Project description
Reconstructing the use and meaning of early human tools
While Pleistocene bone tools offer valuable insights into how early humans adapted to changing environments, their role in past societies remains difficult to reconstruct. Moving beyond traditional approaches focused on isolated tool functions, new interdisciplinary methods are needed to reveal the dynamic behaviours and knowledge systems behind these technologies. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TRACE project will develop a temporal-resource framework combining archaeology, tribology, ethnography, and machine learning to reconstruct how bone tools were used and how their functions evolved over time. By creating predictive models linking surface textures to tool use duration, validating them with ethnographic datasets from Chinese communities, and applying them to key Pleistocene archaeological sites, the project will establish the first reproducible approach for interpreting expedient bone tools.
Objective
Pleistocene bone tools provide crucial evidence for understanding hominin adaptive strategies. While research has traditionally focused on formal bone tools, growing evidence points to a two-million-year tradition of expedient bone tools, often unmodified or minimally modified. Although their importance has been demonstrated, current approaches remain limited to static functional snapshots and lack reliable methods for estimating use duration or integrating social and cultural contexts. TRACE addresses these challenges by developing an innovative Temporal-Resource framework that combines archaeology, tribology, ethnography and machine learning. The project will (O1) construct predictive models linking surface textures to tool use duration, (O2) validate them through a Chinese ethnographic bone tool database documenting practices among the Li, Dulong and Oroqen, and (O3) apply these models to six key Chinese sites spanning the late Middle Pleistocene-Early Holocene. By systematically integrating experimental replication, ethnographic evidence and surface texture analyses, TRACE will establish the first reproducible framework for estimating both use duration and function of bone tools. This approach expands the interpretive scope of expedient bone tools beyond the traditional focus on static functions related to lithic production and animal processing, incorporating plant-use replicas, dynamic decision processes, and their broader social and cultural implication. Incorporating Chinese datasets into global comparisons enhances reconstructions of hominin adaptation, cultural transmission and population dynamics, which have so far been dominated by African and European evidence. TRACE will thus create links between endangered traditional knowledge and prehistoric technologies, and redefine bone tools as ecological and cultural indicators of Pleistocene adaptive complexity.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- humanities history and archaeology archaeology
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering tribology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
48940 Leioa
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.