Kathy Schick

Last updated
Kathy Diane Schick
Kathy schick.jpg
Born (1949-06-06) June 6, 1949 (age 74)
Akron, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley and Kent State
Occupation(s)Paleoanthropologist and archaeologist
Employer Stone Age Institute
Spouse Nicholas Toth

Kathy Diane Schick is an American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist. She is professor emeritus in the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University and is a founder and co-director of the Stone Age Institute. [1] [2] [3] Schick is most well known for her experimental work in taphonomy as well as her experimental work, with Nicholas Toth, on the stone tool technology of Early Stone Age hominins, including their work with the bonobo (“pygmy chimpanzee”) Kanzi who they taught to make and use simple stone tools similar to those made by our Early Stone Age ancestors.

Contents

Early life and education

Schick was born to a middle-class family. Her father was an engraver, who inspired Schick for her interest in crafts and tools as a child. Years after her father’s passing at the age of 10, she began studying paleoanthropology in college, focusing on the study of the human brain’s evolution in relation to culture. [4]

Schick received her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Kent State University in 1974, where she graduated magna cum laude. [5] Schick, at the end of her education, in 1978, had got special training in Flintknapping at the Lithic Technology Fieldschool in Washington State University. [5] [6] After graduating, she became one of the supervisors for the “Ohio dig” during her master’s program at Kent State University. [4] Before attending UC Berkeley, Schick had attended University of Illinois, Chicago in 1980 for training in Lithic Microwear Analysis. [7] She then went on to apply to UC Berkeley to pursue her doctorate’s degree in 1980, which was also where she met her eventual husband, Nicholas Toth, who she married in 1976. [4] She received a PhD in Anthropology, human evolutionary studies, Paleolithic archaeology, and African Prehistory from UC Berkeley. [5] During these years, Schick trained for scanning electron microscopy at Cambridge University in 1983. [5] After spending a few years at UC Berkeley as a postdoc, she joined Indiana University, Bloomington in 1986. [4] Schick’s primary research interest in the importance of technology in relation to evolution became clear in 1988 when she began constructing plans for the establishment of the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT). [4]

Marriage to Nicholas Toth

In the summer of 1976, Kathy met Nicholas Toth while the two were working together on an archaeological dig in Ohio. With similar interests and both attending graduate school in Anthropology, they soon began collaborating on their research. Schick and Toth went on to attend graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley and were married during that time. Their marriage was followed by extended periods of fieldwork at Koobi Fora (East Lake Turkana), Kenya where they conducted research for the next four years under the direction of Berkeley professor Glynn Isaac and Richard Leakey of the National Museum of Kenya. This period was the beginning of a long-term research collaboration between the two which has continued for decades.

Academic career

After completing her graduate degree at UC Berkeley, Schick was affiliated with their Institute of Human Origins, as a postdoctoral researcher from 1982 until 1986. [4] During this period, she worked alongside the institute’s founder, Donald Johanson, who was known for discovering the early hominid fossil named “Lucy”. [4] Schick began her career as a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town’s Archaeology Department in 1985 and UC Berkeley’s Anthropology Department in 1986, specifically within their Old World Lithics Laboratory. [7] Schick’s professional affiliation with Indiana University, Bloomington dates back to 1986, where she began teaching as a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. [7] A year later, she became the co-director of the university’s Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology(CRAFT) alongside her husband, Nicholas Toth. [7] Since 2000, Schick has held a position at the Stone Age Institute as an executive board member and secretary, and later became the co-director of the institute in 2003. [7] [5] In addition, she teaches Anthropology and is a professor in the departments of Biology and Geological Sciences and also co-directs the university’s Human Evolutionary Studies Program. [5]

Field and laboratory research

Schick has travelled to many countries around the world as a part of her fieldwork in anthropology. Her travel experiences have allowed her to closely study various cultures, physical traits of individuals in the region, languages, and prehistory through archaeology. She has analyzed early tools in different regions through excavations and studying how they were developed and used by humans who lived in the Stone Age era. Her fieldwork also entails the study of human fossil ancestors through excavations and subsequent laboratory analyses. [8] Specifically, her research focuses on paleoanthropology, the study of human evolution, which is interconnected with the work of physical anthropologists, archaeologists, and other individuals in related specialized fields. [9]

Schick has participated in fieldwork relating to her areas of interest across the world for decades. She has observed archaeological sites and lithic collections in Oldowan and Acheulean sites such as Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, Gona and Middle Awash in Ethiopia, Nihewan Basin in China, Lake Natron in Tanzania, Ambrona in Spain, and Koobi Fora in Kenya. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Research of the Acheulean

