When we think of inventions from the Paleolithic era, stone tools and campfires come to mind—nothing that still has a major impact on our daily lives today. Yet many very early social and technical innovations form the foundation of our modern culture and are ubiquitous. The complexity of modern technologies is based on the breakdown of actions into small, meaningful segments that are easy to learn and can be repeatedly reassembled. The development of cutting tools, the use of fire, adhesives, sewing needles, and new forms of communication shape the possibilities available to us today. Yet our dependencies on our natural and cultural, material and social environments also stem from these developments. This lecture sheds new light on our heritage from Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and others.

About the Author: PD Dr. Miriam Haidle studied prehistory, protohistory, and early history, geology, anthropology, and ethnology in Tübingen and Basel. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen in 1996 and completed her habilitation there in 2006. Since 2008, she has served as coordinator of the academic project “The Role of Culture in Early Human Expansions” at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum as well as at the University of Tübingen. Since 1995, she has been a lecturer at the Institute for Prehistory, Early History, and Medieval Archaeology at the University of Tübingen.