon dates on  nine charcoal specimens from a single palimpsest occupation layer.  Date calibration was carried out using the INTCAL13 radiocarbon calibration dataset. With the bulk of the material dating to 45e39 ka  cal  BP (thousands of years calibrated before present), the Mughr el-Hamamah lithic artifacts reveal important differences from penecontemporaneous sites in the region, documenting greater technological variability than previously known for  this time frame in the Levant. The radiocarbon data from this EUP archaeological context highlight remaining challenges for increasing chronological precision in  documenting the MPeUP transition."
Research Interests:
An anthropological perspective on disaster survival and emergency preparation.
Research Interests:
Methodological developments and new paleoanthropological data remain jointly central to clarifying the timing and systemic interrelationships between the Middle-Upper Paleolithic (MP-UP) archaeological transition and the broadly... more
Methodological developments and new paleoanthropological data remain jointly central to clarifying the timing and systemic interrelationships between the Middle-Upper Paleolithic (MP-UP) archaeological transition and the broadly contemporaneous anatomically modern human-archaic biological turnover. In the recently discovered cave site of Mughr el-Hamamah, Jordan, in situ flint artifacts comprise a diagnostic early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) assemblage. Unusually well-preserved charcoal from hearths and other anthropogenic features associated with the lithic material were subjected to acid-base-wet oxidation-stepped combustion (ABOx-SC) pretreatment. This article presents the ABOx-SC accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on nine charcoal specimens from a single palimpsest occupation layer. Date calibration was carried out using the INTCAL13 radiocarbon calibration dataset. With the bulk of the material dating to 45-39 ka cal BP (thousands of years calibrated before prese...
... acquisition, response to environmental constraints (including raw mate-rial availability), andvariations in inter-or ... The presence of stone tool cut marks (eg, Bunn, 1981; Potts and Shipman, 1981 ... ranging in size up to elephants... more
... acquisition, response to environmental constraints (including raw mate-rial availability), andvariations in inter-or ... The presence of stone tool cut marks (eg, Bunn, 1981; Potts and Shipman, 1981 ... ranging in size up to elephants demon-strates that Oldowan hominins had become ...

And 40 more

Stone tools are the least familiar objects that archaeologists recover from their excavations and, predictably, they struggle to understand them. Eastern Africa alone boasts a 3.4 million-year-long archaeological record, but its stone... more
Stone tools are the least familiar objects that archaeologists recover from their
excavations and, predictably, they struggle to understand them. Eastern Africa
alone boasts a 3.4 million-year-long archaeological record, but its stone tool
evidence still remains disorganized, unsynthesized, and all-but-impenetrable to
nonexperts, and especially so to students from Eastern African countries. In this
book, John J. Shea offers a simple, straightforward, and richly illustrated introduction
in how to read stone tools. An experienced stone tool analyst and an expert
stoneworker, he synthesizes the Eastern African stone tool evidence for the first
time. Shea presents the EAST Typology, a new framework for describing stone
tools specifically designed to allow archaeologists to do what they currently
cannot: compare stone tool evidence across the full sweep of Eastern African
prehistory. He also includes a series of short, fictional, and humorous vignettes
set on an Eastern African archaeological excavation that illustrate the major issues
and controversies in research about stone tools.
John J. Shea is Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, New York.
He is the author of Stone Tools in Human Evolution (Cambridge University Press,
2016) and Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic of the Near East: A Guide
(Cambridge University Press, 2012).

IMPORTANT:  This is only the front matter.  I posted it to help colleagues decide if they want the book or not.  An electronic version of the book is available for purchase now (April 2020), hard copies available in May 2020.  Don't have a heart attack over the price,  paperbound copies will assuredly be less expensive.
-JJS
Cambridge University Press. Abstract Stone Tools In Human Evolution examines how the evolution of behavioral differences between humans and non-human primates influenced the lithic archaeological record. Traditional archaeological... more
Cambridge University Press.
Abstract
Stone Tools In Human Evolution examines how the evolution of behavioral differences between humans and non-human primates influenced the lithic archaeological record.  Traditional archaeological approaches to the lithic evidence are poorly matched with major issues in human origins research.  In their place, this book develops a new analytical framework based on comparisons of human and non-human primate tool use.  Individual chapters develop and test hypotheses about how qualities that distinguish human from non-human primates, stone cutting tool production, logistical mobility, language and speech, dispersal an diaspora, and residential sedentism, are reflected in the stone tool evidence.  Stone Tools In Human Evolution argues that over the course of human evolution an ape-like pattern of occasional stone tool use developed into a more human pattern of obligatory technologically-assisted adaptation.
This book is now available in hardcover, paperback, and as an electronic book.
Any errata will be posted on my personal website, together with pdfs of artwork and data files.

