The Tribal-Wide Use of Processes in the Paleolithic Era

The Tribal-Wide Use of Processes

in the Paleolithic Era

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MY PREVIOUS POINTS

In my last four blogs (see links at the bottom) I made the argument that Paleolithic *processes* were at the heart of human evolution. They began with the stone-tool technology of Homo habilis and have continued up to today. 

I have further argued that these processes evolved and became more complicated as the brain of hominins grew larger. And with the help of their brain's unique large prefrontal cortex, hominins began to understand the workings of linear time -- time with a past, present, and future -- since processes proceed step-by-step in linear time.

Primitive man making tools and teaching children 

from the Museum of Vietnamese History, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

I have also said that since we know that there was one well-developed process, that of stone-tool making, for which we have ample evidence and that has been well documented, it is also likely that there were other processes. These processes which created perishable artifacts -- made with materials such as wood, fiber, and animal skins -- have not survived because the objects would have decayed and left no trace.

MY NEW POINT

All of the above implies one major additional point. If the above statements are true, then the entire tribe of people would have probably been familiar with processes: from men (presumably) making stone tools to women (traditionally) harvesting and preparing food to children learning and helping in the making of processes.

An example of other processes:
-- While paleoanthropologists have assumed that men were making stone tools, they have also assumed that there was probably a division of labor. Women, in general, were in charge of finding food and preparing food. And this was a process all its own. Assuming that women's skills were as advanced as stone-tool making, they would have evolved their own food gathering and preparation processes.
-- In nomadic tribes women would probably have known which plants were best for eating at a certain time of year in each of the different nomadic environments. They would also have known the location, the right time to harvest, how to harvest (with special tools perhaps), how to carry the harvest and then how to prepare the plants for a meal (also with special tools perhaps). These food-related processes may have been as sophisticated as the stone tool technology at the time.
In addition, children probably helped and were taught about these processes from an early age. 

An elder shows a boy how to make stone tools.

"In a hunter-gatherer society, the hunters were usually men and the gatherers women (according to the latest research) -- although these roles were a bit flexible. This model, however, does not assume that men were dominant as a recent study has shown."
Devlin, Hannah. "Early men and women were equal, say scientists." The Guardian US, New York, NY, May 14, 2015.https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/14/early-men-women-equal-scientists

Here is a hypothetical example of two early processes during the Homo habilis time period: 
Just like the men knowing where to look for stones for stone tools, the women would know where to look for promising vegetation. Like the men knowing which stones to break open, the women would know which plants and parts of plants (such as seeds, nuts, and roots) to use for food along with gathering larvae, eggs, and honey. And like the men breaking the core stones apart the women would know how to harvest. And also like the men knowing which tool was best for skinning an animal or cutting down a small tree, the women would know how to prepare the food for eating.

Later when hominins began to use fire, she would also have needed to know how to find wood, work with coals, and keep a fire going even if the wood was green or wet. This was probably a shared responsibility with her mate, but it was a skill that she needed to master as well. And fire added another level to a woman's food processes -- with cooking, baking, curing, etc. In many societies, women had a special relationship with fire that was revered by the community.

A diorama of a cavewoman starting a fire: 

National Museum of Mongolian History, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The expression, "Keep the home fires burning," still used today, refers to a woman maintaining a warm fire in the fireplace when her husband is away and what he will find when he returns. Also the expression 'home and hearth' implies the same relationship.

Vestal Virgins 

While we cannot know what occurred in the Paleolithic era, it is clear that women had a special relationship to fire in many ancient societies. In Rome, for example, the Vestal Virgins kept an eternal flame alive. The Romans believed that keeping the fire going protected Rome. This ritual was at the center of Roman culture and it lasted for more than 1000 years until just before the fall of Rome (700 BCE - 391 CE). The ritual was in honor of the Goddess Vesta, an ancient Roman Goddess of hearth, home, and family. She was rarely depicted in human form but instead as a flame or fire itself, recalling what many anthropologists believe were the most ancient animistic beliefs of the earliest human cultures.

If women had their own processes in addition to the male processes of stone-tool making, this means that the idea of processes was tribal-wide. So the experience of working with processes, i.e., processes as a metaphor and processes as a model for the progression of linear time was something that was understood by everyone in the tribe. There also had to be a method for teaching about processes so that this information could be passed down from generation to generation.

And because this understanding was tribal-wide, the experience of working with processes was something that everyone could share, refer to and communicate about. So since men, women, and children all worked with processes, they could communicate with each other using various processes as a point of reference.

This is an important point because the later leap, so to speak, into behavioral modernity required that everyone in the tribe understood the developing language and the emerging culture. Working with processes would have provided that common experience and ways of communicating which then led in part to a fully developed language.

A 'cave' family sitting around a fire.

As I have written earlier, working with processes would also have led to an understanding of linear time, since all processes involve linear time (past-present-future and duration) in their step-by-step procedures. And this understanding of time was critical for the development of a full language, the development of culture and for achieving modern human behavior.

"Time reference is a universal property of language..."

Jacqueline Lecarme, Ph.D., Linguistics

The death of a tribe member.

It is also possible that various rituals were based on the idea of processes. When a person died, for example, a certain ritual, which had to be performed in a specific order, was required. Such a ritual conformed in many ways to the step-by-step sequences in a process. But in this case, the desired outcome of the process was to influence spiritual or supernatural elements.

________________________________________________________________________

AFTERWORD

The Consequences Of Developing Processes

Working with and using processes had many ramifications besides an understanding of time and a possible language associated with it.

Working with processes meant that hominins were discovering different qualities in different materials. Some rocks broke apart to make a tool with sharp edges, for example, but most did not. As a result, hominins may have felt that each material had its own nature or as we would say its own properties. 

