Stoners
Stone tool shaping without direct cultural transmission
Nolan Ferar et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, March 2026
Abstract:
While environment and biology play important roles, the complexity and variability of human life today depends in many ways on special cultural processes. Terminologies differ, but the key insight is that these processes are required to enable and to produce copies of behavior or artifacts that otherwise lie fully or partly beyond individual reach. Such “know-how copying” has proven rare in the animal kingdom, and is nearly or fully absent in contemporary apes, suggesting an evolution in hominins. It has been claimed that the earliest widely accepted instances of shaped stone artifacts -- handaxes, which appear with the Acheulean (c. 1.9–1.6 Mya) -- must have required know-how copying. The argument holds that the knowledge of how to shape (shaping know-how) handaxes is beyond individual reach in principle. If true, handaxes would be a valid marker for the presence of know-how copying. We tested this specific claim in two complementary studies using the “puppet method,” a new methodology that experimentally disentangles knapping know-how and shaping know-how. Knapping-naïve “puppeteers” were tasked with replicating target shapes by directing the flake removals of an expert “puppet” knapper, who was not shown the target shapes. As a validation of the puppet method, we first tested if knapping-naïve puppeteers could shape glass blanks into novel, non-archaeological shapes (Arbitrary Shape Study). Two types of analyses, a sorting task and geometric morphometric analyses, confirmed that they could. We then tested whether knapping-naïve puppeteers could replicate an Acheulean handaxe target shape in stone by directing the puppet knapper (Handaxe Study). Three expert lithic archaeologists independently classified the outcomes and confirmed that naïve participants successfully created handaxe shapes. Across both studies, our findings indicate that not all shaping know-how requires direct access to cultural models, and this also holds true for handaxe shaping per se. This conclusion aligns with recent calls for a reorientation in the search for the origins of know-how copying in the hominin lineage.
Sourcing the origins of carnelian in early Chinese civilizations
Meiting Yan et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 February 2026
Abstract:
Carnelian beads in high-status burials of the Western Zhou period (ca. 1000–800 BCE) have long been seen as key evidence for long-distance exchange between East Asia and regions to the west, while their geological origins and circulation pathways have remained poorly constrained. Using a newly established geochemical database of 300 geological samples from 27 potential sources across Asia, we conducted trace-element analyses of 11 carnelian beads from the Sanxingdui pits (ca. 1200–1000 BCE), Sichuan Basin, southwest China. Canonical discriminant analysis indicates that the raw materials of these carnelian beads do not primarily derive from south China, but the Yanshan Orogeny, Central Asian Orogenic Belt and some unknown sources that might be close to Hexi Corridor, pointing to raw-material sources located over 1,000 km to the north of the Sichuan Basin. Comparative analyses of contemporaneous beads from Gansu, Shaanxi, and Beijing show similar northern provenance signatures, suggesting a broad and persistent exchange sphere spanning the southern Mongolian Plateau, Loess Plateau, eastern Tibetan Plateau, Central Plains, and Sichuan Basin between 1500–1000 BCE. Our results provide the earliest direct geochemical evidence for long-distance carnelian exchange in Bronze Age China and demonstrate the value of integrating geochemical sourcing with archaeological context to reconstruct ancient interaction networks.
Distant provenance of archaeological dogs in Chiapas confirms complex trade networks within Mayan societies
Elizabeth Paris et al.
Journal of Archaeological Science, March 2026
Abstract:
This study investigates the origin, exchange and diet of archaeological dog specimens of highland Chiapas, located on the western Maya frontier, historically well-known for its overland trade routes and merchant activity. We developed a new strontium isoscape for the Maya area based on random forest regression, using a compilation of bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr from North America augmented by 45 new bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr samples from plants collected in a transect across central Chiapas. We analyzed the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of archaeological specimens of large herbivores and dogs from the Maya archaeological sites of Moxviquil and Tenam Puente radiocarbon-dated to the Middle/Late Classic periods (400–800 CE). At both sites, we found that large herbivores were consistent with a local origin and likely represent locally hunted wild animals. Most dog specimens, however, had 87Sr/86Sr ratios inconsistent with a local origin and δ13C and δ15N values suggestive of distant origins and specialized dietary regimes. Our findings support the existence of broad live animal exchanges during the Classic period between Maya cities extending across the Maya region and reaching highland Chiapas.
Insularity as Cultural Strategy: Mimbres Social Organization in Southwest New Mexico, AD 1000–1130
Sean Dolan
American Antiquity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Whereas some prehispanic societies across North America pursued monumentality, hierarchy, and regional integration, others adopted inward-oriented strategies that fostered cohesion through symbolic containment and household autonomy. Mimbres Classic period (AD 1000–1130) communities in southwestern New Mexico exemplify this alternative trajectory. By situating Mimbres insularity within broader regional developments, this study examines how material practices were mobilized to construct and maintain a culturally bounded world. Drawing on theories of boundary maintenance and ritual sovereignty, I argue that distinctive forms of architecture, painted ceramics, mortuary practices, and regulated interaction localized sacred authority and deliberately limited external connectivity. In contrast to Chaco Canyon’s investments in monumentality and social hierarchy, Mimbres society sustained social coherence through practices rooted in household ritual and symbolic regulation. Crucially, this insularity was neither fixed nor absolute — it emerged in the AD 900s, peaked during the Classic period, and receded after AD 1130 as communities relocated and engaged with new material traditions and regional networks. By tracing this historical arc, this study challenges models that equate social organization with scale or connectivity, demonstrating instead how inward-oriented strategies can produce resilient, if historically contingent, cultural frameworks.
Seabirds shaped the expansion of pre-Inca society in Peru
Jacob Bongers et al.
PLoS ONE, February 2026
Abstract:
This research investigates the influence of seabird guano on agriculture in the Chincha Valley of southern Peru through multi-isotopic, archaeological, and historical data. We conduct stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur analyses of 35 late pre-Hispanic maize (Zea mays) cobs and 11 seabirds from archaeological contexts spanning the late Formative period (c. 200 BCE – 150 CE) to the Colonial period (1532–1825 CE). We report the strongest evidence yet for pre-Inca use of marine fertilizers in Chincha. Isotopic and radiocarbon data corroborate colonial-era records and regional avifauna iconography and assemblages, indicating that Indigenous communities fertilized maize with guano by at least 1250 CE. Maize δ15N values are consistent with archaeological studies on guano manuring in Chile, expanding the known geographical extent of this agricultural practice. Maize δ34S values overlap with experimental field data but are not enriched in 34S, possibly reflecting various environmental and cultural variables. We suggest that seabird guano fertilization played an important role in the sociopolitical and economic expansion of the Chincha Kingdom, and its eventual relationship with the Inca Empire. Our findings carry significant implications for the broader Andes, nuancing understandings of agricultural production in coastal environments while drawing attention to marine fertilizers as a potentially widespread driving force of social change among pre-Hispanic societies.