Stone Tools Reveal Earliest Division of Labor in Ancient Human Civilization

Thousands of ancient, stone tools may point to some of the earliest divisions of labor. Researchers have learned a bit more about the organization into complex social groups by tasks.

"We have achieved remarkably accurate estimates of 40,000 to 45,000 years ago for the earliest Upper Paleolithic stone tools in the Near East," said Aaron Stutz, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our findings confirm that the Upper Paleolithic began in the region no later than 42,000 years ago, and likely at least 44,600 years ago."

The newly discovered artifacts show a mix of techniques for making points, blades, scrapers and cutting flakes. In fact, there appears to be a division of labor that may have been part of an emerging pattern of more organized social structures.

In fact, this greater social division marks a pivotal time that also included the ebbing of Neanderthals as a last wave of anatomically modern humans spread out from Africa and into the Near East. This region, also known as the Levant, comprises the eastern Mediterranean at the crossroads of western Asia and northeast Africa. As the final surge of modern humans passed through the Levant, they probably would have encountered human populations that arrived earlier, as well as Neanderthals.

The new tools include quite a bit of blades for knives and tools for hafting onto spears, using a prismatic blade technique that yields long, narrow points that are nearly identical. Interestingly, this toolmaking marks an era of change for humans.

"Our findings positively show that the cultural changes associated with Neanderthal extinction in the Near East and wider western Eurasia really are more complex than many leading researchers have assumed," said Stutz. "Instead of looking for a smoking-gun technology or climatic fluctuation or volcanic eruption, It's clear we need to look at interconnected behavioral population and ecological processes. That approach might reveal more clearly the similarities, as well as differences, between our mainly African and slightly Neanderthal biological inheritance."

The findings are published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

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