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Area of Science:

  • Archaeological science
  • Cognitive archaeology
  • Paleoanthropology

Background:

  • Technological complexity in the archaeological record is used to infer behavior and cognition in hominins.
  • Birch bark tar production is a key technology debated in the context of Neanderthal cognition.
  • The 'condensation technique' offers a plausible method for Neanderthals to produce birch bark tar, but scaling it is crucial for innovation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how scaling up the birch tar production process influences its technological complexity.
  • To quantitatively assess the cognitive implications of scaling up Palaeolithic technologies.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized Petri net models to represent the technological process of birch tar production.
  • Applied the Extended Cyclomatic Metric to quantify system complexity.
  • Compared the complexity of single versus multiple concurrent condensation assemblies for tar production.

Main Results:

  • Scaling up birch tar production by increasing concurrent assemblies substantially increases measured system complexity.
  • The complexity of the technological process is sensitive to the number of concurrent production units.

Conclusions:

  • Increased technological complexity in scaled-up birch tar production suggests higher cognitive demands for Neanderthals.
  • Potential implications include the need for enhanced cooperation, planning, and inhibition control in Neanderthals.
  • This study provides a quantitative approach to understanding the cognitive evolution of hominins through technological scaling.