The lithic industry of Lomekwi in Kenya. Technological and biomechanical experimentation

Conference

Published on

09 November 2018

Updated on

03 February 2021

Colloquia

Human being ? An archeology of the origins

International conference, Friday 9 and Saturday 10 November 2018, at the Muséum de Toulouse.

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International conference "Human being ? An archeology of the origins" by Michel Brenet, Inrap

The ARCHOR project is dedicated to the origin of Homininae technology, between 3.3 and 1.7 Ma, based on the data collected near Lake Turkana in Kenya. The objective is to study the cognitive and motor capacities of the first Homininae at the time of emergence and during the first evolutionary stages of a new and unique behaviour among primates: the manufacture of stone tools. For several years, experiments in lithic production were conducted under this programme, in accordance with a very complex protocol for recording technological, cognitive and biomechanical data.

A design engineer, Michel Brenet is in charge of operations at INRAP. He is also a member of the PACEA/UMR 5199 Laboratory at CNRS (Bordeaux, France), a graduate of EHESS (Paris) and holds PhD in Prehistory at the University of Bordeaux 1.

He has recently participated in archaeological research programmes in France (Middle Palaeolithic, Solutrean), Kenya (Lomekwien) and Ethiopia (Oldowayen).

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michel_Brenet

https://inrap.academia.edu/MBrenet

Bibliography

Harmand S., Lewis J. E,. Feibel C.,. Lepre C. J., Prat S., Lenoble A., Boës X., Quinn R., Brenet M., Arroyo A., Taylor N.; Clément S., Daver G., Brugal J. P., Leakey L., Kent D. V., Mortlock R. A., Wright James D., and Roche H. 2016. 3.3 million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521, 310–315 (21 May 2015).
Lewis J. E., Harmand S. 2016. An earlier origin for stone tool making: implications for cognitive evolution and the transition to Homo . Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 371: 20150233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.023 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303958516
Domalain Mathieu, Bertin A. Daver G. 2016. Was Australopithecus afarensis able to make the Lomekwian stone tools? Towards a realistic biomechanical simulation of hand force capability in fossil hominins and new insights on the role of the fifth digit. C. R. Palevol (2016). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309957359