Types of acheulean Acheuleanhandaxes.jpg
Types of acheulean

Schick has investigated the acheulean since the beginning of her anthropological and educational career. Schick started her research of the acheulean during her years at UC Berkeley. In 1981 and 1983, under the supervision of Clark Howell and Lesile Freeman, she participated in a study where they analyzed and researched the acheulean found in the Ambrona Spain. [7] After finishing her research in Spain in 1982, she took part in another acheulean analysis in East Africa with Glynn Isaac. [7] She then traveled back to Spain for another project, which was directed by Clark Howell, in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid, Spain. [7] In 1992, Schick released her article “Geoarchaeological Analysis of an Acheulean Site at Kalambo Falls, Zambia” where she dived into the different types of acheulean found on site in Zambia and analyzed them to explain the environment that led to the formation of these tools. [16] In 1997, she took part in the Middle Awash Project. [7] Together with J.Desmond Clark, she contributed to many research papers pertaining to the Middle Awash Project, such as the  “Overview and Conclusion on the Middle Awash Acheulean”, “Archaeology of the Western Middle Awash.”, and “Archaeology of the Eastern Middle Awash.” in 2000 and  “Biface Technological Development and Variability in the Acheulean Industrial Complex in the “Middle Awash Region of the Afar Rift, Ethiopia.” in 2003. [7] In 2007, with her husband, Schick wrote another paper on the industrialization of acheulean in Middle Awash called the “Acheulean Industries of the Lower and Middle Pleistocene, Middle Awash, Ethiopia”. [7] In 2006-Schick, Nicholas Toth, and Dietrich Stout- published their article to the Stone Age Institute on the process and development of acheulean tools, such as the Oldowan, and studied these tools development to the function of the human brain. [7] [17] Afterwards in 2007, Schick and Toth investigated the emergence of acheulean and the social and environmental behaviors that lead to the adaptation of this stone into a tool across the course of human evolution. [18] They used various acheulean tools in different sizes in diverse locations with specific human evolution times to determine the use of these tools. [18]  

Paleoanthropologist research in China

Schick, Toth, Desmond Clark, researchers in Stone Age Institute, onsite Chinese researchers have all contributed to the archaeological research in Peking Man located in China. This research is ongoing and researchers at the Stone Age Institute researches are analyzing the survival tools (rocks, stones) that the early human population has used in the process of evolution and survival. [19]

Research with Kanzi

In 1990, Schick began a long-term collaborative research project, along with Nicholas Toth and psychologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, to observe the bonobo Kanzi as he learned to make and use stone tools. Over the course of this research, Schick and Toth worked together to teach Kanzi, by example, to flake stone and use the sharp flakes produced to cut a length of rope that would allow access to a desired food reward. The goal of this research was to compare the products of human tool makers to those of our prehistoric counterparts (which we can see archaeologically through the tools they produced), as well as to those of non-human primates who have not evolved to make stone tools. This research would allow the scientists to investigate what, if any, cognitive and biomechanical adaptations required for stone tool technology may be present in modern day primates.

Given a supply of chert for flaking and stone to use as a hammerstone, Kanzi was able to learn to flake stone, yielding sharp flakes that he was able to use to cut through rope and obtain his edible reward. The flakes and cores produced by Kanzi’s efforts were less sophisticated than the earliest stone tools recognized by archaeologists, suggesting that there is probably an earlier stone tool technology that is not recognized archaeologically.

Olduvai Gorge Coring Project

In 2014, Schick, along with three other principal investigators including Nicholas Toth, Jackson Njau, and Ian Stanistreet, began the Olduvai Gorge Coring Project to extract geological cores around the gorge in order to increase our knowledge of the geological history of the Olduvai Gorge area. This coring project is the first of its kind to take place at Olduvai and the project has resulted in the extraction of more than 600 meters of geological cores from 3 different locations around the gorge, with the deepest core resulting in 236 meters of recovered core material. This project more than doubles the known stratigraphic sequence at Olduvai, adding 400,000 years of deposits dating as far back as 2.4 million years ago. The coring project is ongoing, with further coring planned and a variety of researchers analyzing the extracted core material.

Honors and distinction

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone Age</span> Prehistoric period during which stone was widely used by humans to make tools and weapons

The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with the advent of metalworking. Though some simple metalworking of malleable metals, particularly the use of gold and copper for purposes of ornamentation, was known in the Stone Age, it is the melting and smelting of copper that marks the end of the Stone Age. In Western Asia, this occurred by about 3,000 BC, when bronze became widespread. The term Bronze Age is used to describe the period that followed the Stone Age, as well as to describe cultures that had developed techniques and technologies for working copper alloys into tools, supplanting stone in many uses.

