Comparative methods for distinguishing flakes from geofacts: a case study from the Wenas Creek Mammoth site

Lubinski, Patrick M.; Terry, Karisa; McCutcheon, Patrick

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.09.006

Cited by 27 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…A sample of known volume from each in situ gravel deposit encountered was sieved on site through a 20 mm mesh and all potential artefacts retained for further examination. To assess the likelihood that the flakes are archaeological rather than geological, two separate approaches were used: a blind test involving 10 Palaeolithic archaeologists from Britain, France and Spain (not including any of the authors or those involved in the fieldwork); and the methodology and scoring system adopted by Lubinski et al (2014). The methods and results from these are described in Appendix S1.…”

Section: Field Investigations Sieving Programme and Artefact Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Davis

Ashton

Hatch

et al. 2021

J Quaternary Science

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The Early and early Middle Pleistocene archaeological record in Britain from c. 900 to 500 ka marks a critical shift in human occupation of northwest Europe, from occasional pioneer populations with simple core and flake technology to more widespread occupation associated with the appearance of Acheulean technology. Key to understanding this record are the fluvial deposits of the extinct Bytham River in central East Anglia, where a series of Lower Palaeolithic sites lie on a 15 km stretch of the former river. In this paper we present the results of new fieldwork and a reanalysis of historical artefact collections of handaxes and scrapers to: 1) establish the chronostratigraphic context of the Bytham archaeological record; 2) examine variability in lithic artefact typology and technology through time; and 3) explore the implications for understanding variation in lithic technology in the European record. Six phases of occupation of Britain are identified from at least marine isotope stage (MIS) 21 to MIS 13, with the last three phases characterised by distinctive lithic technology. We argue that this relates to the discontinuous occupation of Britain, where each phase represents the arrival of new groups derived from different European populations with distinctive material culture.

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Section: Field Investigations Sieving Programme and Artefact Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Davis

Ashton

Hatch

et al. 2021

J Quaternary Science

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“…Several sites do not have well-defined ages (Dick and Mountain, 1960; Zier et al, 1993), a problem that can be addressed via concerted dating efforts. Others have the potential to contain geofacts (e.g., Lubinski et al, 2014) instead of human-produced assemblages, which would eliminate them from the potential megafauna butchery list (e.g., Tune et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the frequency of coincidental spatial associations between Clovis artifacts and proboscidean remains in North America

Mackie

Haas

2021

Quat. res.

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The extent to which Clovis peoples hunted proboscideans is debated. Convention requires that for a proboscidean butchery site to be accepted, contemporaneous artifacts must be spatially associated with faunal remains, and there must be evidence of use of the remains. Fourteen sites in North America currently meet those criteria; at least 31 do not. While these are reasonable requirements for avoiding false positives, such an approach risks identifying false negatives—rejecting spatial associations that are systemic associations. Given the known distributions of Clovis and proboscidean sites, how likely is it that artifacts are coincidentally associated with proboscidean remains? Conversely, how many spatial associations could be unrecognized butchery sites? To answer these questions, we simulated chance associations by plotting empirically informed densities and sizes of archaeological and proboscidean sites on simulated landscapes in which people and animals are (a) uniformly distributed and (b) tethered to water sources. The simulated frequencies of coincidental associations were compared to the observed frequency of co-occurrences. Our results suggest that of the 31 indeterminate empirical associations, at least 17 and as many as 26 are likely systemic associations, more than doubling previous estimates and revealing a greater role of humans in Pleistocene proboscidean exploitation than previously recognized.

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“…Se registraron rasgos de lascas como el tipo de talón, presencia de bulbo de percusión, porcentajes de corteza, aristas (Peacock, 1991;Gillespie, Tupakka y Cluney, 2004;Lubinski, Terry y McCutcheon, 2014). Se denominó "matrices tipo lasca" a todas aquellas piezas donde fuera posible hacer la distinción anverso-reverso, o bien se pudiera identificar una zona proximal.…”

Section: Rasgos Tecnológicosunclassified

Tafonomía lítica del sitio Quebrada de Quereo

Carranza¹,

Méndez²

2020

Estud. atacameños

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Este artículo busca desarrollar una propuesta de análisis para enfrentar la ambigüedad en material lítico en contextos finipleistocenos de localidades aluviales. Enfocamos nuestro estudio en el sitio Quebrada de Quereo (13.480-13.070 cal AP), ubicado en la costa del norte semiárido de Chile. Como una manera de construir un análogo con fines comparativos, se exploraron diferentes combinaciones de variables tafonómicas y tecnológicas en un conjunto de origen natural levantado en una quebrada cercana que emula atributos técnicos de rocas talladas. El mismo conjunto de variables fue probado en el conjunto lítico de origen antropogénico del sitio Quebrada Santa Julia (12.990-12.730 cal AP). Este procedimiento nos permitió desarrollar un sistema de clasificación centrado en las características de los bordes astillados para sopesar atributos tafonómicos y tecnológicos y su producción natural en contextos de quebradas torrenciales. Aplicando este esquema a una muestra del conjunto lítico de Quebrada de Quereo, discutimos qué piezas tienen mayores probabilidades de ser consideradas como artefactos líticos. Se concluye que una parte importante del conjunto lítico del sitio Quebrada de Quereo puede ser explicado por causas naturales, por lo tanto, esas piezas deberían ser consideradas como pseudoartefactos.

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Comparative methods for distinguishing flakes from geofacts: a case study from the Wenas Creek Mammoth site

Cited by 27 publications

References 32 publications

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Palaeolithic archaeology of the Bytham River: human occupation of Britain during the early Middle Pleistocene and its European context

Estimating the frequency of coincidental spatial associations between Clovis artifacts and proboscidean remains in North America

Tafonomía lítica del sitio Quebrada de Quereo

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