Working with processes also meant that humankind was now beginning to make the environment adapt to its needs rather than humans adapting to the environment, like most of nature. 

"The Oldowan [ED: i.e., the first stone tools] represents the first instances of technological innovation in human history, wherein our ancestors first began to enhance their biological abilities with the manufacture of stone tools."
Turcotte, Cassandra M. "Oldowan Stone Tools." The Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology (CASHP).
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins/oldowan_stone_tools.php

Eventually, this may have led to a sense that people were different from the other animals and separate from nature which in turn led to a sense of separateness and superiority. This was both empowering and frightening. The basic sense of connectedness to nature had been altered and humans would have to find a way to mend that gap. 

This then may have led to an animistic sensibility which the study "Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of Religion" (reference below) said could have existed even before a fully developed language. Everything in nature had different properties and it was the task of hominins to understand or discover what those properties were.

Each person and each element in nature was seen to be alive with a unique spirit of its own. So this may have given rise to an animistic sensibility which is now seen as the most basic spiritual state (see reference next) although it is not a religion. This eventually, however, may have led to the beginnings of religion. In this view, animals, trees and rivers would have been seen as having a spirit, just like human beings but each with its own nature. And it was the job of humans to understand this nature and to work with it.

"Results [of our study] indicate that the oldest trait of religion, present in the most recent common ancestor of present-day hunter-gatherers, was animism...  [Next a] belief in an afterlife emerged..."
Peoples HC, Marlowe FW, Duda P. "Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of Religion."
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Published online: 6 May 2016 open access at Springerlink.com.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-016-9260-0

Eventually, the loss of connectedness may have led to the beginnings of religion, which was, in part, an attempt to bridge that gap: to find an explanation about why humans were different from the rest of the animal kingdom and to console people about the inevitability of death.

Speaking about the much later Paleolithic temple, Gobekli Tepe, Charles Mann "suggests that the human impulse to gather for sacred rituals arose as humans shifted from seeing themselves as part of the natural world to seeking mastery over it."  
Mann, Charles. "The Birth of Religion." National Geographic Magazine, June 2011, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2011/06/gobeki-tepe/

About Animism
"Our results reflect Tylor’s(1871) belief that animism was the earliest and most basic trait of religion because it enables humans to think in terms of supernatural beings or spirits. Animism is not a religion or philosophy, but a feature of human mentality, a byproduct of cognitive processes..."
Peoples HC, Marlowe FW, Duda P. "Hunter-Gatherers and the Origins of Religion."
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Published online: 6 May 2016 open access at Springerlink.com.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-016-9260-0

About Reconstructing The Past
"Giambattista Vico [ED: a history philosopher] believed that every theory must start from the point where the subject of which it treats began to take shape." 
Whitrow, Gerald James. Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 1988, page 150.

_________________________________

My Blogs About Processes 

And The Development Of Language 

And Behavioral Modernity

Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time

https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2014/08/animal-senses-compared-to-human-sense.html

The Importance of Processes in the Paleolithic Era

https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-importance-of-processes-in.html

Paleolithic Evidence for an Early Weaving Technology

Paleolithic Evidence Shows That Homo Habilis Could Have Learned Weaving From Weaverbirds (Ploceidae)

https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/10/paleolithic-evidence-for-early-weaving_27.html

Evidence for a Basket Weaving

and Woven-Fiber Technology

in the Paleolithic Era

https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/09/evidence-for-basket-weaving-technology.html

The Origins of Language: 

When, Why and How

https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-origins-of-language-when-why-and-how.html

The Importance of Processes in the Paleolithic Era

The Importance of Processes
in the Paleolithic Era

    Free Download    
A PDF of this blog-article at: 
https://unc.academia.edu/RickDoble/DRAFTS#drafts

   ALSO FREE:   
 The Illustrated Theory 
 of Paleo Basket-Weaving Technology 
 by Rick Doble 
 Download a 200-Page PDF eBook 
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 DOWNLOAD NOW 
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ABSTRACT: A sense of linear time with a past, present, and future plus a sense of duration was an essential element of behavioral modernity. Modern human behavior could not have occurred without it. This sense of time was necessary for planning and coordination. But how did Homo sapiens develop this sense of time that was so different from the animal world that they were a part of? In this paper, I argue that the hominin sense of time developed over millions of years and developed because of their familiarity with processes such as stone-tool making. I am assuming that they developed a variety of other processes as well and each process had a step-by-step way to proceed. I am also assuming that as processes developed, they became more complicated and in addition, a proto-language and a concept of time immerged which gave them greater control and also the conceptual tools to modify and improve these processes. In short processes with their step-by-step structure became the model for linear time and time duration.

NOTE: This blog repeats a number of ideas about processes that were touched on in previous blogs, but goes into much more detail about the nature of Paleolithic processes.

INTRODUCTION

The role of processes in the life of hominins in the Paleolithic era is one of the key factors that influenced increasingly complex cognition, planning, sharing and communication and eventually led to modern human behavior that is known as behavioral modernity. 

While I have suggested in previous articles that weaving processes began early on, this is theoretical. It does not matter which processes were involved. It is the nature and the dynamics of processes that are important and not any particular one or kind.

Processes have a dynamic all their own. They can start very simply with just a few steps and eventually evolve into complicated procedures with many steps and conditions. And this is exactly what happened with the one Paleolithic process we do know a lot about, that of stone-tool technology.

Google Word Definition

Process:

-- a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end --

This short definition says it well. A process requires a series of actions in a sequence that must be learned and then executed. And at the same time, the practitioner must have a clear idea of the end result. This, among other things, requires a sense of time and procedure. It also requires planning. In addition knowledge of a process must be taught to the next generation if the use of the process is to continue.