A "fixed" pdf version of Figure 4.3 showing chimpanzee distributions, tool use sites, and Plio-Pleistocene sites is attached below.  I noticed this mistake (wrong version of figure) after the book had gone to press.
Research Interests:
Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide surveys the lithic record for the East Mediterranean Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and adjacent territories) from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago. It is... more
Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide surveys the lithic record for the East Mediterranean Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, and adjacent territories) from the earliest times to 6,500 years ago. It is intended both as an introduction to this lithic evidence for students and as a resource for researchers working with Paleolithic and Neolithic stone tool evidence. Written by a lithic analyst and professional flintknapper, this book systematically examines variation in technology, typology, and industries for the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic; the Epipaleolithic; and Neolithic periods in the Near East. It is extensively illustrated with drawings of stone tools. In addition to surveying the lithic evidence, the book also considers ways in which archaeological treatment of this evidence could be changed to make it more relevant to major issues in human origins research. A final chapter shows how change in stone tool designs point to increasing human dependence on stone tools across the long sweep of Stone Age prehistory.

Just published in UK, April 26, 2013.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  In order to render Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic of the Near East: A Guide into an affordable 23 x 16 cm format, it was necessary to reduce some of the figures significantly.  To preserve the value of these figures as aids to the analysis and identification of stone tools from Southwest Asian archaeological sites, and with the permission of Cambridge University Press, the pdf files below reproduce these figures as they were originally submitted to the publisher.  The numbering of the figures follows that in the book.

