Nicholas Toth

Last updated
Nicholas Toth
Nick toth.jpg
Born
Nicholas Patrick Toth

(1952-09-22) September 22, 1952 (age 69)
Cleveland, Ohio
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley, Oxford University, and Western College, Ohio
OccupationPaleoanthropologist and archaeologist
Spouse(s)Kathy Schick (married 1977-present)

Nicholas Patrick Toth (born September 22, 1952) 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. [1] [2] [3] 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 (“pygmy chimpanzee”) Kanzi who they taught to make and use simple stone tools similar to those made by our Early Stone Age ancestors. [4] [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Toth was born and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Brooklyn High School in 1970 and in 1974 earned a B.A. with distinction in Liberal Arts and Anthropology from Western College in Oxford, Ohio. [2]

Toth attended Oxford University, England where he obtained a Post-graduate Diploma with distinction in Prehistoric Archaeology in 1975. From there he went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained an M.A. in Paleoanthropology in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology in 1982. While at Berkeley he studied with professors Glynn Isaac, J. Desmond Clark, F. Clark Howell, Tim White, Garniss Curtis, and Richard Hay. [3] [5] Toth completed the Flintknapping Field School at Washington State University in 1978, attended the Lithic Microwear Workshop at the University of Chicago in 1980, and received training in Forensic Science at the University of California in 1981.  In 1983 he obtained a certificate in Scanning Electron Microscopy from the Royal Microscopial Society, Cambridge University, England. [2] In 2004 Toth completed a course in start-up companies through the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and in 2005 he obtained a certificate from the Fundraising School at IUPUI. [2]

Marriage to Kathy Schick

Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick at Koobi Fora (East Lake Turkana), Kenya, 1977. Kathy schick and nick toth.jpg
Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick at Koobi Fora (East Lake Turkana), Kenya, 1977.

In the summer of 1976, Toth met Kathy Schick 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. Toth and Schick 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. [3] [5] This period was the beginning of a long-term research collaboration between Toth and Schick which has continued for decades.

Academic career

Between 1981 and 1984 Toth served as a visiting professor in the Anthropology Departments at Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. From 1982 to 1986 he was a post-doctoral research scientist at the Institute of Human Origins in Berkeley, Ca., directed by paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson. From 1986 to the present he has been a faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington, in the Anthropology Department and the Cognitive Science Program, and has served as an adjunct professor in the Biology Department and the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science. [2] [5] [3]

In 1986 he co-founded, with Kathy Schick, the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT) at Indiana University, and together they continue as co-directors of CRAFT. In 2003, the couple founded the Stone Age Institute, a non-profit education and research facility located in Indiana and dedicated to research into human origins. Toth and Schick continue as co-directors and executive board members of the Stone Age Institute. [2] [5] [3]

Over the course of his career Toth has participated in public education programs which help provide children and adults access to educational materials and related media on subjects such as human evolution, archaeology, anthropology, and big history. One such program is a big history project with Kathy Schick titled "Origins: From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web" which began in 2010 with a multi-year museum installation at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures as well as the permanent, multifaceted educational website which has been running since 2010. Another example of Toth's public education projects are the video courses he created for the Big History Project, which is a public education program created by Bill Gates and David Christian. Toth's courses for the project include one titled Introduction toArchaeology and another titled Making Stone Tools , both of which can be viewed free of charge on YouTube or Khan Academy. In addition to participation in programs such as these, Toth and Schick, as directors of the Stone Age Institute, have made pdf files of the research volumes published by the Stone Age Institute Press available as free downloads. [6] [7] [8] [9]

Field and laboratory research

Nicholas Toth making an experimental Acheulean handaxe. Nick flintknapping.jpg
Nicholas Toth making an experimental Acheulean handaxe.

Toth has engaged in field and laboratory research since the late 1970s, resulting in scientific publications on a variety of topics including human evolution, African prehistory, Paleolithic studies, the evolution of human intelligence, lithic technology, raw materials of antiquity, experimental archaeology, microscopic approaches to archaeology, faunal analysis, and taphonomy, geoarchaeology, ethnoarchaeology, primate studies, history of evolutionary thought, and Big History (studying and teaching history from the Big Bang to recent times). [4] [5] [2]

Toth has conducted archaeological field research and studied the lithic assemblages from Oldowan and Acheulean sites including Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, [10] Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia, Gona in Ethiopia, Middle Awash in Ethiopia, [11] Nihewan Basin in China, [12] Lake Natron in Tanzania, Ambrona in Spain, [13] and Koobi Fora in Kenya. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] During investigations at Gona, Ethiopia in 1999, Toth discovered the fossil cranium of a Homo erectus individual which dates to about 1.2 million years ago.