Example Of How Processes Expand 

And Become More Complex With More Steps

PROCESS DIAGRAM: PROJECT TINKERTOY (Early 1950s)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Project_Tinkertoy
Project Tinkertoy facility - "Code-named Project Tinkertoy, the major objective of the program was the design and construction of a pilot plant compatible with the principles of modular design and mechanized production of electronics... NBS intended to develop a process for automated manufacture of electronic equipment and to demonstrate it on a pilot production line."
National Institute of Standards and Technology

See a full video about Project Tinkertoy

https://archive.org/details/47174USNavyProjectTinkertoy

THE EVIDENCE FOR STONE-TOOL PROCESSING 

IS CLEARLY ESTABLISHED

We do know for certain that Homo habilis (perhaps the earliest hominin) had mastered an initial process, what we might call an entry-level process, i.e., that of Oldowan stone-tool making. And they were able to teach and communicate this skill from generation to generation. 

While the Oldowan stone-tool technology has often been characterized as crude, it nevertheless required a number of specific steps, in order, to make useful tools. And these required a good deal of skill to get the desired results.

HOW MUCH SKILL WAS INVOLVED?

"Recent studies have shown, however, that even among the oldest sites flakes do indicate high levels of skill. For example, at Gona, Ethiopia, material dated to 2.5-2.6 myr represented skillfully flaked lava cobbles (Schick and Toth, 2006; Semaw, 2000)...Evidence suggests that skillful flaking and forethought were components of human tool production even as early as 2.5 million years ago..."
Turcotte, Cassandra M. "Oldowan Stone Tools." The Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology (CASHP). http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins/oldowan_stone_tools.php

 "A juvenile capuchin monkey (Sapajus libidinosus) using a stone as tool to open a seed."

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stone_tool_use_by_a_capuchin_monkey.jpg

Some animals use basic tools such as a rock or a twig. 

But they do not have the ability to make a complex tool when many steps are required.

ABOUT OLDOWAN STONE-TOOL TECHNOLOGY

The simple Oldowan stone-tool technology marked a major step, if not the crucial step, which eventually resulted in culture and civilization today.

If we are to understand that this technology was a *process* as I have said, we need to understand the steps that were involved. And this is especially important because this initial process became the underlying structure that led to many more processes in the Paleolithic era.

Hammerstone (left), striking the core with the hammerstone (middle), 

the core and a flake (right) in a later stone-tool process.

To begin the stones that were often used were river pebbles. Choosing the right stones was crucial and it appears that Homo habilis became quite skilled at this.
Hammerstone: This was the stone that was used to strike the core and break off a flake. This stone was round, fat, hard and could be easily held in the hand. It also would not shatter.
Core: The core was the stone that was struck. The core was generally a crystalline stone such as quartz, basalt, flint or chert. Obsidian was particularly desired as it made the sharpest edge. Naturally, it depended on what was available. The abundance of these kinds of rocks that were used for these tools shows that Homo habilis knew the difference between rocks. They understood which stones were best for holding a cutting edge.
Striking the Core: The core had to be hit at just the right angle, at a certain point and with the correct amount of force. Hitting the core could produce sharp flakes that became tools in themselves or the core could be hit in such a way that when a flake was removed, the core was left with sharp cutting points. This was then called a chopper and may have been used to cut plants or chop a tree or butcher an animal.
Flake: The flake was the fragment that split off from the core. Producing a flake with a sharp edge was often the reason for hitting the core. A flake was then a tool in itself which could be quite sharp, as sharp as a surgical knife today, depending on the core's material.
Handling these tools: The blunt side was called the proximal surface and the sharp surface was called the distal surface. The proximal surface was held in the hand and then the sharp distal surface was used to cut.
Conchoidal fracture: The fracture this process produced is known as a 'conchoidal fracture' which does not happen in nature and can only be produced by a deliberate sharp impact. This kind of fracture makes a solid tool that keeps its integrity and is not prone to breaking apart. And because this does not occur in nature, it is clear that these tools were man-made.
The general name for this kind of technology is percussion technology.

Examples of choppers made from the core.

Homo habilis - forensic facial reconstruction (left). 

One of the ways that the chopper might have been used (right).

"The Oldowan represents the first instances of technological innovation in human history, wherein our ancestors first began to enhance their biological abilities with the manufacture of stone tools...Tool production and use is thought to be intimately linked to, if not the instigator of, major changes in cognitive development..."
Turcotte, Cassandra M. "Oldowan Stone Tools." The Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology (CASHP). http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins/oldowan_stone_tools.php

EARLY STONE-TOOL PROCESS EVOLUTION

The initial Homo habilis stone-tool process: 
The Oldowan Technology
"These early tools were most likely used to help these humans butcher animals...cut up plants, and even do some woodworking...Stone is simply pretty good at standing the test of time, but it would not have been the only thing these people used in their daily lives. It is likely that a whole range of material spanning from skin and bark [were] used to create containers; wood used to create digging sticks, spears or clubs; and digging tools made out of horn or bone were also used."

The next and more complex Homo erectus process: 
The Acheulean Technology
"While the Oldowan was still in full swing...Africa became the initial host to a second tool industry: the Acheulean (c. 1,7 million years ago to c. 250,000 years ago)...It saw the development of tools into new shapes: large bifaces like hand axes, picks, cleavers and knives enabled the contemporary Homo erectus...to literally get a better grip on the processing of their kills and gatherings. More precisely shaped tools meant a more delicate technique was needed; and indeed, softer materials such as wood, bone, antler, ivory, or soft stones, were now used as percussors in what is known as the soft hammer technique."

Groeneveld, Emma. "Stone Age Tools." Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited, 21 December 2016. https://www.ancient.eu/article/998/stone-age-tools/

It is important to note that In the Acheulean stage, stone-tool making had now developed so that hominins were making tools to make the tools, known as meta-tools -- a critical meta-step in the technology. So this process was not only more complicated but it included another level of cognition and planning.