Additional figures that were excised from the final version of the book can be viewed and downloaded from the Cambridge University Press website for Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic of the Near East: A Guide ."""
Please note that these errata have been fixed in the paperback version of the book.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This is an article by Bill Gates from his website explaining the Big History Project. I have been working with David Christian and colleagues from Flight 33 Productions in filming segments for this project and for a television... more
This is an article by Bill Gates from his website explaining the Big History Project.
I have been working with David Christian and colleagues from Flight 33 Productions in filming segments for this project and for a television documentary, "Little Big History," that will air in the Fall of 2013.
Research Interests:
This is a three-part documentary about human evolution in which I am featured making stone tools.
Sections of this program are apparently viewable on Youtube.
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This is the homepage of Alan Alda's Human Spark project. The television program aired a few years ago. My students and I are in it, demonstrating flintknapping and primitive weapon use. There are a lot of links to educational materials... more
This is the homepage of Alan Alda's Human Spark project.
The television program aired a few years ago.  My students and I are in it, demonstrating flintknapping and primitive weapon use.
There are a lot of links to educational materials and guidance for teachers on this website.
This is the site for the HHMI 2011 Holiday Lecture Series. Tim White, Sarah Tishkoff and I delivered these lectures at the HHMI campus. The lectures were filmed, edited, and are available free, either online or on DVD. The lectures are... more
This is the site for the HHMI 2011 Holiday Lecture Series. Tim White, Sarah Tishkoff and I delivered these lectures at the HHMI campus.  The lectures were filmed, edited, and are available free, either online or on DVD.
The lectures are pitched at the level of high-school students in advanced placement classes.  They are (I am told) popular among people who home-school.
The HHMI Biointeractive website has many other resources available to aid in the teaching of biology and evolution.
Research Interests:
Stone tools provide some of the best remaining evidence of behavioral change over long periods, but their cognitive and evolutionary implications remain poorly understood. Here, we contribute to a growing body of experimental research on... more
Stone tools provide some of the best remaining evidence of behavioral change over long periods, but their cognitive and evolutionary implications remain poorly understood. Here, we contribute to a growing body of experimental research on the cognitive and perceptual-motor foundations of stone toolmaking skills by using a flake prediction paradigm to assess the relative importance of technological understanding vs. accurate action execution in Late Acheuleanestyle handaxe production. This experiment took place as part of a larger, longitudinal study of knapping skill acquisition, allowing us to assemble a large sample of predictions across learning stages and in a comparative sample of experts. By combining group and individual-level statistical analyses with predictive modeling, we show that understanding and predicting specific flaking outcomes in this technology is both more difficult and less important than expected from previous work. Instead, our findings reveal the critical importance of perceptual motor skills needed to manage speed-accuracy trade-offs and reliably detach the large, invasive flakes that enable bifacial edging and thinning. With practice, novices increased striking accuracy , flaking success rates, and (to an extent) handaxe quality by targeting small flakes with acute platform angles. However, only experts were able to combine percussive force and accuracy to produce results comparable with actual Late Acheulean handaxes. The relatively intense demands for accurate action execution documented in our study indicate that biomechanical properties of the upper limb, cortical and cerebellar systems for sensorimotor control, and the cognitive, communicative, and affective traits supporting deliberate practice would all have been likely targets of selection acting on Late Acheulean toolmaking aptitude.
Analogies are an important tool of archaeological reasoning. The Kalahari San are frequently depicted in introductory texts as archetypal, mobile hunter-gatherers, and they have influenced approaches to archaeological, genetic and... more
Analogies are an important tool of archaeological reasoning. The Kalahari San are frequently depicted in introductory texts as archetypal, mobile hunter-gatherers, and they have influenced approaches to archaeological, genetic and linguistic research. But is this analogy fundamentally flawed? Recent arguments have linked the San populations of southern Africa with the late Pleistocene Later Stone Age (c. 44 kya) at Border Cave, South Africa. The authors argue that these and other claims for the Pleistocene antiquity of modern-day cultures arise from a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of cultural and archaeological taxonomies, and that they are a misuse of analogical reasoning.
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This short paper describes how three "Shea Stone Tools" books developed.
I wrote it up mainly for journalists, but some colleagues have asked about these matters, so I decided to post it.
I do not intend to publish this paper.
Research Interests:
Primitive skills constitute the applied problem-solving knowledge of non-urban and pre-industrialized human societies, and conjecturally, ancestral humans. They are rarely taught at research universities. This paper argues that such... more
Primitive skills constitute the applied problem-solving knowledge of non-urban and pre-industrialized human societies, and conjecturally, ancestral humans. They are rarely taught at research universities. This paper argues that such skills deliver core principles of a liberal arts education in ways that current practices do not do well. These skills exemplify behavioral variability, a generalized problem-solving capacity unique to our species. Fostering this capacity and understanding its evolutionary origins should be integral parts of a university education.
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Skillful knapping requires both explicit, strategic knowledge (connaissance) and implicit, practical know-how (savoir-faire). Although much work in cognitive archaeology has focused on the former, researchers working from a... more
Skillful knapping requires both explicit, strategic knowledge (connaissance) and implicit, practical know-how (savoir-faire). Although much work in cognitive archaeology has focused on the former, researchers working from a perception-action perspective emphasize the latter. Controlled experiments show extensive knapping experience is required to acquire the know-how to predict and control flake shapes and whereas abstract strategic understanding develops more quickly. However, the process of acquiring these abilities, their relationship to each other, and their practical contribution to success with Paleolithic technologies remains poorly known. To address these issues, we conducted a flake prediction experiment as part of a multidisciplinary study of Late Acheulean handaxe-making skill acquisition involving twenty-six naïve subjects with up to 90 hours training over several months and 3 expert knappers with several years’ experience in handaxe production. All participants were asked to mark and attempt to detach 5 flake predictions (outline & point of percussion) from a flint core. The results show that novice flake success rates increase with training along a learning curve paralleling that for handaxe-making success in the same subject population. Striking accuracy increases with training and is key for successful flake production. Comparisons of prediction errors on success flakes show novices perform well, but experts are slightly better at matching predictions with outcomes. We fit two multivariate logistical regression models to the expert and novice data to understand the factors that influence both successful and unsuccessful flake production and their differences in novice and expert groups. The application of a model built on expert flake data and applied to novice flakes show that novices make reasonable predictions, but fail to deliver on them. Despite the fact that empirically-derived predictors of novice flaking success in our sample match the expectations of good flakes and the observation that novices perform similarly to experts, they still failed to make successful handaxes even after ~90 hours of intensive training. We show that novices achieve this “success” using compensatory flaking strategies that target overall smaller and easier flake detachments (< EPA, < Platform thickness) that deviate from expert larger and more difficult flaking targets (> EPA, > Platform thickness). We conclude that simple flake detachment is a challenging skill (stabilizing only after ~40hrs training) that is central to improvements in handaxe-making and depends on perceptual-motor control of the basic flaking gesture.