http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5996 Publications de Auteurs John A. J. Gowlett fr 0 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5990 In seeking to build up a picture of human evolution, we use abilities which have themselves evolved, and which are unique to human beings. As a matter of scientific epistemology we can benefit from examining those abilities to see how they condition our view of the past ; at the same time we can seek to document their emergence, using archaeological and fossil evidence. My paper examines the way in which we label time and entities, and the difficulties which we have in modelling change when hampered by poor sampling. It then reviews psychological approaches which can be used for evaluating early archaeological evidence. It finishes by drawing examples from the record, considering the ancient environments in which we map hominid activity, and weighing the alternative interpretations of controversial evidence. Special consideration is given to questions of raw material transport and its significance, and to sequences of operations. The paper addresses the question : How important should « deliberateness » or « intentionality » be in our assessment of the capabilities if early hominids ? Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:41:25 +0100 Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:41:31 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5990 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=863 The earlier Acheulean is often thought of as characterized by large bifaces, but small bifaces occur in assemblages even in early phases of the tradition more than a million years ago. We discuss here the presence at Kilombe in Kenya of extremely small specimens which can be termed ‘diminutive bifaces’ or ‘minibifaces’. The paper analyses the whole spectrum of bifaces in the site, and finds that the ultrasmall specimens are the tail of the distribution, and in effect the mirror-image of the length distribution of very long bifaces. They are therefore an integral part of the assemblage, but its extreme expression. They support the idea that Homo erectus often made tools that morphed across categories, rather than having sharp boundaries between types, and that the species was able to focus on delicate tasks as well as heavy-duty work. Fri, 29 Nov 2024 15:25:06 +0100 Fri, 30 Jan 2026 15:10:41 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=863