OTHER PROCESSES

While we do not know exactly what other processes Homo habilis and the later Homo erectus used, we can be reasonably sure that these early hominins did use other processes in their daily lives. We know for certain that they mastered the process of Oldowan stone-tool making and then later the more advanced Acheulean technology, therefore it appears likely that they would have created other processes as well.

These processes would have probably involved wood and vegetation, for example. Unfortunately, we do not have direct evidence of this due to their decay -- although cut marks on stone-tools, when viewed through a microscope, indicate that stone-tools were often used to cut plants.

"In whichever way archaeological remains are interpreted, one must always be aware that the vast majority of the materials with which prehistoric people were surrounded and with which they worked is lost to us today. ...organic materials start to decay as soon as they are deposited in the ground."
Grömer, Dr. Karina. "An Introduction to Prehistoric Textiles" Brewminate.com, Natural History Museum, Vienna, March 01, 2016, https://brewminate.com/an-introduction-to-prehistoric-textiles.

Dr. Adovasio has made the point that there is "ample ethnographic evidence that perishable technologies form the bulk of hunter-gatherer material culture even in arctic and sub-arctic environments (e.g. Damas 1984; Helm 1981). Archaeologists working with materials recovered from environmental contexts with ideal preservation clearly confirm that this is also true for the past as well. Taylor (1966:73), for example, notes that in dry caves he recovered 20 times more fiber artifacts than those made of stone, Croes (1997:536) reports that wet sites yield inventories where >95% of prehistoric material culture is made of wood and fiber, and Collins (1937) confirms the same for sites in Alaskan permafrost."
Soffer O, Adovasio JM, Hyland DC, Klíma B, Svoboda J. "Perishable Industries from Dolní Vestonice I: New Insights into the Nature and Origin of the Gravettian." Paper Prepared for the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology Seattle, Washington, 25–29 March 1998. DolniVestonice.pdf. 

I suggest that if Homo habilis could invent the Oldowan stone-tool process, they could also have created a number of other processes using natural fibers, wood, bone, etc. 

And once Homo habilis had established a life-style that relied on processes, it set hominins on a path of working with processes that would become more complicated and therefore required larger brains and the use of more areas of the brain. 

In the beginning, the skill of using these processes could have been taught through imitation and learned and repeated via "muscle memory" but later, as the processes became more complex, other areas of the brain probably became involved and eventually some form of basic proto-language developed.

According to The Evolution of Culture, very few animals possess the ability to learn via imitation. But the genus Homo was/is one of them. (The Evolution of Culture, Volume 4. Linquist, Stefan, Editor. Rutledge, 2017.)"The first obvious signs of imitation are the stone tools made by Homo habilis about 2.5 million years ago, although their form did not change very much for another million years. It seems likely that less durable tools were made before then, possibly carrying baskets, slings, wooden tools and so on." 
Blackmore, Susan. "Evolution and Memes: The human brain as a selective imitation device." Cybernetics and Systems, Vol 32:1, 225-255, 2001,Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia, PA.

THE INCREASING COMPLEXITY OF PALEOLITHIC PROCESSES

"Stone toolmaking action analyses...demonstrate the presence of cumulative cultural evolution in the Lower Palaeolithic and suggest that this accumulation displays an accelerating rate of change continuous with that seen in later human history. This should encourage interest in intrinsic processes of cultural evolution that might tend to produce such a uniform curve, including the potentially autocatalytic effects of increasing technological complexity...Lower Palaeolithic technologies clearly do increase in hierarchical complexity through time, raising the possibility of important interactions with the evolution of human cognitive control..."
Stout, Dietrich. "Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition." Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2011 Apr 12; 366(1567): 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3049103/

PROCESSES LED TO LARGER BRAINS AND MORE COMPLEX COGNITION

In a landmark experiment, Dr. Dietrich Stout designed a study in which modern people who were skilled at making stone-tools in the manner of the Oldowan and Acheulean technology were observed via brain imaging as they made these tools. 

"Increasing levels of abstraction in action organization place demands on increasingly anterior portions of frontal cortex [22] and precisely this pattern of increased anterior activation has been observed in a brain imaging study comparing late Acheulean versus Oldowan toolmaking [29].This is consistent with the possibility that evolving neural substrates for complex action organization could have interacted with autocatalytic increases in technological complexity to produce a ‘runaway’ process of biocultural evolution [8,65]."
Stout, Dietrich. "Stone toolmaking and the evolution of human culture and cognition." Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2011 Apr 12; 366(1567).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3049103/

PROCESSES AND THE UNDERSTANDING 

OF LINEAR TIME

The use of processes played a critical role in the human understanding of time, an understanding that was/is unique among animals.

"Our sense of time involves some sense of duration and also of the differences between past, present and future. There is evidence that our sense of these distinctions is one of the most important mental faculties distinguishing man from all other living creatures. For we have good reason to believe that all animals except man live in a continual present."
"It must have required enormous effort for man to overcome his natural tendency to live like the animals in a continual present."
Whitrow, Gerald James. Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press. 1988, pages 7 & 22.

How and why did humans leave the immediacy and comfort of their animal existence and invent language, culture, and a sense of linear time with a past, present, and future? Did it require enormous effort? I would say no.

I would argue that this transition took place gradually over millions of years. And that rather than being difficult and painful, the break with our animal past, that led to our acquisition of behavioral modernity and the modern sense of time, occurred quite naturally.

After perhaps two million years, we know for certain that the skill and technology of stone-tool making had become quite complex. And because of this, we can perhaps assume that other processes based on natural fibers and wood, etc. had also become equally complex.

The progression of stone technology during the Paleolithic era

showing the evolution of stone tool processing.

