Mode 3 Technologies and the Evolution of Modern Humans
Abstract
The origins and evolution of modern humans has been the dominant interest in palaeoanthropology for the last decade, and much archaeological interpretation has been structured around the various issues associated with whether humans have a recent African origin or a more ancient one. While the archaeological record has been used to support or refute various aspects of the theories, and to provide a behavioural framework for different biological models, there has been little attempt to employ the evidence of stone tool technology to unravel phylogenetic relationships. Here we examine the evidence that the evolution of modern humans is integrally related to the development of the Upper Palaeolithic and similar technologies, and conclude that there is only a weak relationship. In contrast there is a strong association between the evolution and spread of modern humans and Grahame Clark's Mode 3 technologies (the Middle Stone Age/Palaeolithic). The implications of this for the evolution of Neanderthals, the multiple pattern of human dispersals, and the nature of cognitive evolution, are considered.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Florisbad probably represents an archaic part of the H. sapiens clade.
“While too incomplete for definitive assignment, like the Irhoud material this fossil probably represents an archaic part of the H. sapiens clade.”
From The origin and evolution of <i>Homo sapiens</i> (2016) · cites this paper as [49]
Cites
Global Patterns of Linkage Disequilibrium at the CD4 Locus and Modern Human Origins
Tishkoff, S. A., Dietzsch, E., Speed, W., Pakstis, A. J., Kidd, J. R., Cheung, K., Bonné-Tamir, B., Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S., Moral, P., Krings, M., et al. (1996) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.271.5254.1380 · Cited by 587 · see citing works
Direct dating of Florisbad hominid
Grün, R., Brink, J. S., Spooner, N. A., Taylor, L., Stringer, C. B., Franciscus, R. G., & Murray, A. S. (1996) · Nature · doi:10.1038/382500a0 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Origin of Modern Human Behavior: Critique of the Models and Their Test Implications
Henshilwood, C. S., & Marean, C. W. (2003) · Current Anthropology · doi:10.1086/377665 · Cited by 735 · see citing works
The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence.
Geary, D. C. (2005) · doi:10.1037/10871-000 · Cited by 551 · see citing works
Modern human origins: progress and prospects
Stringer, C. (2002) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2001.1057 · Cited by 534 · see citing works
Going east: new genetic and archaeological perspectives on the modern human colonization of Eurasia
Mellars, P. (2006) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1128402 · Cited by 494 · see citing works
The origin and evolution of <i>Homo sapiens</i>
Stringer, C. (2016) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0237 · Cited by 395 · see citing works
Gene-culture coevolution in the age of genomics
Richerson, P. J., Boyd, R., & Henrich, J. (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0914631107 · Cited by 393 · see citing works
Genomic structure in Europeans dating back at least 36,200 years
Seguin-Orlando, A., Korneliussen, T. S., Sikora, M., Malaspinas, A.-S., Manica, A., Moltke, I., Albrechtsen, A., Ko, A., Margaryan, A., Moiseyev, V., et al. (2014) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaa0114 · Cited by 315 · see citing works
Self-citationBrain size and encephalization in early to Mid‐Pleistocene <i>Homo</i>
Rightmire, G. P. (2004) · American Journal of Physical Anthropology · doi:10.1002/ajpa.10346 · Cited by 285 · see citing works
Endicott, P., Ho, S. Y. W., & Stringer, C. (2010) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.04.005 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Detecting Ancient Admixture in Humans Using Sequence Polymorphism Data
Wall, J. D. (2000) · Genetics · doi:10.1093/genetics/154.3.1271 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Neanderthal-Denisovan ancestors interbred with a distantly related hominin
Rogers, A. R., Harris, N. S., & Achenbach, A. A. (2020) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aay5483 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Tryon, C. A., Crevecoeur, I., Faith, J. T., Ekshtain, R., Nivens, J., Patterson, D., Mbua, E. N., & Spoor, F. (2015) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1417909112 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Virtual ancestor reconstruction: Revealing the ancestor of modern humans and Neandertals
Mounier, A., & Mirazón Lahr, M. (2016) · Journal of Human Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.11.002 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Diagnosing<i>Homo sapiens</i>in the fossil record
Stringer, C. B., & Buck, L. T. (2014) · Annals of Human Biology · doi:10.3109/03014460.2014.922616 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
- Authors
- Foley, R., & Lahr, M. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- ORCID
- Foley, Robert
- Venue
- Cambridge Archaeological Journal
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1997-04
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-36
- ISSN
- 0959-7743 (ISSN-L)
- 1474-0540
- OpenAlex
- W2134429388
- Cited by
- 420
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 54.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge Archaeological Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Archeology › Archaeology and Rock Art Studies
- Keywords
- modern human evolution, Upper Palaeolithic, Middle Stone Age, lithic technology, human dispersal, Neanderthals, cognitive evolution, African origin of modern humans, phylogenetic relationships, Grahame Clark
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
