Hominid Individual in Context Archaeological Investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts

This volume explores new approaches to the remarkably detailed information that archaeologists have for the study of our earliest ancestors. Previous investigations of human evolution in the Paleolithic period have conventionally been from an ecological and behavioral point of view. The emphasis has been on how our early ancestors made a living, decided what to eat, adapted through their technology to the conditions of existence and reacted to changing ice age climates. The "Individual Hominid in Context" takes a different approach.
Rather than explaining the archaeology of stones and bones as the product of group decisions, the contributors investigate how individual action created social life. This challenge to the accepted standpoint of the Paleolithic brings new models and theories into the period; innovations that are matched by the resolution of the data that preserve individual action among the artifacts. The book brings together examples from recent excavations at Boxgrove, Schoningen and Blombos Cave, and the analyses of findings from Middle and Early Upper Pleistocene excavations in Europe, Africa and Asia. The results will revolutionize the Paleolithic as archaeologists search for the lived lives among the empty spaces that remain.

This book explores new approaches to the remarkably detailed information that archaeologists now have for the study of our early ancestors. Rather than explaining the archaeology of stones and bones as the product of group decisions, the contributors investigate how individual action created social life. This challenge to the accepted standpoint of the Palaeolithic brings new models and theories into the period; innovations that are matched by the resolution of data preserving individual action among the stones and bones. The volume brings together examples from recent excavations such as Boxgrove, Schöningen and Blombos Cave and the analyses of artefacts from Middle and Early Upper Pleistocene excavations in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Chapter 1 From Empty Spaces to Lived Lives, Clive Gamble, Martin Porr; Chapter 2 The Acheulean and the Handaxe, Terry Hopkinson, Mark J. White; Chapter 3 Transformations in Dividuality, A. S. Field; Chapter 4 Seeking the Palaeolithic Individual in East Africa and Europe During the Lower-Middle Pleistocene, J. A. J. Gowlett; Chapter 5 The Making of the Biface and the Making of the Individual, Martin Porr; Chapter 6 Observations on the Relationship Between Palaeolithic Individuals and Artefact Scatters at the Middle Pleistocene Site of Boxgrove, UK, Matt Pope, Mark Roberts; Chapter 7 The Natural and Socio-Cultural Environment of Homo Erectus at Bilzingsleben, Germany, Dietrich Mania, Ursula Mania; Chapter 8 The Lower Palaeolithic Art of Hunting, Hartmut Thieme; Chapter 9 Tracking Hominins During the Last Interglacial Complex in the Rhineland, D. S. Adler, N. J. Conard; Chapter 10 Bones and Powerful Individuals, Clive Gamble, Sabine Gaudzinski; Chapter 11 All in a Day’s Work, Anthony Sinclair, John McNabb; Chapter 12 Life and Mind in the Acheulean, Michael D. Petraglia, Ceri Shipton, K. Paddayya; Chapter 13 Individuals Among Palimpsest Data, Robert Hosfield; Chapter 14 Being Modern in the Middle Stone Age, C. Henshilwood, F. d’Errico; Chapter 15 Concluding Remarks, Marcia-Anne Dobres;

Clive Gamble is Professor of Geography in the Centre for Quaternary Research at Royal Holloway, University of London. He spent many years at the University of Southampton, where he founded the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins. He is the author of many books, including Archaeology, The Basics (Routledge, 2001), and The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe (1999).Martin Porr is based at the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle, Germany. There he has been involved as a project manager for the high-profile exhibition of the Bronze Age Sky Disc of Nebra, in co-operation with the National Museum of Denmark.