Practice question · Fill in the blanks
Complete the account of the handaxe puzzle.
The Acheulean handaxe stayed essentially unchanged for over ______ years, across at least two hominin species, so the puzzle is not stupidity but why so much ______ produced so little ______.
Word bank: a million · competence · innovation · a thousand · decoration
Hints
- The same form was reproduced with almost no variation.
- Transmission was faithful but produced no cumulative change.
Show the answer
The Acheulean handaxe stayed essentially unchanged for over a million years, across at least two hominin species, so the puzzle is not stupidity but why so much competence produced so little innovation.
Why
High-fidelity copying with almost no deviation. Whatever cultural transmission was doing in the Lower Paleolithic, it was not doing what it does now.
Practise The Lower and Middle Paleolithic
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