ABSTRACT
[Abstract: This chapter reviews evidence for hafting and production of composite tools in the Palaeolithic record. Archaeologists tend to study stone tools as complete and self-contained objects, when we often know that they were just parts of much larger and more complex implements. Making composite tools as simple as a sharp stone flake fastened to a wooden handle entails higher levels of procedural complexity and greater cognitive challenges than does the production of all but the most elaborate stone artefacts. Current evidence suggests that hominins began experimenting with simple forms of hafting in the second half of the Middle Pleistocene, starting ca. 500,000 years ago. Hafting had become geographically widespread and ubiquitous, if not common, by the beginning of the Upper Pleistocene. Evidence for hafting as well as for preparing mastics and other elements of multi-part tools is increasingly common over the course of the Upper Pleistocene. This reflects both greater emphasis on composite implements by ancient humans and better preservation of fragile evidence. The rapid and near-global expansion of microlithic (bladelet- and micro-blade-based) technological strategies around MIS 2 represents the apogee in development of multi-part tools during the Palaeolithic.]
