Heat treatment of stone for tool making has important implications for our understanding of the early human history of the Australian continent. New data on the antiquity of Australian heat treatment and its evolution through time in different regions have posed questions about the origin and temporal stability of technical practices. In this paper, we present the first evolutionary sequence of the use of heat treatment in Central Australia, with a trend to lower levels of heat treatment over time. Different trends are found in other regions across Australia: on the eastern seaboard, heat treatment became more prevalent over time, while in the inland, semi-arid Willandra lakes region heat treatment gradually disappeared over time. In central Australia, the long-term trend is towards fewer heat-affected specimens over time, but this happens in a single transition from stable high levels in the Pleistocene to stable moderate levels in the Mid- to Late Holocene. These evolutionary trends are consistent with regional diversification, reflecting adaptations to local conditions, and are not consistent with technological uniformity across the continent.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚中部的早期silcrete热处理：Puritjarra和Kulpi Mara

用于工具制造的石材热处理对我们对澳大利亚大陆早期人类历史的理解具有重要意义。有关澳大利亚热处理的古代及其在不同地区随时间演变的新数据提出了有关技术实践的起源和时间稳定性的问题。在本文中，我们介绍了澳大利亚中部热处理使用的第一个演变序列，随着时间的推移，热处理水平有下降的趋势。在澳大利亚其他地区发现了不同的趋势：在东部沿海地区，热处理随着时间的流逝变得更加普遍，而在内陆半干旱的Willandra湖地区，热处理随着时间的推移逐渐消失。在澳大利亚中部，长期趋势是随着时间的流逝，受热影响的标本会越来越少，但这仅发生在从更新世的稳定高水平到中新世晚期的稳定中度水平的单一过渡中。这些演变趋势与区域多样化相一致，反映了对当地条件的适应，与整个大陆的技术统一性不一致。