(Left) Acheulian flint chopper, North Somerset, UK; ca. 750 kya.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:583_three_handaxes_ventral_(FindID_101523).jpg

(Middle) Lower Paleolithic flint stone tool, Egypt; ca.200 kya.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tool_MET_06-322-21.jpeg

(Right) Bifacial silcrete point; Blombos Cave, South Africa; 71 kya.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blombos_point_white.JPG

In the late Paleolithic period, tools became even more sophisticated. As many as 80 different types of implements have been unearthed for what are called the Perigordian and Aurignacian industries in Europe. It is believed that these tools were used for hunting and butchering, clothes making, and a great variety of other tasks that moved early humankind closer to modern life. In all, hundreds of highly complex tools have been found, some of which are the prototypes for modern tools.
STONE TOOL INDUSTRY
https://www.britannica.com/topic/stone-tool-industry

While understanding an individual process was limited to particular materials and desired results, all processes involved a sense of time. Each step had to be done in a certain order, for example, and the eventual outcome was dependent on past steps that had been done correctly. Advanced processes often required precise conditions for specific durations of time -- such as the exacting heat treatment of silcrete (see below) to make it as workable as flint. The resulting stone was essentially an "artificial flint." 

AN EXAMPLE OF A LATER COMPLEX PROCESS WHICH CONTINUED TO DEVELOP

The Heat Treatment Of Silcrete For Stone Tools

Approx 130 - 60 kya

About 130 kya Paleolithic people learned to heat treat certain kinds of locally available stones. Instead of needing to use flint, for example, they, in a sense, made their own "artificial flint" by treating silcrete so that it had flint-like properties, which made it an excellent material for tools and arrows. The heat treatment made the stone harder, less prone to fracturing and easier to shape. Over perhaps 70,000 years into the Middle Paleolithic era (the time before the Upper Paleolithic cultural explosion), this technique became quite sophisticated. 

Beginning with an above-ground method of placing stones in a pile of embers, it evolved into a well crafted controlled method that used "underground heating in an earth-oven like fire-pit. (sciencedaily.com -- see reference next)" This is a good example of the evolution of a Paleolithic process and the increasing complexity, precision, and sophistication that was achieved.

The "silcrete heat treatment...may provide the first direct evidence of the intentional and extensive use of fire applied to a whole lithic chain of production."
"This heating process marks the emergence of fire engineering as a response to a variety of needs that largely transcend hominin basic subsistence requirements,"
"Early humans used innovative heating techniques to make stone blades." Science Daily. October 20, 2016.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161020092107.htm

It was familiarity with a wide variety of processes, including stone-tool making, that eventually led to an understanding of linear time. This was crucial for the transition from animal behavior to behavioral modernity and for the development of language. 

Working with processes led to the development of a number of cognitive skills that were essential for behavioral modernity. Memory, a sense of time in terms of past, present and future along with a sense of time duration, goal-directed behavior, cognitive skills, and decision making came together as a result of managing a variety of complex and changing processes. In addition, there developed a way to teach and train each generation in these skills. Eventually, this culminated in modern human behavior including a full early language and a way to express linear time.

Example of heated silcrete stone that was then shaped 

(the same stone seen from different angles).

THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX

The Homo sapiens brain was more than twice as large as the brain of Homo habilis and 1.5 times bigger than the brain of Homo erectus. But in addition, Homo sapiens had a distinct part of the brain that was unlike that in any other animal. This part is called the prefrontal cortex. And it is only in the last decade that we have begun to understand that this recently discovered area was critical when it came to planning, cognition and understanding the linear progression of time.

I believe an ability to work with complex processes and then to innovate came about because both the larger brain and the prefrontal cortex given to Homo sapiens allowed them to do so.

A full description of the prefrontal cortex is best left to scientific sources, so what follows are descriptions from scientific websites.

"This part of the association cortex, which is implicated in higher cognition and affect, is thus disproportionately large in humans relative to other primates."
Stern, Peter. The human prefrontal cortex is special. Science. Science22 Jun 2018 : 1311-1312.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6395/1311.7

"This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior, ... [and] decision making...The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals." [ED: i.e., the future]
Prefrontal Cortex. The Science Of Psychotherapy. 2017.
https://www.thescienceofpsychotherapy.com/prefrontal-cortex/

I was one of the first writers in 2014 to focus on the prefrontal cortex as a critical component in our ability to understand and conceptualize linear time. We are the only animal that has this capability. See my most popular article (more than 10,000 readers since 2014) about the prefrontal cortex: 

Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time

https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2014/08/animal-senses-compared-to-human-sense.html

PROCESSES, TIME AND PROTO-LANGUAGE

After two million years, with their increased brain size and the added abilities of the prefrontal cortex, hominins began to develop a language and a set of conceptual tools that gave them greater control over their use of processes. 

In particular, language gave humans the tools to work with time. Language could express basic linear time concepts that allowed them to imagine processes, the order of the steps involved and the duration of each step. It also allowed them to imagine different outcomes and to share and discuss processes. And, of course, language was used to instruct the next generation.

Linguists and anthropologists assume that a fully developed language, even the most basic language, would have had words that expressed concepts of time. 

Anna Wierzbicka made a list of what are known as Semantic Primitives as listed by the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The following are universal words for time that occur in all languages:  

when/time, now, before, after, a long time, a short time, for some time, moment

It is important to note that language and time concepts are closely linked. 

"Time reference is a universal property of language..."

Jacqueline Lecarme, Ph.D., Linguistics

And since processes proceed step-by-step, they became a model and metaphor for time, not unlike a clock which advances step-by-step as the hands of the clock move forward.

We can find examples of this today such as in this expression:

Your idea is half-baked. 

This comes from the process of cooking where the bread was not given enough time to bake.

