Callum Wilson

Biography	Academic background MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology (University College London), dissertation: A Reappraisal of the Kent’s Cavern handaxes* BA Hons Archaeology (Durham) Research topic A 3D geometric morphometric analysis of Acheulean handaxes of northern France Abstract: Since the 1980s there has developed a near consensus among Anglophone archaeologist that no cultural patterning exists in the Lower Palaeolithic record; variation in space and time being explained as a result of raw materials, resharpening, or site function. Recent advances in correlating the Pleistocene terrestrial record with the climatic fluctuations evident in the marine isotope curve, however, have shown that we have perhaps been too hasty in dismissing any notion of cultural patterns. My project seeks to determine whether chrono-cultural patterns in stone tool morphology, as recently identified in the Lower Palaeolithic archive of Britain, can be detected in northern France. The project will re-examine historical French collections alongside modern geological research to collate a statistically significant sample of stone tools from assemblages spanning the period 600-300,000 years ago. This will be interrogated to answer: •Whether technological and 3-D morphometric analyses can identify diagnostic types and assemblages. •Whether chronological and geographical variation of Acheulean handaxes can be observed at the marine isotope sub-stage level; and if not why not? *Later adapted for publication: Wilson, C., Pope, M. and Shipton, C., 2024. Revisiting the handaxes of Kent's Cavern. Quaternary International, 685, pp.1-13.
Research Interests	•Lower Palaeolithic archaeology •Lithic technology •Middle Pleistocene environments and hominin societies •Site formation processes •Pleistocene hominin cognition

Biography

Academic background

MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology (University College London), dissertation: A Reappraisal of the Kent’s Cavern handaxes*

BA Hons Archaeology (Durham)

Research topic

A 3D geometric morphometric analysis of Acheulean handaxes of northern France

Abstract:

Since the 1980s there has developed a near consensus among Anglophone archaeologist that no cultural patterning exists in the Lower Palaeolithic record; variation in space and time being explained as a result of raw materials, resharpening, or site function. Recent advances in correlating the Pleistocene terrestrial record with the climatic fluctuations evident in the marine isotope curve, however, have shown that we have perhaps been too hasty in dismissing any notion of cultural patterns.

My project seeks to determine whether chrono-cultural patterns in stone tool morphology, as recently identified in the Lower Palaeolithic archive of Britain, can be detected in northern France. The project will re-examine historical French collections alongside modern geological research to collate a statistically significant sample of stone tools from assemblages spanning the period 600-300,000 years ago. This will be interrogated to answer:

•Whether technological and 3-D morphometric analyses can identify diagnostic types and assemblages.
•Whether chronological and geographical variation of Acheulean handaxes can be observed at the marine isotope sub-stage level; and if not why not?

*Later adapted for publication:
Wilson, C., Pope, M. and Shipton, C., 2024. Revisiting the handaxes of Kent's Cavern. Quaternary International, 685, pp.1-13.

Research Interests

•Lower Palaeolithic archaeology
•Lithic technology
•Middle Pleistocene environments and hominin societies
•Site formation processes
•Pleistocene hominin cognition