Student profiles
Alex Whitehead
Email: hsawhi10@liverpool.ac.uk
Thesis Title
Institution
Supervisors
Prof Antony Sinclair
Prof Jess Pearson
Dr Chris Scott
Research Summary
Handaxes are a complex Stone Age tool and are found in association with butchered animal remains. However, many researchers have questioned why such complex tools appear to be discarded after use, instead of being retained and reused. Therefore, there must have been a functional purpose for discarding a handaxe after a single episode of butchery.
This PhD research investigates experimentally a novel hypothesis on the potential pathogenic properties of Stone Age butchery tools such as handaxes. A handaxe contains numerous microscopic niches along the it’s working-edge, as a consequence of the manufacturing process. During butchery tasks, these microscopic niches are highly likely to become contaminated with animal tissue, which becomes exceptionally difficult to remove using period-appropriate cleaning methods, or even modern laboratory methods.
Given a relatively brief period of time, the animal tissue trapped in the tool will begin to spoil and accumulate harmful bacteria. Therefore, the re-use of a contaminated tool for butchery would create a significant risk of introducing harmful bacteria from the tool into the food, likely resulting in food poisoning. Subsequently, ancient humans likely learned to minimise this risk by discarding each handaxe after a single episode of butchery.
Research Interests
Human Evolution
Hominin Subsistence Strategies
Palaeolithic Technology
Evolutionary Biology & Palaeontology
Pleistocene Environments and Ecology
Publications
Whitehead, A., Sinclair, A., & Scott, C., (2024). Cross-Contamination via Stone Tool Use: A Pilot Study of Bifacial Butchery Tools. EXARC Journal