CONCLUSION

Since hominins had been working with processes for millions of years, they were familiar and comfortable with them. So the eventual awareness of linear time that processes involved and the conscious understanding of the process steps evolved naturally. 

And this is why an understanding of processes is so important. Processes became the model and the metaphor for linear time along with duration. And once language and modern human behavior was achieved, humans had even greater control over their processes and their ability to control their environment. This eventually led to the Upper Paleolithic, the Neolithic and then to civilization.

________________________________________

AFTERWORD

ABOUT PROCESSES

I am quite familiar with processes. I processed my own black and white photographic negatives and then developed prints from those negatives for fifteen years. Negative processes involved time, temperature and proper handling, such as agitation. The initial spooling took place in the pitch dark.

I soon learned that what I did at the beginning greatly affected the end result. So as time went on, I became more precise. I learned to make accurate photographic exposures before developing so that the chemical process of developing produced a fine-grained thin negative with a full range of tones. And I added a couple of steps to standard developing that improved the results such as using distilled water as a pre-soak and diluting the developer for more control over the development time. 

Then I developed my own black and white slides which was even more exacting.

And finally, I developed color slides. This process was the most involved and the most precise. Color slides, for example, required that the developing solution had to be 100 degrees F +/- 1/2 degree for a very specific duration of time. 

I say all of this because I do understand how processes work and how they evolve. Whether I am talking about photographic processing or making stone-tools in the Paleolithic era or preparing esparto grass for basket weaving or for making rope, basic step-by-step procedures are common to all.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX?

I realize that my ideas may seem a bit different and unusual to Paleoanthropologists, but consider:

"Tools are the products of our brains, and we have millions of stone tools," Wynn added. "What we need are more creative ideas on how to extract understanding from them, and what they tell us about our evolution." Quotation from paleoanthropologist Thomas Wynn of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Choi, Charles. "Human Evolution: The Origin of Tool Use." LiveScience, November 11, 2009. https://www.livescience.com/7968-human-evolution-origin-tool.html. Accessed 10/26/2019.

A Caveat: While I believe that Homo sapiens became aware of linear time and were able to use it to their advantage, their sense of time was quite different from our own. I discuss this in other articles I have written.

Paleolithic Evidence for an Early Weaving Technology

Paleolithic Evidence Shows

That Homo Habilis 

Could Have Learned Weaving

From Weaverbirds (Ploceidae)

Additional Evidence That Basket Weaving 

May Have Begun in the Early Paleolithic Era 

INTRODUCTION

I have argued that basket weaving and a woven-fiber technology began very early, as early as Homo habilis or earlier, perhaps two million years ago. I have asserted this, in part, because these relatively intelligent creatures (Homo habilis or other hominins) who were walking upright, could have seen well-built birds' nests in their environment as a model for containers that they could make and use to carry large amounts of vegetables or fruit or fish with their free hands. 'Weaverbirds' or Ploceidae, common in Africa today, make the best-engineered nests which could have served as a model for early humans if fossil evidence could be found that confirmed they lived at the same time as early hominins.

See a listing of 14 blogs about basket weaving technology from its earliest stages in the Paleolithic era to its implementation in the world's first civilizations.

 

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SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE FOR 

AN EARLY WEAVING TECHNOLOGY

Around 2 million years ago at the famous Olduvai Gorge, the first stone tools made by hominins, known as Oldowan stone tools, were discovered in what has been designated as Bed I which is the oldest layer at the Gorge. Fossilized remains of Homo habilis (perhaps the earliest hominin) were also found. And in addition fossilized remains of weaverbirds (Ploceidae) were found in Bed I. Weaverbirds are known for their elaborate and well-engineered nests which they placed in the open, so they were clearly visible. This means that Homo habilis (and probably other hominins) could have been aware of the nest constructions of these birds and could have used both the shapes and the weaving techniques as models for their own woven objects such as baskets.

EVIDENCE

The Time Period For Oldowan Stone-Tool Making By Early Hominins

"For the period of human evolution between 2.5 and 1.5 million years ago, Oldowan lithic artifacts [ED: discovered in Bed I at the Olduvai Gorge] remain a primary indicator of human behavior." 
Reti JS (2016). "Quantifying Oldowan Stone Tool Production at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania." PLoS ONE 11(1): e0147352. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147352

About The Oldowan Stone-Tool Industry

"Such implements were made by early hominins (probably Homo habilis at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)."
Oldowan Industry, Prehistoric Technology. Encyclopaedia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oldowan-industry. Accessed 10/26/2019. 

Fossilized Weaverbirds (Ploceidae) Found In The Bed I Layer At Olduvai Gorge

"Passeriformes are one of the most common groups at Olduvai during Bed I [my emphasis] (NISP: 3683 in Matthiesen, unpublished conference notes), with at least 11 families including ...the Ploceidae [ED: weaverbirds] (Brodkorb, 1985)..."
Prassack, Kari A., Pante, Michael C., Njau, Jackson K., de la Torre, Ignacio. The Paleoecology Of Pleistocene Birds From Middle Bed II, At Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, And The Environmental Context Of The Oldowan-Acheulean Transition. Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 120, July 2018, pp. 32-47. Accessed 10/26/2019. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10050429/1/Prassack%20et%20al%20Final%20Oct.pdf 

ABOUT WEAVERBIRDS

"The idea of interlacing materials together to create a weave was probably inspired by nature; by observing birds’ nests, spider webs and various animal constructions..."
"The History of Weaving". Wild Tussah, 2014. https://wildtussah.com/history-weaving-2/. Accessed 10/26/2019.

Weaverbirds build their nests out in the open, so early hominins or Homo habilis would almost certainly have been aware of them. 

