Part of
Becoming Eloquent: Advances in the emergence of language, human cognition, and modern culturesEdited by Francesco d'Errico and Jean-Marie Hombert
[Not in series 152] 2009
► pp. 13–68
Edited by Francesco d'Errico and Jean-Marie Hombert
[Not in series 152] 2009
► pp. 13–68
From the origin of language to the diversification of languages
What can archaeology and palaeoanthropology say?
In this paper we recall the arguments put forward in an attempt to link language origins and specific elements of the fossil record (pigment use, burial practices, personal ornaments, production of depictions and carvings, musical traditions, various anatomical features), and summarise the scenarios proposed by palaeoanthropologists and archaeologists to account for the emergence of modern behavioral traits. This review challenges the idea of a strict link between biological and behavioural change and suggests that modern cognition and language are results of a gradual, complex and non-linear process to whose advancement different human populations and possibly a number of fossil human species have contributed.
Cited by
Cited by 16 other publications
Acosta, Alejandro Alberto, Natacha Buc, Mariano Ramírez, Francisco Prevosti & Daniel Loponte
2015. Producción y uso de objetos ornamentales elaborados sobre dientes de carnívoros en contextos arqueológicos del Humedal del Paraná Inferior. Revista del Museo de Antropología ► pp. 33 ff. 
Backwell, Lucinda & Francesco d’Errico
2016. Osseous Projectile Weaponry from Early to Late Middle Stone Age Africa. In Osseous Projectile Weaponry [Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology, ], ► pp. 15 ff.
Botha, Rudolf
2020. Neanderthal Language,
Costa, Mafalda, Pedro Barrulas, Maria da Conceição Lopes, João Barreira, Maria da Piedade de Jesus, Sónia da Silva Domingos, Peter Vandenabeele & José Mirão
2023. Personal adornments in West-Central Africa—the case study of a talc bead from the Kongo Kingdom (Mbanza Kongo, Angola). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 15:3
d'Errico, Francesco & Chris B. Stringer
2011. Evolution, revolution or saltation scenario for the emergence of modern cultures?. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366:1567 ► pp. 1060 ff.
Dubreuil, Laure & Dani Nadel
2015. The development of plant food processing in the Levant: insights from use-wear analysis of Early Epipalaeolithic ground stone tools. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370:1682 ► pp. 20140357 ff.
Dubreuil, Laure, Daniel Savage, Selina Delgado-Raack, Hugues Plisson, Birgitta Stephenson & Ignacio de la Torre
2015. Current Analytical Frameworks for Studies of Use–Wear on Ground Stone Tools. In Use-Wear and Residue Analysis in Archaeology [Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique, ], ► pp. 105 ff.
Frank, Roslyn M.
2021. Exploring the Evolutionary Pathways from Number Sense to Numeracy. In Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution, ► pp. 481 ff.
García-Diez, Marcos & Blanca Ochoa
2020. Art Origins: The Emergence of Graphic Symbolism. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, ► pp. 1 ff.
García-Diez, Marcos & Blanca Ochoa
2020. Art Origins: The Emergence of Graphic Symbolism. In Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, ► pp. 986 ff.
Johansson, Sverker
2014. The thinking Neanderthals: What do we know about Neanderthal cognition?. WIREs Cognitive Science 5:6 ► pp. 613 ff.
Johansson, Sverker
2015. Language Abilities in Neanderthals. Annual Review of Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 311 ff.
Majkić, Ana, Francesco d’Errico, Stefan Milošević, Dušan Mihailović & Vesna Dimitrijević
2018. Sequential Incisions on a Cave Bear Bone from the Middle Paleolithic of Pešturina Cave, Serbia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 25:1 ► pp. 69 ff.
Peterson, Jeffrey V., Ann Marie Thornburg, Marc Kissel, Christopher Ball & Agustín Fuentes
2018. Semiotic Mechanisms Underlying Niche Construction. Biosemiotics 11:2 ► pp. 181 ff.
Ruck, Lana M. & Natalie T. Uomini
2021. Artifact, Praxis, Tool, and Symbol. In Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution, ► pp. 645 ff.
Salagnon, M, F d’Errico, S Rigaud & E Mellet
2024. Assigning a social status from face adornments: an fMRI study. Brain Structure and Function
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