From Tools to Symbols

Francesco dErrico is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que (CNRS) and Research Professor at the Department of Anthropology, George Washington University. Francesco dErrico is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que (CNRS) and Research Professor at the Department of Anthropology, George Washington University. Lucinda Backwell is a Researcher in the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. Lucinda Backwell is a Researcher in the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. Phillip V. Tobias was a South African palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He was best known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossil sites.

Acknowledgements Profile of Professor Tobias List of participants Foreword Justice Edwin Cameron Address Bernard Malauzat Keynote address Phillip V. Tobias Searching for common ground in palaeoanthropology, archaeology and genetics Francesco dErrico and Lucinda R. Backwell The history of a special relationship: prehistoric terminology and lithic technology between the French and South African research traditions Nathan Schlanger Essential attributes of any technologically competent animal Charles K. Brain Significant tools and signifying monkeys: the question of body techniques and elementary actions on matter among apes and early hominids Frdric Joulian Tools and brains: which came first? Phillip V. Tobias Environmental changes and hominid evolution: what the vegetation tells us Marion K. Bamford Implications of the presence of African ape-like teeth in the Miocene of Kenya Martin Pickford and Brigitte Senut Dawn of hominids: understanding the ape-hominid dichotomy Brigitte Senut The impact of new excavations from the Cradle of Humankind on our understanding of the evolution of hominins and their cultures Lee R. Berger Stone Age signatures in northernmost South Africa: early archaeology in the Mapungubwe National Park and vicinity Kathleen Kuman, Ryan Gibbon, Helen Kempson, Geeske Langejans,Joel Le Baron, Luca Pollarolo and Morris Sutton Vertebral column, bipedalism and freedom of the hands Dominique Gommery Characterising early Homo: cladistic, morphological and metrical analyses of the original Plio-Pleistocene specimens Sandrine Prat Early Homo, robust australopithecines and stone tools at Kromdraai, South Africa Francis Thackeray and Jos Braga The origin of bone tool technology and the identification of early hominid cultural traditions Lucinda Backwell and Francesco dErrico Contribution of genetics to the study of human origins Himla Soodyall and Trefor Jenkins An overview of the patterns of behavioural change in Africa and Eurasia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene Nicholas J. Conard From the tropics to the colder climates: contrasting faunal exploitation adaptations of modern humans and Neanderthals Curtis W. Marean New neighbours: interaction and image-making during the West European Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition David Lewis-Williams Late Mousterian lithic technology: its implications for the pace of the emergence of behavioural modernity and the relationship between behavioural modernity and biological modernity Marie Soressi Exploring and quantifying technological differences between the MSA I, MSA II and Howiesons Poort at Klasies River Sarah Wurz Stratigraphic integrity of the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave Christopher Henshilwood Testing and demonstrating the stratigraphic integrity of artefacts from MSA deposits at Blombos Cave, South Africa Zenobia Jacobs From tool to symbol: the behavioural context of intentionally marked ostrich eggshell from Diepkloof, Western Cape John Parkington, Cedric Poggenpoel, Jean-Philippe Rigaud and Pierre-Jean Texier Chronology of the Howiesons Poort and Still Bay techno-complexes: assessment and new data from luminescence Chantal Tribolo, Norbert Mercier and Hlne Valladas Subsistence strategies in the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu Cave: the microscopic evidence from stone tool residues Bonny S. Williamson Speaking with beads: the evolutionary significance of personal ornaments Marian Vanhaeren Personal names index Subject index