"The weavers build their homes quite in the open where they can be seen of all men." 
"As a preliminary to the construction of the nest proper, the birds wrap a considerable amount of fibrous material around a chosen limb or frond...The small strips are not only wound round the branch but are plaited together so securely that it is impossible with ordinary effort to separate them." "In every large colony are found what look like unfinished nests--that do not in building get further than this perch or roost stage, looking, as Jetdon says, like an inverted basket with a handle." 
Wood, CA. "The Nest of the Baya Weaver Bird." The Auk, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul., 1926), pp. 295-302. Oxford University Press, DOI: 10.2307/4075422. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4075422

 A cluster of weaverbird's nests showing how visible they are/were.

"Weaver birds build exquisite and elaborate nest structures that are a rival to any human feat of engineering." 
"Having selected a good location for his nest, the weaver bird starts to loop and weave strands of grass or strips of leaves around the ends of one or two branches in a tree. Having created a looped basis for the nest body, the weaver bird then builds the hollow body before adding the tubular entrance last."
"Weaver Birds," Eden, UKTV, https://eden.uktv.co.uk/animals/birds/article/weaver-birds/. Accessed 10/26/2019.

"Weaver birds use a variety of plant materials to build their nests, including strips of grass, leaves, twigs and roots. A weaver bird has a strong, conical beak, which it uses to cut blades of grass that it will use in nest-building. The weaver bird can tie real knots in nest material with its beak and its feet."
Weaver Birds - Animal Facts, Ploceidae. AnimalFacts,https://www.animalfacts.net/birds/weaverbirds.html. Accessed 10/26/2019.

A Study In Cameroon Shows The Wide Variety Of Materials Used

"...plant-types on which weaverbirds were commonly observed nesting or picking nesting materials, oil-palm (22.9%), coco-nut (13.5%), maize (16.6%), Elephant-grass (10.7%), pear(8.5%), mango(9.4%) and plantain(10.0%)." 
Melle ekane Maurice, Nkwatoh Athanasius Fuashi, Viku Bruno Agiamte-Mbom, Tim Killian Lengha. "The nesting ecology of weaverbirds in Ekona farms, Southwest Region, Cameroon." International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology (IJEAB), Vol-2, Issue-5, Sep-Oct- 2017, ISSN: 2456-1878. Department of Environmental Science, University of Buea, Cameroon. http://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab/2.5.29

 "Take a look at the knots the Red Headed Weaver can tie... 

Using his beak and feet! They seem rather complex not to mention strong."

One species of weaverbird uses, "...remarkable nest construction [; it is in the] behaviour of Malimbus Rubriceps in which nest material is “prepared” for use in building before the bird takes it to the nest." "The fabric of the nest is often remarkably strong and pliant."
Crook, John (2008). A Comparative Analysis of Nest Structure in the Weaver Birds (Ploceidae). Ibis. 105. 238 - 262. 10.1111/j.1474-919X.1963.tb02498.x. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1963.tb02498.x 

Building a nest from scratch (left to right).

Adding to the early structure.

A more advanced stage of the construction.

The finished bird's nest.

Detail of the above finished bird nest.

BBC VIDEO

BBC Home Making: Weaver Bird

"Probably one of the most complex and elegant bird nest 

is build by Weaver bird.....see it for yourself....."

HOMO HABILIS AND WEAVERBIRDS

These birds were quite clever and their construction methods were excellent models for hominins. Many anthropologists believe that early humans had the ability to imitate and to learn. If Homo habilis was good at imitation, then it is quite likely that they were able to imitate the designs and constructions they saw in nature. An early simple basket could have begun as a copy of a bird's nest.

Learning And Teaching Via Imitation

According to the Evolution of Culture, very few animals possess the ability to learn via imitation. But the genus Homo was/is one of them. (The Evolution of Culture, Volume 4. Linquist, Stefan, Editor. Rutledge, 2017.)

"The first obvious signs of imitation are the stone tools made by Homo habilis about 2.5 million years ago, although their form did not change very much for another million years. It seems likely that less durable tools were made before then, possibly carrying baskets, slings, wooden tools and so on." 
Blackmore, Susan. "Evolution and Memes: The human brain as a selective imitation device." Cybernetics and Systems, Vol 32:1, 225-255, 2001,Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia, PA. 

Imitation And Homo Habilis

"In a study of teaching novices to produce Oldowan-like artifacts, Morgan et al. (2015) examined the premise that, in view of its probable social transmission, stone toolmaking spurred the evolution of teaching and language in our lineage..."They concluded, however, that Oldowan toolmaking may have depended on imitation and emulation (observational learning) for transmission among groups and across generations, which they refer to as “low-fidelity social transmission” and suggest this as a reason for the relatively low rate of change in the Oldowan over many hundreds of thousands of years, while contending that Acheulean technology may have required teaching or “proto-language.” 
Toth, Nicholas & Schick, Kathy (2018). "An overview of the cognitive implications of the Oldowan Industrial Complex, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa." 53:1, 3-39, pp 17-18. DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2018.1439558

"What was it these early stone-knappers knew that chimpanzees can't get?" Wynn asked. "I think one thing was that early hominids were much better at copying motor procedures — we can watch an individual perform a motor task and mimic it. Chimpanzees are terrible at that — they see a task and have to reinvent the wheel. This gets back to mirror neurons and the copying of behavior." Quotation from paleoanthropologist Thomas Wynn of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Choi, Charles. "Human Evolution: The Origin of Tool Use." LiveScience, November 11, 2009. https://www.livescience.com/7968-human-evolution-origin-tool.html. Accessed 10/26/2019.

Since we know for certain that hominins could make stone tools, it is reasonable to assume that they could also create other objects as well. 

Therefore I believe it was virtually impossible for early hominins to have been unaware of the bird nests made by these birds and in addition, they probably observed the methods these birds used such as tying knots, splitting grass and using a variety of light fiber materials.

