Uluzzian bone technology and its implications for the origin of behavioural modernity Francesco d’Errico a, b, * , Valentina Borgia c , Annamaria Ronchitelli c a UMR-CNRS 5199 PACEA, Equipe Préhistoire, Paléoenvironnement, Patrimoine, Université Bordeaux I, Avenue des Facultés, F-33405 Talence, France b Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa c Università degli Studi di Siena, Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali “G. Sarfatti”, U.R. Ecologia Preistorica, Via Tommaso Pendola 62, 53100 Siena, Italy article info Article history: Available online xxx abstract Analysis was conducted of the fourteen bone tools found in the Uluzzian layers of Grotta della Cala, Grotta del Cavallo, and Grotta di Castelcivita, Italy. Technological and functional study of these objects identifies recurrent morphologies, manufacturing techniques, use-wear features and intensity demon- strating previously undocumented patterns in the production and use of bone tools assigned to the Uluzzian. Comparisons with bone tools from other Early Upper Palaeolithic technocomplexes highlight similarities suggesting that the production of formal bone tools was clearly in the realm of Uluzzian and Châtelperronian cognition. Implications of these results for the debate on the origin of behavioural modernity are discussed. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The production of bone and ivory implements with techniques specifically conceived for these materials, such as scraping, grinding, grooving, and polishing, is generally considered to be a feature associated with modern human behaviour and advanced cognition (Mellars, 1973; Klein, 2000; McBrearty and Brooks, 2000; Henshilwood and Marean, 2003; d’Errico et al., 2003b). A reason for this widespread view is that the final shape of a bone tool manu- factured with these techniques can be accomplished with a high degree of accuracy, which makes “formal” (Klein, 2000) bone tools particularly appropriate for inferring the degree of standardisation and complexity of a technical system. Another reason is that ethnographically-documented complex societies are generally characterised by complex technical systems involving the production of tools from a range of raw materials. These, in turn, imply a diversified strategy of raw material acquisi- tion, and the possible emergence of craft specialisation and increased complexity in social roles. A third, more important, reason for linking social and cognitive complexity with the presence of bone tools is historical. For much of the 20th century, elaborated bone tools were seen as a technological innovation directly stemming from the spread of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) across Europe at the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic and strictly associated with a panoply of critical inventions that followed this peopling event (cave and mobile art, personal ornaments, blade technology, complex funerary practices, musical traditions, etc.). Upper Palaeolithic bone industries were used, in this framework, to support the scenario of a cognitive revolution occurring in Europe at ca. 40 ka BP. The discovery of bone awls and probable projectile points at a number of Still Bay (Henshilwood et al., 2001, 2002; d’Errico and Henshilwood, 2007) and Howieson Poort (Backwell et al., 2008) sites in South Africa, securely dated to between 75 ka and 60 ka BP, has challenged this view but not the significance attributed to this category of material culture. The early appearance of bone tools in the African Middle Stone Age has become, together with that of pigments, engravings, and personal ornaments, a leitmotiv to support the so called Out- of-Africa scenario (McBrearty and Brooks, 2000), which postu- lates a causal connection between the origin of our species in Africa around 200,000 years ago and a gradual emergence of modern cultures on that continent. In this context, bone tools have been interpreted as a significant behavioural corollary of the emergence of AMH in Africa. A number of studies, however, have highlighted that if the Out- of-Africa scenario holds true and such cultural innovations are the outcome of a higher level of cognition granted to our species by a speciation event, they should not be found associated with archaic populations outside Africa. Such an expectation is contradicted by the fact that a number of behaviours considered as significant by * Corresponding author. UMR-CNRS 5199 PACEA, Equipe Préhistoire, Paléo- environnement, Patrimoine, Université Bordeaux I, Avenue des Facultés, F-33405 Talence, France. E-mail addresses: f.derrico@pacea.u-bordeaux1.fr (F. d’Errico), valentinaborgia@ hotmail.com (V. Borgia), ronchitelli@unisi.it (A. Ronchitelli). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint 1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.039 Quaternary International xxx (2011) 1e13 Please cite this article in press as: d’Errico, F., et al., Uluzzian bone technology and its implications for the origin of behavioural modernity, Quaternary International (2011), doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.039