Revealing Hidden Innovations: Gendered Work and Perishable Technologies in Prehistory

Objetivo

Over 95% of prehistoric perishable material culture (e.g. hide clothing and basketry) remains archaeologically invisible, creating fundamental gaps in our understanding of technological systems and cultural innovation. This missing majority particularly obscures two critical technologies ethnographically linked to women’s labor: hide-working and plant-fibre processing. Their invisibility not only limits our comprehension of technological evolution but also perpetuates androcentric narratives that marginalize women’s central role in innovation. HIDTECH fills these gaps by pioneering a novel methodology to reconstruct these hidden technologies across Europe and the Levant, from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Early Neolithic. Our approach integrates AI-driven quantitative use-wear analysis of durable tools (stone, bone, shell) from habitation sites and grave offerings, combined with robotic dental experiments and analysis of anterior tooth wear, revealing the use of teeth as tools. Use-wear on tools from habitation sites will enable reconstruction of missing hide and plant technologies, while analysis of grave offerings and anterior teeth of sexed individuals (identified by proteomics) will link both hidden technologies to gendered labor roles. By quantifying innovation rates in hide and plant-fibre technologies and correlating them with environmental, demographic, and social connectivity data, HIDTECH provides the first large-scale empirical framework for understanding factors shaping the development and transmission of these technologies. Crucially, by gendering these hidden technologies, HIDTECH restores women’s agency through their central contributions as innovators and specialists in perishable technologies, roles long overlooked in traditional narratives. This integrative approach not only reveals the hidden dynamics of prehistoric innovation but also challenges longstanding biases, offering a more inclusive narrative of human technological and social evolution.