These nests not only served as examples and models for weaving and baskets, but the birds also showed hominins how to create such a structure. In the following picture gallery, you can follow how a bird starts with a few simple strands that are added onto until a large enclosed object is created. Today basket weavers call this a 'random weave' because there is not a basic overall structure, the way basket weaving is practiced today.

Weave A Basket Out Of Vines: 
The Random-Weave Technique

A complete tutorial from Mother Earth News

"Even first-timers can create intricate baskets with the random-weave technique."

https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/weave-a-basket-zmaz93asztak

The weaverbirds offered Homo habilis a complete tutorial on fiber construction. Watching a bird making a nest showed exactly how to build such a structure. The birds found and used a mixture of light materials which they interwove into a strong and resilient object. They split fibers with their beaks and attached fibers using strong knots. So Homo habilis would have seen the steps it took to build, the materials needed, and the weaving techniques to hold it together in a solid structure. 

Occasionally these nests would fall to the ground so Homo habilis could have seen and examined these close up. It is also possible that Homo habilis was able to knock some of these down from the trees where they were hanging and used them for containers and baskets by themselves.

A nest that fell down. Notice the wide strands that were used to make the nest.

The Importance Of Walking Upright With Two Free Hands

Walking upright meant that early hominins such as Homo habilis had two free hands. It is logical to assume that baskets or containers would have been adopted early as they allowed hominins to carry more goods which would increase their chances for survival.

"The single most important physical specialization that our ancestors the australopithecines evolved was the ability, unique among mammals, to habitually walk on two legs. "Whether this adaptation was in response to the encroaching savannah, the need keep a cool head, or - more likely - to free up their hands, it happened millions of years before the sudden acceleration of our brain growth. When the weather became seriously worse 2.5 million years ago, their behaviour and physical form were appropriate for the next step. Their hands were free, their head was smart and cool, and their intelligent, cooperative exploitation of a wide range of foods, including meat, was still the rule. The dry climate merely turned up the selective pressure on the savannah primates to make the best of diminishing vegetable resources..."
Oppenheimer, Stephen. "Origins." Extract taken from 'Out of Eden' 2003. Bradshaw Foundation. Paleoanthropology, http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins/origins_big_brains.php.www.bradshawfoundation.com/origins. Accessed 10/26/2019.

"In The Descent of Man, Darwin (1871) explained that hominids started walking on two legs in order to use their hands. He states in his book, ‘However, the hands and arms could hardly have become perfect enough to have manufactured weapons, or to have hurled stones and spears with a true aim, as long as they were habitually used for locomotion.’ 
"Some might acknowledge that the evolution of bipedalism is responsible for the supposed superiority of humans as compared with other animals, because it permitted the manipulation of nature at will."
Ko, Kwang Hyun. "Origins of human intelligence: The chainof tool-making and brain evolution." ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS 22 (1): 5–22. ISSN 1408-032X. Slovene Anthropological Society 2016. 

Baskets Are Tools

"Tools may have allowed hominids to be more adaptable, extract food from a greater range of areas." Quotation of Thomas Plummer, paleoanthropologist at Queens College, New York. 
Choi, Charles. "Human Evolution: The Origin of Tool Use." LiveScience, November 11, 2009. https://www.livescience.com/7968-human-evolution-origin-tool.html. Accessed 10/26/2019.

If Baskets And A Woven-Fiber Technology Are Also Seen As Tools 

(Along With Stone Tools) It Might Explain Gaps In Our Understanding Of Evolution

"Tools are the products of our brains, and we have millions of stone tools," Wynn added. "What we need are more creative ideas on how to extract understanding from them, and what they tell us about our evolution." Quotation from paleoanthropologist Thomas Wynn of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Choi, Charles. "Human Evolution: The Origin of Tool Use." LiveScience, November 11, 2009. https://www.livescience.com/7968-human-evolution-origin-tool.html. Accessed 10/26/2019.

AFTERWORD

However, I also argue that this did not lead directly to basket weaving as we know it today but rather baskets that were made with a "random weave" which is more in keeping with the bird nest model, as mentioned earlier. 

And while basket making probably did develop, the baskets might have been quite simple.

Simple Timor basket for drinking.

Simple basic basket with narrow strands. 

Simple basket made with wide strands.

Making a Primitive basket | How to make a primitive basket

"This basket made from palm leaves.

Easy to make and easy to use from your survival time.

Basket is essential when you bring something small size.

In this video I show the perfect and easy way to make a primitive basket."

I believe that random weave basket making and simple basket construction may have continued for a million or more years. 

Then perhaps after a million years hominins (possibly Homo erectus) began to understand the power of the right-angle weaving design in which one set of fibers was placed at right angles to another set of fibers or one set of tree branches was placed at right angles to another set of branches. This discovery was remarkable because this structure was not common in nature.

“There are no right angles in nature.” 

Antoni Gaudi, architect.

The discovery of right-angle structure was one of the most important discoveries ever made. Today, for example, the framing in modern skyscrapers is constructed using the same basic horizontal and vertical design.

A spider web may have been an inspiration for weavers. 

Here is a traditional basket as seen from the bottom showing its similarity to a spider web.

This fundamental and crucial idea of right angles gave objects both strength and flexibility. The inspiration for this innovation could have been gleaned from spider webs that are constructed in this manner. 

As I pointed out in my previous blog, this simple idea eventually led to the construction of not just a huge variety of baskets, but a slew of objects from small to large, from sandals to boats and houses. And it is the fundamental structure of all fabrics and clothing. Of course, we know this happened, however, we just don't know when it began and how long it took to develop.

When there were a lot of processes, such as weaving,
and those processes became complicated, 

I believe this resulted in the beginnings of a fully developed language. See my blog.

The Origins of Language: 

When, Why and How

https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-origins-of-language-when-why-and-how.html