Lithic miniaturization was one of our Pleistocene ancestors' more pervasive stone tool
production strategies and it marks a key difference between human and non‐human tool …

The MSA/LSA transition is a major shift in the African archaeological record, but questions
on its beginning remain debated. In southern Africa, most sites suggest an origin of LSA …

Abstract The Middle to Later Stone Age transition in Africa has been debated as a significant
shift in human technological, cultural, and cognitive evolution. However, the majority of …

Microliths–small, retouched, often-backed stone tools–are often interpreted to be the product
of composite tools, including projectile weapons, and efficient hunting strategies by modern …

Stone tools are the least familiar objects that archaeologists recover from their excavations,
and predictably, they struggle to understand them. Eastern Africa alone boasts a 3.4 million …

Here we propose that the backing of microliths—applying steep, blunting retouch along one
edge—is a highly evolvable trait that emerged many times in different places around the …

Determining the timing and drivers of Pleistocene hydrological change in the interior of
South Africa is critical for testing hypotheses regarding the presence, dynamics, and …

We present experimental data examining the energetics and identification of axial bipolar
reduction in contexts of lithic miniaturization on milky quartz. These experiments answer two …

The peopling of Sahul (the combined landmass of New Guinea and Australia) is a topic of
much debate. The Kimberley region of Western Australia holds many of Australia's oldest …

Recognized by archaeologists for over a century, and practiced by hominins in nearly every
archaeological context in which flaked stone is used, bipolar technology involves the …