2025-2029
Project
HOMTECH
HOMinin TECHnology : Cognition,
motricity and behavior of
the first stone-tool makers
Funding
HOMTECH is a collaborative project funded by the French National Agency for Research, 2018-2023.
Aims
The HOMTECH project aims, on the one hand, to determine the extent to which stone tool manufacture is a defining characteristic of the human genus and, on the other hand, to gain a better understanding of the nature of the evolutionary processes involved throughout its evolution.
Some results
The project was developed on the basis of results obtained from a previous ANR-funded project (ARCHOR – led by S. Harmand, Stony Brook University), during which numerous stone tool replication experiments were carried out. The results show that the hand constraints and body postures systematically tested during these experimental sessions are consistent with the archaeological and anthropological evidence currently available for the period spanning the late Pliocene to the earliest phases of the Pleistocene.
Consortium
The HOMTECH consortium brings together the HNHP team (UPVD/MNHN) and PALEVOPRIM (scientific lead partner), along with seven other institutions/research teams, involving around twelve researchers. Within this framework, field missions (particularly in Kenya), experiments on extant models, and numerous study visits to museums in Europe and Africa will be conducted.
