Edited by Christopher S. Henshilwood and Francesco d'Errico
The emergence of symbolic culture, classically identified with the European cave paintings of the Ice Age, is now seen, in the light of recent groundbreaking discoveries, as a complex nonlinear process taking root in a remote past and in different regions of the planet. In this book the… read more
Edited by Francesco d'Errico and Jean-Marie Hombert
Few topics of scientific enquiry have attracted more attention in the last decade than the origin and evolution of language. Few have offered an equivalent intellectual challenge for interdisciplinary collaborations between linguistics, cognitive science, prehistoric archaeology,… read more
Archaeological evidence associated with modern cognitive abilities provides important insights into when and where modern human behaviour emerged. Modern human behaviour here means the thoughts and actions spontaneously shaped by minds equivalent to those of Homo sapiens today. Key among these is… read more
The aim of this paper is to summarize what we do know about the origin of symbolic material cultures in Africa and Eurasia, and explore paths that could allow us to move from a situation in which the same evidence is accounted for by antagonistic scenarios to a research strategy that may produce,… read more
In this paper we recall the arguments put forward in an attempt to link language origins and specific elements of the fossil record (pigment use, burial practices, personal ornaments, production of depictions and carvings, musical traditions, various anatomical features), and summarise the… read more
