On Planning and Curated Technologies in the Middle Paleolithic

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Abstract
The importance of planning or anticipatory organization in the technologies of archaic hominids has recently come under much scrutiny. Among modern populations, the extent to which technologies are planned depends on a variety of factors external to and internal to the cultural system, including the distribution of raw materials and settlement mobility. While data on the European Mousterian suggest that the manufacture and maintenance of tools were planned to a limited degree, evidence of truly long-term projection of needs is sparse. Most of the extant information is insufficient to evaluate whether these facts directly implicate the capacities of Mousterian hominids or whether they reflect the operation of independent factors that rendered more complex forms of planning unnecessary or impractical. Studies of a series of Italian Paleolithic sites employing independent data to control for the contexts of stone tool manufacture and use suggest that apparent differences in technological planning among Middle and late Upper Paleolithic populations in that region may be explicable in terms of contrasting patterns of land use.

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