An experimental assessment of the influences on edge damage to lithic artifacts: a consideration of edge angle, substrate grain size, raw material properties, and exposed face

McPherron, Shannon P.; Braun, David R.; Dogandžić, Tamara; Archer, Will; Desta, Dawit; Lin, Sam C.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.04.003

Cited by 54 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Previous studies of trampling tend to emphasize short-term, focused, intentional trampling events (Shea and Klenck 1993;Eren et al 2010;Pargeter 2011;McPherron et al 2014), where human traffic covers the experimental artifact zone for set periods of time. However, for this experiment, three longterm study sites were used with animal agents allowed to traverse the artifact zones in an undirected fashion.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These factors also influence the spatial displacement of artifacts (Villa and Courtin 1983;GiffordGonzalez et al 1985). Previous studies have largely emphasized the importance of human trampling in site formation (Benito-Calvo et al 2011;McPherron et al 2014), but the role of animal activity, particularly on Stone Age implements, is underexplored. In this study, the impact of animal disturbance processes over a 5-month period is evaluated by analyzing the initial and final position of lithic pieces placed in three different animal trampling locations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experimental lithic tool displacement due to long-term animal disturbance

Schoville

2018

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Controlled experiments in lithic technology tend to focus on controlling the human component of lithic tool manufacturing and use; however, animal disturbance can move and alter artifacts in non-random ways, thus altering the behavioral meaning assigned to artifacts and their contexts. The patterning visible in archeological debris on a horizontal plane can provide evidence for activity zones, pathways, and site formation processes. While the effects of trampling actors on the vertical displacement of artifacts have shown that artifacts can be dramatically displaced, the horizontal movement due to trampling is relatively less studied, particularly the effect over extended time periods. Here, an experimental investigation of experimentally produced lithic tools in three contexts with varying degrees of animal trampling intensity is described, and the resulting patterns of artifact displacement are presented. Animal trampling can produce directed, non-random patterning in how artifacts are moved from their original location. The role that bedding slope plays in transport direction given different degrees of activity is also explored. These results show that trampling can produce patterned artifact scatters similar to activity centers and should be taken into consideration for spatial analyses of archeological formation processes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental lithic tool displacement due to long-term animal disturbance

Schoville

2018

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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“…These experimental specimens subsequently served as a model against which the archaeological triangular flakes could be compared, which in turn were used to argue for support of the hypothesis. Although the results have been debated (McPherron et al 2014;Rots and Plisson 2014;Wilkins et al 2015), Wilkins et al's (2012) study illustrates the successful use of replication as model-that is, as a formalized means of establishing explicit parameters in order to compare archaeological data against modern, replicable data (Lycett and Chauhan 2010). Wilkins et al (2012) is one of several studies relating the identification of hunting function of stone artifacts to macrofractures.…”

Section: (Emphasis In Original)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Test, Model, and Method Validation: The Role of Experimental Stone Artifact Replication in Hypothesis-driven Archaeology

et al. 2016

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“…Post-depositional damage is reported to be undirected and random along tool edges (McBrearty et al, 1998), but rarely quantified (c.f., McPherron et al, 2014). In contrast, behavioral wear is often concentrated at frequent areas of use (Tringham et al, 1974).…”

Section: Goal 1 -Experimental Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thinner edges form damage more readily than steeper angles (Grace, 1989). The complicating aspect of edge angle, is that on some types of detached pieces, edge angle may be non-randomly distributed (McPherron et al, 2014). Since edge angle is correlated with taphonomic edge damage formation, if edge angles are nonrandomly distributed then edge damage may be non-randomly distributed as well.…”

Section: Shape and Edge Anglementioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape variability in tool-use and edge damage formation in South African Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages

Schoville

2016

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

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This study explores how early modern humans used stone tool technology to adapt to changing climates and coastlines in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. The MSA is associated with the earliest fossil evidence for modern humans and complex cultural behaviors during a time period of dramatic climate change. Human culture allows for the creation, use, and transmission of technological knowledge that can evolve with changing environmental conditions. Understanding the interactions between technology and the environment is essential to illuminating the role of culture during the origin of our species. This study is focused on understanding ancient tool use from the study of lithic edge damage patterns at archaeological assemblages in southern Africa by using image-based quantitative methods for analyzing stone tools. An extensive experimental program using replicated stone tools provides the comparative linkages between the archaeological artifacts and the tasks for which they were used. MSA foragers structured their tool use and discard behaviors on the landscape in several ways -by using and discarding hunting tools more frequently in the field rather than in caves/rockshelters, but similarly in coastal and interior contexts. This study provides evidence that during a significant microlithic technological shift seen in southern Africa at ~75,000 years ago, new technologies were developed alongside rather than replacing existing technologies. These results are compared with aspects of the European archaeological record at this time to identify features of early human technological behavior that may be unique to the evolutionary history of our species.ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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An experimental assessment of the influences on edge damage to lithic artifacts: a consideration of edge angle, substrate grain size, raw material properties, and exposed face

Cited by 54 publications

References 36 publications

Experimental lithic tool displacement due to long-term animal disturbance

Experimental lithic tool displacement due to long-term animal disturbance

Test, Model, and Method Validation: The Role of Experimental Stone Artifact Replication in Hypothesis-driven Archaeology

Landscape variability in tool-use and edge damage formation in South African Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages

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