European funding to understand human cultural evolution and to make bones talk

Stumbling on a bone... an activity that definitely doesn't frighten Luc Doyon! On the contrary, the Quebec researcher from the PACEA¹ laboratory made this his field of study and has just obtained major funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for the ExOsTech² project. Instead of carved stones such as flint, often used as tools or weapons by prehistoric men during a period known as the Stone Age, he prefers bone materials (bone, ivory, antler, etc.). Not the fully sculpted objects that appeared more recently, but the more rudimentary bone tools from a period that stretches from 1.8 million years ago to 60,000 years before the present day. "Why and when did bone become a medium that could be used and even transformed? This is interesting in terms of new behaviours and cultural evolution," he explains. Animals were not only a source of food or heat for prehistoric men, but also a raw material. This behaviour is unique to our human lineage³".

Over the next five years, Luc Doyon will retrace the first stages of the evolution of these rudimentary technologies, thanks to his 1,743,391 euros ERC grant. He will be able to build a team (including a postdoctoral fellow, doctoral student and engineers), purchase equipment and analyse collections of hundreds or even thousands of bones found on various excavation sites in Western Europe, South Africa and China, and preserved in museums. The aim of ExOsTech is to develop tools for analysing bone wear using tribology - the science that studies friction between two systems in contact in various fields such as archaeology, cosmetics, industry, etc. - and artificial intelligence. The aim is to deduce the functions of tools from 3D data on their surface, as well as their roles in past cultural systems.

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Differentiating between man-made and environmental damage

This subject has received little attention to date for a number of reasons. Firstly, the identification of bone tools is difficult because natural alterations, such as degradation caused by the effects of the environment and time during burial, can sometimes be confused with human modifications. Secondly, the analytical methods used to infer the function of bone tools are still essentially qualitative and difficult to reproduce.
By combining experimental archaeology, which involves reproducing the gestures made by past human groups, experimental taphonomy, which aims to subject the tools to conditions that alter the bone in a similar way to those found on archaeological sites, and confocal microscopy, which enables the surface of objects to be finely scanned in 3D and roughness data to be extracted, the PACEA researcher will be able to determine the functions of the tools in a reproducible way. Ultimately, he and his team hope to create a user interface, i.e. a site available to the scientific community, that will make it possible to specify or confirm the human use of a bone using a simple photo of the object.

From a sweet factory to a dig site

Finding himself in the shoes of a prehistoric man, pounding a bone to find its function, is probably not the future Luc Doyon was expecting. Born in Quebec, he grew up in the Mauricie region, in the heart of la belle Province, about two hours from Montreal, which he joined at the age of 17 to study administration. The researcher had initially chosen a completely different path. After 8 years in what he describes as a "repetitive" job, several periods abroad, including one as interim director in charge of the financial and logistical restructuring of a sweet factory in southern China, and above all a financial crisis, he "needed a 180° in a field closer to people". Wishing to enrol in a university evening course as permitted by the North American education system, he chose, somewhat by chance, an introductory course in anthropology. It was a completely new subject for him, and one that he has never left since.

Four years later, after a Bachelor and a Master degree, he began a joint thesis between the University of Montreal and the University of Bordeaux. Why Bordeaux? "Because it's the best French-speaking university in the field of prehistory! Even as an undergraduate, he says he was intrigued "by all the uncertainties and the very wide-ranging investigation that still had to be carried out to try and understand how these groups of the past were structured socially, how this structure is perceptible from the analysis of tools, how to reconstruct the environment and therefore tell a story with the remains that are found". These are the questions that will interest him from now on. As a Master student on an excavation site at Arcy-sur-Cure in the Yonne department, he had the opportunity to study a Neanderthal bone tool with multiple uses. After his field of expertise, he had now discovered his favourite object. 

Explaining your research project to your baker

After completing his thesis, he first carried out a postdoctoral fellowship in China, returning to the University of Bordeaux via the Initiative of Excellence Talents programme. He then returned to carry out a second postdoctoral fellowship within the Human Past Major Research Programme, up until last July. During this period, he continued to teach and also passed his habilitation to direct research.

For Luc Doyon, everything is a matter of opportunity. When analysing bone tools in Madrid in 2022, he explains that he had more questions than answers. And that's when he came up with the idea of submitting a project to the ERC Starting Grant programme, for which his experience in management was certainly useful. In his opinion, applicants shouldn't hesitate to submit their projects, even if it can be frightening at first, and should seek the support of the university's Proposals & Projects Support Office. It's vital to have a clear question - and even to be able to explain it to your baker! - work thoroughly on the bibliography and explain why it's important to fund such a large-scale project and how Europe will benefit. Once the application has been accepted, you then have to practise again and again for the second phase, which consists of a 30 minute oral presentation, including a 3-minute pitch to a panel of archaeologists, anthropologists and historians.
"It used to be a dream, but now it's a reality for the next five years. I can't wait to get started," he concludes with a big smile.

¹Prehistory to Present Time: Culture, Environment, Anthropology (CNRS, Ministry of Culture and University of Bordeaux unit)
²Revealing the functions of Pleistocene EXpedient OSseous TECHnology with an innovative approach that integrates tribology with AI
³This behaviour has been observed in captivity in non-human primates.