Page 18 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

6 History and Science of Knots

Homo habilis seems to have made caches of his stone tools, presumably
for some future use, and also to have carried them over considerable distances
115, pp. 38, 48]. But there is no way of telling whether they were carried loose
in the hands or bundled together in some way, which could have implied some
use of cordage. A more or less circular accumulation of stones at a habitation
site at a level of Olduvai Gorge dated at nearly 2 million years ago was at one
time thought to represent a shelter of skin-covered branches held in place by
the stones, which could have needed some cordage to stabilise it. But further
examination showed that this was more likely to be a random association of
rocks and stone tools, and few now believe in the shelter theory [14].
Thus the material evidence from this period provides little evidence about
whether Homo habilis had either the cognitive status or the technological
competence to tie knots, but it cannot be ruled out.

Homo erectus

Homo erectus ('upright man') has provided us with numerous skeletal finds
from the three Old World continents, although some physical anthropologists
tend to question his presence in Europe. Generally ranging from perhaps 2.0
to 0.4 million years or so ago, his remains have been found in various parts
of Africa, in China, Java, and at a few sites in Europe. The period of his
presence coincides with an increasingly differentiated tool industry, but in the
later period it is far from certain which of these tools are attributable to Homo
erectus, and which belong to the emerging archaic Homo sapiens of 500 000 to
300 000 years ago. The stone tool industry named Acheulian is often attributed
to Homo erectus, and consisted of large, bifacial tools (called `handaxes' or
`fist axes'), cleavers, scrapers and a repertoire of flake tools, all hand-held;
prismatic blade tools appear in the late phases. The Asian and European sites
of skeletal remains of Homo erectus are strikingly free of handaxes, even at
localities where over a hundred thousand stone tools were recorded. It has
been suggested that in Asia, bamboo tools might have replaced stone axes for
some purposes.
Acheulian camp sites have been identified over much of Africa, across
western, central and southern Europe, on the Black Sea, in the Levant and as
far east as India. In Africa, the Acheulian begins perhaps with the appear-
ance of Homo erectus, but continues long after his demise, to about 150 000
years ago. Even early Acheulian tools cannot, always and with certainty, be
attributed to Homo erectus. Concurrent with much of this period, there are
various handaxe-free tool industries, and there are no significant differences
between the apparent methods of subsistence, cognitive development or tech-
nologies of late Homo erectus and contemporary archaic Homo sapiens pop-
ulations. Essentially, these hominids began to use fire, erect simple shelters