부산대학교 도서관

Bilateral symmetry in handaxes has significant implications for hominin cognitive and socio-behavioural evolution. Here the authors show that high levels of symmetry occur in the British Late Middle Pleistocene Acheulean, which they consider to be a deliberate, socially mediated act. Furthermore, they argue that lithic technology in general, and handaxes in particular, were part of a pleasure-reward system linked to dopamine-releasing neurons in the brain. Making handaxes made Acheidean hominins happy, and one particularly pleasing property was symmetry. Keywords: Great Britain, Palaeolithic, handaxes, symmetry, pleasure-reward
Introduction Handaxes are the definitive tool of the Acheulean techno-complex, made by at least three species of Homo over ~1.4 million years, and across much of Africa and Eurasia. Their [...]