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Middle Paleolithic
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==Technology== [[File:Wikiartifact-page-001.jpg|thumb|200px|This is a drawing of a replica of an [[Acheulean]] [[hand-axe]] found during the [[Lower Paleolithic]] period. The tool in this drawing is made of black [[obsidian]] and is worked on both sides.]] Around 200,000 BP Middle Paleolithic [[Stone tool]] manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the [[Levallois technique]] or [[prepared-core technique]], that was more elaborate than previous [[Acheulean]] techniques.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hu |first1=Yue |last2=Marwick |first2=Ben |last3=Zhang |first3=Jia-Fu |last4=Rui |first4=Xue |last5=Hou |first5=Ya-Mei |last6=Yue |first6=Jian-Ping |last7=Chen |first7=Wen-Rong |last8=Huang |first8=Wei-Wen |last9=Li |first9=Bo |title=Late Middle Pleistocene Levallois stone-tool technology in southwest China |journal=Nature |volume=565 |issue=7737 |pages=82–85 |date=19 November 2018 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0710-1 |pmid=30455423|s2cid=53873016 }}</ref><ref name="Archived">[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394/Human_Evolution.html "Human Evolution," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007]. Microsoft Corporation. Contributed by Richard B. Potts. [https://web.archive.org/web/20040203063358/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394/Human_Evolution.html Archived] 2009-11-01.</ref> Wallace and Shea split the core artifacts into two different types: formal cores and expedient cores. Formal cores are designed to extract the maximum amount from the raw material while expedient cores are based more upon functional need.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wallace|first1=Ian|last2=Shea|first2=John|title=Mobility patterns and core technologies in the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science|date=2006|doi=10.1016/j.jas.2006.01.005|volume=33|issue=9|pages=1293–1309|bibcode=2006JArSc..33.1293W }}</ref> This method increased efficiency by permitting the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes.<ref name="Archived"/> This method allowed Middle Paleolithic humans correspondingly to create stone-tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. Paleolithic groups such as the [[Neanderthals]] who possessed a Middle Paleolithic level of technology appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans<ref name=Parson2006>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0125_060125_neanderthal.html |title=Neandertals Hunted as Well as Humans, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Ann Parson |access-date=2008-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003230240/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0125_060125_neanderthal.html |archive-date=2011-10-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Boëda | first1 = E. | last2 = Geneste | first2 = J.M. | last3 = Griggo | first3 = C. | last4 = Mercier | first4 = N. | last5 = Muhesen | first5 = S. | last6 = Reyss | first6 = J.L. | last7 = Taha | first7 = A. | last8 = Valladas | first8 = H. | year = 1999 | title = A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): Hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting | journal = Antiquity | volume = 73 | pages = 394–402 | doi = 10.1017/S0003598X00088335 | s2cid = 163560577 }}</ref> Nonetheless Neanderthal usage of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and the Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by [[ambush]]ing them and attacking them with mêlée weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectile weapons.<ref name="Hillary Mayell"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4251299.stm |title=The icy truth behind Neanderthals |work=[[BBC News]] |author=Cameron Balbirnie |access-date=2008-04-01 |date=2005-02-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811234525/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4251299.stm |archive-date=2011-08-11 |url-status=live }}</ref> An ongoing controversy about the nature of Middle Paleolithic tools is whether there were a series of functionally specific and preconceived tool forms or whether there was a simple continuum of tool morphology that reflect the extent of edge maintenance, as [[Harold L. Dibble]] has suggested.<ref name=Dibble>{{cite journal | last1 = Dibble | first1 = H.L. | year = 1995 | title = Middle paleolithic scraper reduction: Background, clarification, and review of the evidence to date | journal = Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory | volume = 2 | issue = 4| pages = 299–368 | doi = 10.1007/bf02229003 | s2cid = 143516307 }}</ref> The use of fire became widespread for the first time in human prehistory during the Middle Paleolithic, and humans began to cook their food c. 250,000 years ago.<ref name=Thoth&Schick>{{cite book |title=Handbook of Paleoanthropology |author=Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick |chapter=21 Overview of Paleolithic Archeology |year=2007 |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |isbn=978-3-540-32474-4 |page=1963 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-33761-4_64 }}</ref><ref name=Wrangham>{{cite journal|last1=Wrangham|first1=Richard|last2=Conklin-Brittain|first2=NancyLou|title=Cooking as a biological trait|journal=Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A|date=September 2003|volume=136|issue=1|pages=35–46|doi=10.1016/S1095-6433(03)00020-5|url=http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/alvard/anth630/reading/Week%208%20Diet%20tubers/Wrangham%20and%20Conklin-Brittain%202003.pdf|access-date=5 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050519215539/http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/alvard/anth630/reading/Week%208%20Diet%20tubers/Wrangham%20and%20Conklin-Brittain%202003.pdf|archive-date=19 May 2005|pmid=14527628}}</ref> Some scientists have hypothesized that hominids began cooking food to defrost frozen meat which would help ensure their survival in cold regions.<ref name="Wrangham"/> [[Robert K. Wayne]], a molecular biologist, has controversially claimed, based on a comparison of canine DNA, that dogs may have been first domesticated during the Middle Paleolithic around or even before 100,000 BCE.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1997/151-26/15126-11.pdf|title= stalking the ancient dog|work= Science news|author= Christine mellot|access-date= 2008-03-01|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110629165058/http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1997/151-26/15126-11.pdf|archive-date= 2011-06-29|url-status= live}}</ref>
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