In his decades of experimental research into the manufacture and use of early stone tools, Toth has replicated thousands of Oldowan and Acheulean artifacts, many of which he has used in controlled experiments involving such things as cutting through thick hides and the butchering of large animals (all animals used in these studies had died of natural causes, no animals were killed for the purposes of this research). This research revealed that the most important tools to the early stone tool makers may have been the sharp-edged flakes that were removed from the choppers and pebble tools, rather than the choppers and pebble tools themselves, as had been previously supposed. Flake assemblages had been a largely ignored part of archaeological collections from sites of this time period because they were thought to have been a by-product of the manufacture of the more formal choppers and other pebble tools. Toth’s research supported the idea that these flakes were the simple, highly effective base of early stone tool technology. [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29]

Research with Kanzi

In 1990, Toth began a long-term collaborative research project, along with Kathy Schick 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, Toth and Schick 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. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]

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. [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35]

Olduvai Gorge Coring Project

In 2014, Toth, along with three other principal investigators including Kathy Schick, 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. [36] [37] [38]

Honors and distinctions

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 tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BCE and 2,000 BCE, 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 BCE, 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.

Hand axe Stone tool

A hand axe is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. 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 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.

Oldowan 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, 2.6 million years ago up until at least 1.7 million years ago, by ancient Hominins across much of Africa. This technological industry was followed by the more sophisticated Acheulean industry.

Kanzi 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 her life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude. Despite his achievements in the use of language, Kanzi could still not approach the levels of an average 3-year-old child.

Industry (archaeology) Typological classification of stone tools

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

Abbevillian 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.

Lower Paleolithic 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 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.

Chopper (archaeology) 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.

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh Psychologist and primatologist

Emily Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is a psychologist and primatologist most known for her work with two bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha, investigating their linguistic and cognitive abilities using lexigrams and computer-based keyboards. Originally based at Georgia State University's Language Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, she worked at the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary in Des Moines, Iowa from 2006 until her departure in November 2013. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of Bonobo Hope.

Stone Age Institute 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 2017 she was named one of the '50 Most Influential French' by the French edition of Vanity Fair magazine.

Gona is an archaeological site in the Afar Triangle of Ethiopia located in the Ethiopian Lowlands. The site, near the Middle Awash and Hadar regions, is primarily known for paleoanthropological study, including excavations of Late Miocene and Early Pliocene fossils, as well as Oldowan and Acheulean stone tools. Evidence of Homo erectus presence at Gona dates back to as early as 1.8 million years ago, making Gona's stone tools some of the world's oldest stone tool artifacts found to date. Gona is also known as a key site for the study of human evolution, with a rich hominid fossil record that includes evidence of Ardipithecus remains dating to around 4.5 million years old and Homo erectus fossils from approximately 1.8 to 1.7 million years ago. Likewise, faunal remains such as cutmarked bones from Gona give insight into early hominid diets and butchery practices, making it an important site for zooarchaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathy Schick</span> American-born archaeologist

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. 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 Kanzi who they taught to make and use simple stone tools similar to those made by our Early Stone Age ancestors.

Julio Mercader Florín is a Spanish-Canadian Archaeologist, Paleoethnobotanist, Paleoecologist, and professor at the University of Calgary, In addition to this, he is a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and IPHES, as well as a former Canada Research Chair in Tropical Archaeology.

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.

