Testing Retouched Flake Tool Standardization During the Middle Paleolithic: Patterns and Implications

It has long been claimed that retouched flake tools become more standardized throughout the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Since stone tool standardization has been linked to cognitive abilities, specifically, to the presence of mental templates, the implications of an increase in standardization throughout this time period are that hominid cognitive abilities, including language, became more developed. Such an increase in standardization during this span of time has never been verified empirically, however. In addition, there is reason to question the link between lithic artifact standardization and hominid cognitive abilities. The purpose of this paper is therefore two-fold: first, to empirically test the notion that stone tools become more standardized throughout the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene, and second, to explore potential causes of standardization more parsimonious than the deliberate imposition of arbitrary form. The results for the first part show no significant increases in standardization among retouched stone tools at three French sites spanning the late Middle and early Upper Pleistocene. The second part yields an interesting new hypothesis regarding circumstances which may lead to standardization among retouched tools, and helps explain why standardization seems to be so much more common after the start of the Upper Paleolithic.