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Cranioplasty is a well-known procedure in modern neurosurgery. Although some authors have claimed it was also performed by prehistoric trepanners in various parts of the world, there is little hard evidence to support this. Here we review various claims of cranioplasty in Peru, where trepanation was widely practised in Prehispanic times. We find little support for assertions that cranioplasty was common. One recently discovered burial from the Cuzco region, however, provides the first documented case of the reinsertion of a bone plug into a trepanation opening. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Studies of stone artifact morphology are beginning to rapidly increase in complexity. While these techniques provide new insights into artifact variation, it is also necessary to insure that these methods provide data that is behaviorally relevant. Here, we provide a new technique that includes three dimensional attributes to calculate platform areas to enhance the prediction of flake area from platform attributes. This data allows the calculation of more precise measures of reduction in large unifacial flake cores in Developed Oldowan assemblages (i.e., Karari Scrapers). Here, we look at measures of curation within these tool types across a landscape scale study. We apply demographic analyses of the degree to which an assemblage can be considered to be curated (i.e., the potential use life of a tool minus the actual use life of a tool). Results suggest that even though there is significant variation within a given paleogeographic setting, a higher frequency of pieces are used to their full potential in areas where raw material is predicted to have been scarce. These data suggest that hominins fulfill some aspects of a neutral model of artifact transport, yet likely make directed movements to transport tools to specific places on the ancient landscape. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.

The Early Pliocene Sagantole Fm. in the Gona Project area, Afar State, Ethiopia, is noted for discoveries of the early hominin Ardipithecus ramidus. A large series of fossil cercopithecid primates dated to between 4.8 and 4.3 Ma has also been collected from these sediments. In this paper, we use qualitative analysis and standard dental and postcranial measures to systematically describe the craniodental remains and tentatively allocate postcrania to taxa where we are able to. We then use these data to compare these specimens to fossil assemblages from contemporary sites, interpret their paleobiology, and discuss implications for the paleoecology of the Gona Sagantole Fm. We recognize three cercopithecid species in the Gona Sagantole Fm. Pliopapio alemui makes up approximately two-thirds of the identifiable specimens; nearly all of the rest are allocated to Kuseracolobus aramisi, and a single molar indicates the presence of a second, somewhat larger but morphologically distinct papionin. Among the Early Pliocene cercopithecids from Gona are also a number of postcranial elements. None of the postcranial remains are directly associated with any of the cranial material. Nonetheless, some of the distal humeri and proximal femora can be tentatively allocated to either Pl. alemui or K. aramisi based on a combination of size, as the latter is approximately 50% larger than the former, and morphology. If these assignments are correct, they suggest K. aramisi was primarily arboreal and similar to most extant colobines, whereas Pl. alemui was more mixed in its substrate use, being more terrestrially adapted than K. aramisi, but less so than extant Papio or Theropithecus. Thus, we interpret the predominance of Pl. alemui over K. aramisi is consistent with a somewhat more open environment at Gona than at Aramis. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Although stone tools generally co-occur with early members of the genus Homo, they are rarely found in direct association with hominins. We report that both Acheulian and Oldowan artifacts and Homo erectus crania were found in close association at 1.26 million years (Ma) ago at Busidima North (BSN12), and ca. 1.6 to 1.5 Ma ago at Dana Aoule North (DAN5) archaeological sites at Gona, Afar, Ethiopia. The BSN12 partial cranium is robust and large, while the DAN5 cranium is smaller and more gracile, suggesting that H. erectus was probably a sexually dimorphic species. The evidence from Gona shows behavioral diversity and flexibility with a lengthy and concurrent use of both stone technologies by H. erectus, confounding a simple "single species/single technology" view of early Homo. Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

Inter-site technological variation in the archaeological record is one of the richest potential sources of information about Plio-Pleistocene hominid behavior and evolution. However, appropriate methods for describing and comparing Oldowan assemblages have yet to be agreed upon, and interpretation of the early record remains highly controversial. Particularly salient is disagreement over whether the Oldowan is a single technological phenomenon or is more accurately divided into multiple regional and/or chronological traditions, perhaps including a less developed Pre-Oldowan phase in the late Pliocene. Some of this disagreement reflects theoretical and methodological differences between research traditions and some is more directly evidential. Here we present a framework for describing and interpreting Oldowan variation and apply it to three Pliocene assemblages (EG-10, EG-12, and OGS-7) from Gona, all dated to c. 2.6 million years (Ma). Results indicate proficient knapping and a full range of Oldowan reduction strategies in these earliest known occurrences, consistent with the idea of an Oldowan “technological stasis” from 2.6–1.6Ma. Patterns of variation in raw material selection and predominant reduction strategy at each site clearly indicate the importance of cultural transmission in the Oldowan, but confounding ecological and economic variation continue to render interpretation in terms of multiple tool making traditions or species inappropriate. We propose that cultural transmission and ecological adaptation should be recognized as complementary, rather than mutually exclusive, mechanisms in future attempts to explain Oldowan technological variation.

Since 2000, significant collections of Latest Miocene hominin fossils have been recovered from Chad, Kenya, and Ethiopia. These fossils have provided a better understanding of earliest hominin biology and context. Here, we describe five hominin teeth from two periods (ca. 5.4 Million-years-ago and ca. 6.3 Ma) that were recovered from the Adu-Asa Formation in the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area in the Afar, Ethiopia that we assign to either Hominina, gen. et sp. indet. or Ardipithecus kadabba. These specimens are compared with extant African ape and other Latest Miocene and Early Pliocene hominin teeth. The derived morphology of the large, non-sectorial maxillary canine and mandibular third premolar links them with later hominins and they are phenetically distinguishable and thus phyletically distinct from extant apes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article argues that the Acheulean is perhaps the longest lasting cultural–technological tradition in human history, dating from around 1.7 to 0.3 Mya and roughly corresponding to the time during which H. Erectus and H. Heidelbergensis lived in Africa. Unlike earlier Oldowan technology, Acheulean cores — handaxes, cleavers, and picks — were standardised, of predetermined shape and made on large cobbles and flakes. The extensive Acheulean archaeological record throughout Africa over 1.4 million years described is testimony to the success of this technology’s makers in different habitats, altitudes, and settings, but also to its apparent conservative cultural nature: a learned tradition passed on through thousands of generations of highly mobile hominin groups with small population sizes. Although there are differences between Early and Late Acheulean technology, the makers of these tools may have undergone more significant changes with respect to the use of other technologies, strategic land use, and social life.