A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric cultures that have become extinct. Archaeologists often study such prehistoric societies, and refer to the study of stone tools as lithic analysis. Ethnoarchaeology has been a valuable research field in order to further the understanding and cultural implications of stone tool use and manufacture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olduvai Gorge</span> National Historic Site of Tanzania

The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km (30 mi) long, and is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the Olbalbal ward located in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region, about 45 kilometres from Laetoli, another important archaeological locality of early human occupation. The British/Kenyan paleoanthropologist-archeologist team of Mary and Louis Leakey established excavation and research programs at Olduvai Gorge that achieved great advances in human knowledge and are world-renowned. The site is registered as one of the National Historic Sites of Tanzania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hand axe</span> Stone tool

A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history. It is made from stone, usually flint or chert that has been "reduced" and shaped from a larger piece by knapping, or hitting against another stone. They are characteristic of the lower Acheulean and middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) periods, roughly 1.6 million years ago to about 100,000 years ago, and used by Homo erectus and other early humans, but rarely by Homo sapiens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acheulean</span> Archaeological culture associated with Homo erectus

Acheulean, from the French acheuléen after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with Homo erectus and derived species such as Homo heidelbergensis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oldowan</span> Archaeological culture

The Oldowan was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry (style) in prehistory. These early tools were simple, usually made with one or a few flakes chipped off with another stone. Oldowan tools were used during the Lower Paleolithic period, 2.9 million years ago up until at least 1.7 million years ago (Ma), by ancient Hominins across much of Africa. This technological industry was followed by the more sophisticated Acheulean industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanzi</span> Bonobo research subject

Kanzi, also known by the lexigram , is a male bonobo who has been the subject of several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied the bonobo throughout his life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industry (archaeology)</span> Typological classification of stone tools

In the archaeology of the Stone Age, an industry or technocomplex is a typological classification of stone tools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbevillian</span> Early stone age tool culture

Abbevillian is a term for the oldest lithic industry found in Europe, dated to between roughly 600,000 and 400,000 years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Paleolithic</span> Earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3.3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in the current archaeological record, until around 300,000 years ago, spanning the Oldowan and Acheulean lithics industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chopper (archaeology)</span> Type of stone tool

Archaeologists define a chopper as a pebble tool with an irregular cutting edge formed through the removal of flakes from one side of a stone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Desmond Clark</span> English archaeologist

John Desmond Clark was a British archaeologist noted particularly for his work on prehistoric Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone Age Institute</span> American independent research center

The Stone Age Institute is an independent research center dedicated to the archaeological and paleontological study of human origins and technological development beginning with the earliest stone tools. The institute was founded by archaeologists Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick to provide a focal point for research on human origins where affiliated scientists could collaborate on research and to provide science education outreach on human origins and evolution. The Stone Age Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

William M. Fields, also known by the lexigram , is an American qualitative investigator studying language, culture, and tools in non-human primates. He is best known for his collaboration with Sue Savage-Rumbaugh beginning in 1997 at the Language Research Center of Georgia State University. There he co-reared Nyota , a baby bonobo, with Panbanisha , Kanzi and Savage-Rumbaugh . Fields and Savage-Rumbaugh are the only scientists in the world carrying out language research with bonobos.

Kariandusi prehistoric site is an archaeological site in Kenya. Located on the southeastern edge of the Great Rift Valley and on Lake Elmenteita, Kariandusi is an African Early Stone Age site dating to approximately 1 million years ago.

Sonia Harmand is a French archaeologist who studies Early Stone Age archaeology and the evolution of stone tool making. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Paris where she was associated with the "Prehistory and Technology" research unit, which was well known in the field of stone tool analysis. Harmand earned a PhD from Paris Nanterre University, and is a research associate at CNRS, which is the largest French governmental research organization, and Europe's largest fundamental science agency. She worked as a Research Scientist at CNRS for four years before joining Stony Brook University in New York as an associate professor. In 2016 she was named one of the '50 Most Influential French' by the French edition of Vanity Fair magazine, ranked 32nd place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Toth</span> American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist

Nicholas Patrick Toth is an American archaeologist and paleoanthropologist. He is a Professor in the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University and is a founder and co-director of the Stone Age Institute. Toth's archaeological and experimental research has focused on the stone tool technology of Early Stone Age hominins who produced Oldowan and Acheulean artifacts which have been discovered across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He is best known for his experimental work, with Kathy Schick, including their work with the bonobo Kanzi who they taught to make and use simple stone tools similar to those made by our Early Stone Age ancestors.

