Acheulian Cognition and Behavior at Gesher Benot YA‘AQOV

Abstract The long sequence of lake-shore occupations of the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya‛aqov (MIS 18–20) includes extremely rich sequential archaeological horizons spanning ca. 50 Ka and dated to 0.79 Mya. During the last three decades the behavior of the Gesher Benot Ya‛aqov (GBY) Acheulian hominins was investigated through a plethora of multidisciplinary archaeological studies. These repeatedly revealed aspects associated with behavioral modernity, indicated by systematic butchering, elaborated plant processing, advanced lithic expertise, hafting, and spatial organization. Through a synthesis of previous studies, this chapter formulates an overall cognitive framework for Acheulian behavior at the site, attempting to identify the cognitive traits that enabled this behavior. To do so, the chapter draws parallels between cognitive traits, well defined by cognitive science, and diverse activities inferred from archaeological finds at GBY. These parallels suggest that the Acheulian hominins of GBY carried out tasks that necessitated a chain of steps, performed at different times in different places, requiring them to arrange their memories in sequential time (i.e., sequential memory). Hominins were able to acknowledge a variety of lithic, faunal, and floral resources, even when these were not physically present (i.e., displaced reference). The acquisition and transportation of resources for later manipulation and sharing required delayed gratification (i.e., inhibition). In addition, the chapter suggests that the accumulated knowledge of the GBY hominins was acquired through their ability to operate (“move” subjectively and fluidly) between past and future events (i.e., autonoesis). The integration and contemporaneity of these characteristics suggest that cognitive traits associated with modern cognition were already possessed by Acheulian hominins as early as early Middle Pleistocene.