If ecologically-bounded contexts are an evolutionary precursor to more open-ended forms of cumulative culture, then how can we use this to understand the transition between the two? At present many key variables have been proposed to explain this transition including, cognitive abilities for high fidelity copying [4, 13, 34], large population sizes [37, 38] and high rates of socialization and division of labour . What is lacking at present is a framework that explains how these factors originate and co-evolve. Extensions to the multi-scale simulation model presented here could help to address this question. In this sense our model represents a tangible ecologically-bounded baseline in which researchers could study how ecological bounds could be relaxed. In particular, we expect that niche construction processes [39, 40] will be critical in relaxing the bounds found in our model, because these appear to be needed for generating feedbacks between cultural inheritance and opportunities for cultural innovation. In this way, cultural processes can start to define their own possibilities for change.