20.05.2025 Nicholas Conard

Abstract: Archeology is a unique field for providing us reliable, direct observations about the lifeways of past hominins. Archaeological findings thus play a cental role in establishing how the behavior of the genus Homo evolved. This paper discusses the material culture of the Eurasian Lower, Middle and Upper Paleolithic as well as examples from the African Stone Age to illuminate the history of our species and the evolution of symbolic communication and language. I argue that temporal displacement with considerable planning depth is well-documented by late Lower Paleolithic and that by Aurignacian of the early Upper Paleolithic, people commanded a wide range of symbolic behaviors and were in every way cognitively like ourselves.