References

  1. "Profile". cogs.sitehost.iu.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Staff". www.stoneageinstitute.org. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Stone Age Institute". April 24, 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  4. 1 2 Fagan, Brian M. (2012). Archaeology: a brief introduction (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson. ISBN   978-0-205-24082-1. OCLC   743432502.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chang, Laura (2000). Scientists at work : profiles of today's groundbreaking scientists from Science times. McGraw-Hill. OCLC   681734541.
  6. "The Stone Age Institute: Publications". www.stoneageinstitute.org. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  7. "Big Bang – The Stone Age Institute" . Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  8. Intro to Archaeology | Big History Project , retrieved 2020-01-28
  9. "Making Stone Tools (video) | 6. Early Humans". Khan Academy. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  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. Hamilton, David P. (1991-09-06). "Sciecescope". Science. 253 (5024): 1083. doi:10.1126/science.253.5024.1083. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17731797. S2CID   220087120.
  13. 1 2 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 (2006). The Oldowan : case studies into the earliest Stone Age. Gosport, IN: Stone Age Institute. ISBN   978-0-9792276-0-8. OCLC   144645362.
  16. Schick, Kathy; Toth, Nicholas (1994-02-03). Making Silent Stones Speak: Human Evolution and the Dawn of Technology . Simon and Schuster. ISBN   0671875388.
  17. 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.
  18. Fagan, Brian M. (2016-07-15). Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-317-28195-5.
  19. Castaneda, Dane (2018). Archaeology. EDTECH. ISBN   978-1-83947-420-0. OCLC   1132388527.
  20. "Clues to Man : Researchers Try Hand at Toolmaking". Los Angeles Times. 1986-03-25. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  21. "SCIENCE / Flesh on the bones of early man" . The Independent. 1994-10-09. Archived from the original on 2022-06-19. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  22. Lewin, R. (1986-01-10). "Dexterous Early Hominids". Science. 231 (4734): 115. doi:10.1126/science.231.4734.115. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17842625.
  23. Lewin, R. (1986-01-10). "When Stones Can Be Deceptive: A young archeologist has been making and using hundreds of stone tools in order to learn what our ancestors did with them; some unexpected results emerged". Science. 231 (4734): 113–115. doi:10.1126/science.231.4734.113. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17842624.
  24. Gibbons, A. (1997-04-04). "Paleoanthropology: Tracing the Identity of the First Toolmakers". Science. 276 (5309): 32–0. doi:10.1126/science.276.5309.32. PMID   9122704. S2CID   85296456.
  25. Lewin, R. (1988-05-06). "A New Tool Maker the Hominid Record?: New data from Australopithecine hand bones challenge the long-held assumption that only members of the genus Homo are capable of making and using tools". Science. 240 (4853): 724–725. doi:10.1126/science.240.4853.724. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17741448.
  26. Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy D.; Savage-Rumbaugh, E.Sue; Sevcik, Rose A.; Rumbaugh, Duane M. (January 1993). "Pan the Tool-Maker: Investigations into the Stone Tool-Making and Tool-Using Capabilities of a Bonobo (Pan paniscus)". Journal of Archaeological Science. 20 (1): 81–91. doi:10.1006/jasc.1993.1006.
  27. Toth, Nicholas; Clark, Desmond; Ligabue, Giancarlo (July 1992). "The Last Stone Ax Makers". Scientific American. 267 (1): 88–93. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0792-88. ISSN   0036-8733.
  28. Toth, Nicholas (April 1987). "The First Technology". Scientific American. 256 (4): 112–121. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0487-112. ISSN   0036-8733.
  29. Toth, Nicholas (March 1985). "The oldowan reassessed: A close look at early stone artifacts". Journal of Archaeological Science. 12 (2): 101–120. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(85)90056-1.
  30. 1 2 Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy D.; Savage-Rumbaugh, E. Sue; Sevcik, Rose A.; Rumbaugh, Duane M. (1993-01-01). "Pan the Tool-Maker: Investigations into the Stone Tool-Making and Tool-Using Capabilities of a Bonobo (Pan paniscus)". Journal of Archaeological Science. 20 (1): 81–91. doi:10.1006/jasc.1993.1006. ISSN   0305-4403.
  31. 1 2 Lewin, Roger. "Birth of a Tool-maker". New Scientist. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  32. 1 2 Zorich, Zach. "Which Came First, Humans or Tools?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  33. 1 2 Culotta, E. (2009-04-24). "Did Humans Learn From Hobbits?". Science. 324 (5926): 447. doi:10.1126/science.324_447. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   19390008.
  34. 1 2 Gibbons, A (1991-03-29). "Deja Vu all over again: chimp-language wars". Science. 251 (5001): 1561–1562. doi:10.1126/science.2011735. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   2011735.
  35. Toth, Nicholas; Schick, Kathy (October 2009). "The Oldowan: The Tool Making of Early Hominins and Chimpanzees Compared". Annual Review of Anthropology. 38 (1): 289–305. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-091908-164521. ISSN   0084-6570.
  36. "Stone Age Institute Designs Monument at Olduvai Gorge". January 3, 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  37. "Olduvai Gorge Coring Project". CSDCO. 2016-10-07. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  38. "The Stone Age Institute: Research". www.stoneageinstitute.org. Retrieved 2020-03-05.