ARCHOR

ARCHOR project falls within "Axe 1" of the ANR CULT. This project seeks to reconstruct the genesis of hominin technology as far back as 3 Ma and beyond. This multidisciplinary project will use the extremely rich field data collected by the West Turkana Archaeological Project in Northern Kenya, including the recent discovery (2011) of a stone tool assemblage securely dated at 3.1 Ma (LOM3), which thus represents the oldest archaeological site ever found yet. The goal is to study early hominids cognitive competence and motor skill exactly at the time of the emergence and the first evolutionary steps of a new and unique behaviour among primates: the making of stone tools. In our field of research, this behaviour developed among fossil hominids for which we cannot refer to any living example. The approach for studying the mind of these modern humans ancestors necessarily goes through a technological analysis of their lithic production, using the chaîne opératoire concept as a tool for analysis. We will also try to define what have been the environmental and paleoanthropological conditions which have favored the emergence of such a new behaviour, more than 3 Ma ago in the Turkana Basin. Thus, beyond its first goal which is to elucidate the technological steps which have led some hominids to specific evolution paths, it also contributes to illustrate the impact of global climatic changes on human evolution and to demonstrate the possible ways hominids have chosen to answer the environmental changes. As LOM3 marks the beginning of the archaeological record, some most fundamental questions must be asked anew. How, when, and why did stone tool manufacture and use originate? Did the earliest stone knapping develop naturally from pre-existing bashing behaviors or did it develop more punctually and directly to flaking for cutting edges? What were the first stone tools used for? Which species were the first stone tool makers? Over the last 15 years, new discoveries and studies have revealed unexpected hominin diversity and the complexity of their evolutionary history, during which different species coexisted at the same time in the same regions. In this context, deciphering the phylogenetic relationships between the various species that existed between 4 and 1.5 Ma, as well as assessing the mode and tempo of the emergence of the genus Homo, is challenging. How did biology, culture and environment interact? Which role did these factors and their interactions play in hominin evolutionary history? The emergence of manipulative skills is also still debated and identifying "When stone tool-making, human-like precision grip capabilities emerged" is crucial to the understanding of origins of technology and hominisation processes and one of the ARCHOR goals. The search for the emergence and evolution of the first techno-cultural assemblages and the conditions of this emergence is shared by several teams working in different parts of the world, but essentially within the Great Rift Valley in Eastern Africa. However no where else than in West Turkana there is an archaeological record having the following remarkable advantages: (1) it bears the oldest site ever found and the oldest Acheulean site (dated at 1.76 Ma); these two sites will be the terminus ante and post quem of ARCHOR project studies; (2) a large number of sites are distributed all along a sequence ranging from more than 3 Ma to 0.7 Ma; it garantees a thorough diachronical study, although in this project we will limit our time period study to its oldest part, the Oldowan; (3) it bears several Early Oldowan sites among the world oldest (at 2.3 Ma) and a large number of Oldowan sites (1.8 Ma), which guarantees a good synchronic perspective. We thus do think we have the best securely dated data record one can expect for the research domain we want to further explore.