NeanderCloud: New and old technologies to understand past human tool technology, design and use

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Andreas Hildebrandt; Professor Dr. Joao Marreiros
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 524670940

During the Pleistocene, stone tools were essential to the survival of hominins. Hence, the emergence and changes of past human technologies provide fundamental insights into early hominin behaviour and have been seen as a combination of cultural traits but also human technological adaptations and innovations. The understanding of the relation between production, design, function, and actual use of the huge variety of stone tools in the archaeological record, and their change over time and space, is fundamental. Therefore, research that combines studies on tool design and use at different scales of analysis are crucial. This understanding can have a major impact on questions related to the use-life history of a tool, including technological strategies, tool maintenance, resharpening and recycling mechanisms, but also on the nature of human decisionmaking processes. These mechanisms can only be addressed when aspects of tool technology, design and use are combined. While such complementary approach has so far not been achieved in archaeological research, the NeanderCloud project aims to achieve major developments in this investigation. Building upon a proof-ofconcept study, the research will focus on the investigation of the Late Middle Palaeolithic (LMP) asymmetric tools, so-called Keilmesser, in order to understand their origin, nature and pre-eminence within the LMP industries in Central and Eastern Europe. This project aims to answer questions such as: • Were Keilmesser task-specific tools or multifunctionally used by Neanderthals? • Did Neanderthals optimise the design of their tools and/or was this a consequence of technocultural conventions? • What can the different aspects of tool design and use tell us about the processes of knowledge, learning and transmission in the past hominin populations? Through a multi-scale analysis this study aims at a unique agenda that combines methods such as techno-typological and material properties studies, use-wear analysis and controlled experiments. This constellation and combination of data requires a statistical tool that will provide a transparent and reproducible workflow for the data analysis and data modelling. Building on an interrelated collaboration between archaeological research and computer science, the obtained data will be modelled using Deep learning and Bayesian computer techniques. The resulting computational tool, following FAIR principles of big data set management, will be available for other researchers. Results will be used as a proxy to interpret the archaeological record, and, therefore, contribute to the understating of how and why technological behaviours took place in earlier populations, and how people were able to survive and thrive based on their technological traditions, innovations, and novelties. This will significantly contribute to the recognition and interpretation of different traits in the evolution and expansion of Human Behaviour.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants