 On the question whether there is a role for biological explanation when it comes to human aesthetic activity, there is a constituency of scholars hostile to this idea; they argue that “art” and “aesthetic” are notions of recent and essentially western invention, the application of which to other and older cultures is mistaken (Gell 1998: 97). Opponents of this view readily grant the huge cultural variability of aesthetic activity. They argue that there are enough commonalities between the ways very different cultures invest in the shaping and decoration of objects, in music, dance and in story-telling to make it plausible that biology provides both the initial impetus to and a set of constraints on these activities (Dutton 2009; Currie 2012). If we thought, as we once did, that these activities could be traced no further back than the cave depictions of the European Upper Paleolithic it would be likely that the aesthetic is too late-emerging to have a biological basis. Very recent discoveries have now suggested a somewhat earlier origin; depictions in Indonesia have been given dates prior to 45,000 years ago (Brumm et al. 2021). More dramatically, though, the temporal depth of aesthetic activity is vastly increased if we turn our attention to the stone tools mentioned above, many of which show a notable symmetry of construction. Hand axes from the Acheulean industry which arose about 1.7 million years ago are sometimes too large, small or sharply pointed to be practical implements and strongly suggest an interest in the display of skilful making that we commonly recognise in, say, the art of the European renaissance (see Currie &amp; Zhu 2021 and Gowlett 2021, both of which in different ways emphasise the importance of seeing aesthetic practices emerging in a social context). Some have seen these elaborated instruments as products of sexual selection, as peacock’s tails are said to be: reliable indicators of the maker’s qualities as a mate (Kohn &amp; Mithen 1999). Another view has it that they were indicators of trustworthiness, and hence of one’s value as a co-operator (Spikins 2012); for criticism of both views see Hiscock 2014.