Experimental Archaeology and Hominid Evolution: Establishing a Methodology for Determining Handedness in Lithic Materials as a Proxy for Cognitive Evolution

Many acknowledge that stone tool manufacture, handedness, and brain evolution are intricately linked in Homo sapiens and other hominids, and there is extensive literature on the value of lithic analysis in understanding hominid biological, cognitive, and cultural evolution. Analyses of handedness as preserved in the paleoarchaeological record, however, are rare, despite their relevance and importance to understanding structural and functional asymmetries in the human body and brain. I will attempt to address the inherent issues in analyzing certain aspects of hominid evolution—particularly evidence of handedness as a proxy for hemispheric specialization of the brain—via experimental archaeology. Three people, including myself, assessed Acheulean handaxes and associated debitage created by two right- and two left- handed expert flintknappers using previously established methods, including: Toth’s 1985, Rugg & Mullane’s 2001, and Bargalló & Mosquera’s 2013 methods. While these publications form the basis of handedness-related lithic analysis, they have methodological inconsistencies that have lead to poor reliability and replicability. The goals of this project are to address issues within this scope of analysis, particularly the combination of expert and novice subjects and a lack of objectivity. Improving the existing methodologies will encourage analysis of fossil evidence from Paleolithic assemblages in the future. The ultimate goal of this approach is to be able to track population-level hominid handedness rates through time via preserved stone tools, and use them as a proxy for the development of human lateralities, cognitive evolution, and the acquisition of language.