Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas

EVIDENCE FOR CHILD TOOLMAKERS?
Throughout this book a number of genomes are discussed that
were sequenced from the remains of children. Child mortality
was a tragic but common occurrence throughout the past; in the
absence of antibiotics and vaccines, infections were often
deadly, and children were especially vulnerable during times of
climatic hardship and limited resources. As a mother of a
toddler, I find it excruciatingly difficult to write dispassionately
about this subject.
Although children’s remains are found all too often in
cemeteries and isolated burials, their activities in life are
surprisingly hard to detect in the early archaeological record of
the Americas. In more recent archaeological periods in the
Americas, a number of artifacts have been found that have
been interpreted as toys: miniature pots, small projectile points
that may have been used for child-sized bow-and-arrow sets.
But we know almost nothing about the day-to-day lives of
children in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.
Archaeologists who study this period have not historically
prioritized the study of children’s culture. But recently there has
been some research exploring this issue in the context of stone
tool production, with some fascinating results.
The skill required to competently make—or knap—stone
tools is not easily acquired I discussed the footprints at White
Sands in chapter 2. But there are other traces of children in the
archaeological record, including lithics. People who become
skilled knappers do so only after many hours of observation,
hands-on experience, and feedback from experienced
toolmakers. Therefore, it seems reasonable that children who
intended (or were expected) to become toolmakers must have
begun learning the process fairly early.
Operating from this assumption, and from ethnographic
studies of both children and college-aged students in
flintknapping classes, what might a signature of beginning
flintknappers (whatever their age) look like in the archaeological