Gona is a paleoanthropological research area in Ethiopia's Afar Region. Gona is primarily known for its archaeological sites and discoveries of hominin fossils from the Late Miocene, Early Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. Fossils of Ardipithecus and Homo erectus were discovered there. Two of the most significant finds are an Ardipithecus ramidus postcranial skeleton and an essentially complete Homo erectus pelvis. Historically, Gona had the oldest documented Oldowan artifact assemblages. Archaeologists have since found older examples of the Oldowan at other sites. Still, Gona's Oldowan assemblages have been essential to the archaeological understanding of the Oldowan. Gona's Acheulean archaeological sites have helped us understand the beginnings of the Acheulean Industry.

Lawrence H. Keeley was an American archaeologist best known for pioneering the field of microwear analysis of lithics. He is also known for his 1996 book, War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Keeley worked as a professor of archaeology at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Primate archaeology is a field of research established in 2008 that combines research interests and foci from primatology and archaeology. The main aim of primate archaeology is to study behavior of extant and extinct primates and the associated material records. The discipline attempts to move beyond archaeology's anthropocentric perspective by placing the focus on both past and present primate tool use.

References

  1. ↑ "Profile". cogs.sitehost.iu.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  2. ↑ "Staff". www.stoneageinstitute.org. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  3. ↑ "The Stone Age Institute". April 24, 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dorfman, Peter. ""The Stone Age Institute"" (PDF).
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Stone Age Institute. ""Kathy Schick"" (PDF).
  6. ↑ "Meet the Archaeologists Chiseling Stone Tools to Learn How Our Forebears Did It". The Wire. Retrieved 2020-11-11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Curriculum Vitae-Kathy Schick" (PDF).
  8. ↑ "The Stone Age Institute: Research". www.stoneageinstitute.org. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  9. ↑ "Intro to Anthropology (video)". Khan Academy. Retrieved 2020-11-11.
  10. ↑ Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy (2018-01-02). "An overview of the cognitive implications of the Oldowan Industrial Complex". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. 53 (1): 3–39. doi: 10.1080/0067270X.2018.1439558 . ISSN   0067-270X.
  11. ↑ Schick, Kathy; Toth, Nicholas (2017-11-01). "Acheulean Industries of the Early and Middle Pleistocene, Middle Awash, Ethiopia". L'Anthropologie. L'Acheuléen. 121 (5): 451–491. doi:10.1016/j.anthro.2017.10.009. ISSN   0003-5521.
  12. ↑ Science, American Association for the Advancement of (1991-09-06). "Sciecescope". Science. 253 (5024): 1083. Bibcode:1991Sci...253.1083H. doi:10.1126/science.253.5024.1083. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17731797. S2CID   220087120.
  13. ↑ Toth, Nicholas (1985-09-01). "Archaeological evidence for preferential right-handedness in the lower and middle pleistocene, and its possible implications". Journal of Human Evolution. 14 (6): 607–614. doi:10.1016/S0047-2484(85)80087-7. ISSN   0047-2484.
  14. ↑ Schick, K.; Toth, N. (2000-01-01). "Origin and development of Tool-making behavior in Africa and Asia". Human Evolution. 15 (1): 121–128. doi:10.1007/BF02436240. ISSN   1824-310X. S2CID   84466492.
  15. ↑ Schick, Kathy Diane; Toth, Nicholas Patrick; Rogers D. Spotswood Collection. TxSaTAM (1994). Making silent stones speak : human evolution and the dawn of technology. Internet Archive. New York : Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-0-671-87538-1.
  16. ↑ Schick, Kathy (1992). "Geoarchaeological analysis of an acheulean site at Kalambo Falls, Zambia". Geoarchaeology. 7 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1002/gea.3340070102. ISSN   1520-6548.
  17. ↑ Dietrich Stout, Nicholas Toth, Kathy Schick. ""Comparing the neural foundations of Oldowan and Acheulean Toolmaking: A pilot study using positron emission tomography (PET)"". ResearchGate.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. 1 2 Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy (2019-11-01). "Why did the Acheulean happen? Experimental studies into the manufacture and function of Acheulean artifacts". L'Anthropologie. Oldowayen et Acheuléen. 123 (4): 724–768. doi:10.1016/j.anthro.2017.10.008. ISSN   0003-5521. S2CID   214031479.
  19. ↑ "The Stone Age Institute: Research". www.stoneageinstitute.org. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  20. ↑ Chang, Laura (2000). Scientists at work: profiles of today's groundbreaking scientists from Science times. New York times scientists at work. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN   9780071358828. OCLC   681734541.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.