Pleistocene Exchange Networks as Evidence for the Evolution of Language

duction sequences. The model focuses on the relationship between hominid communication systems and the ability of hominid groups to exploit resources. Using raw-material movement data as a parallel inquiry into the emergence of modern human abilities such as language it is possible to refine and strengthen the argument for the emergence of modern human behaviours in Africa sometime before 100,000 years ago. Distances of raw-material transfer are compared from African and European sites between 2.5 million to 20,000 years ago. An ‘occurrence’ of a rawmaterial transfer is defined by one or more associated artefacts made from a raw material that can be sourced to a specific location. For example, one occurrence can be a single chert artefact that is sourced to an outcrop 5 km away, or several hundred pieces of obsidian in the same stratigraphic context that can be sourced to an outcrop 40 km away. I define language as communication that involves syntax, use of arbitrary bi-directional symbols and expression of displacement (Aiello 1998, 23). Syntax is the hierarchical structuring of words or phrases within sentences so that relationships between multiple subjects Ben Marwick