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The transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Palaeolithic represents a critical threshold in human evolution when archaic behaviour patterns gave way to the Levallois stone tool technology that characterizes later Pleistocene hominins including Homo neanderthalensis and early Homo sapiens. This article examines that transition through a comparative perspective on handaxes and cleavers (collectively referred to here as bifaces) from the site of Bhimbetka in central India. The Bhimbetka bifaces are compared to those from Patpara, another transitional assemblage in central India, as well as non-transitional Indian Acheulean assemblages. Bhimbetka and Patpara share unusually refined bifaces. While this refinement is attributed to invasive flaking at Patpara, at Bhimbetka it appears to be related to the ability to strike large thin flake blanks. These both have consequences for biface symmetry, with Patpara handaxes being particularly symmetrical in profile, while Bhimbetka cleavers are particularly symmetrical in section. Unlike Patpara, most of the Bhimbetka bifaces have not undergone resharpening. However, cleavers from the two sites do share unusually high rates of damage on their bits and the occasional use of cleavers as notches. It is argued that, while the transition at the two sites occurred independently, it was underpinned by the same cognitive pattern: an increased capacity for hierarchical organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic transition is one of the most important technological changes that occurs over the course of human evolution. Here we examine stone artefact assemblages from Patpara and two other excavated sites in the Middle Son Valley, India, which show a mosaic of attributes associated with Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic industries. The bifaces from these sites are very refined and generally small, but also highly variable in size. A strong relationship between flake scar density and biface size indicates extensive differential resharpening. There are relatively low proportions of bifaces at these sites, with more emphasis on small flake tools struck from recurrent Levallois cores. The eventual demise of large bifaces may be attributed to the curation of small prepared cores from which sharper, or more task-specific flakes were struck. Levallois technology appears to have arisen out of adapting aspects of handaxe knapping, including shaping of surfaces, the utilization of two inter-dependent surfaces, and the striking of invasive thinning flakes. The generativity, hierarchical organization of action, and recursion evident in recurrent Levallois technology may be attributed to improvements in working memory. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]