Francesco d'Errico is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifi que (CNRS) and Research Professor at the Department of Anthropology, George Washington University.Lucinda Backwell is a researcher in the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales (CONICET), Tucumán, Argentina and an Honorary Researcher in the Evolutionary Studies Institute and DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.