Experimental protocols for the study of battered stone anvils from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Torre, Ignacio de la; Benito‐Calvo, Alfonso; Arroyo, Adrián; Zupancich, Andrea; Proffitt, Tomos

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.007

Cited by 90 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our approach to the use-wear assessment was similar to previous studies that have pioneered the use of GIS analysis of both archaeological and primate percussive tools, focusing on hammerstones [34] and stone anvils [35,36] (figure 2a). After visually assessing pits on three-dimensional models of all hammerstones, we exported the models as 'Stereo Lithography (STL) files to Meshlab at a resolution of 0.127 mm, where we calculated total model volume and isolated and cropped the pitted surfaces.…”

Section: (B) Use-wear Intensitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Distance-decay effect in stone tool transport by wild chimpanzees

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stone tool transport leaves long-lasting behavioural evidence in the landscape. However, it remains unknown how large-scale patterns of stone distribution emerge through undirected, short-term transport behaviours. One of the longest studied groups of stone-tool-using primates are the chimpanzees of the Taï National Park in Ivory Coast, West Africa. Using hammerstones left behind at chimpanzee Panda nut-cracking sites, we tested for a distance-decay effect, in which the weight of material decreases with increasing distance from raw material sources. We found that this effect exists over a range of more than 2 km, despite the fact that observed, shortterm tool transport does not appear to involve deliberate movements away from raw material sources. Tools from the millennia-old Noulo site in the Taï forest fit the same pattern. The fact that chimpanzees show both complex short-term behavioural planning, and yet produce a landscape-wide pattern over the long term, raises the question of whether similar processes operate within other stone-tool-using primates, including hominins. Where hominin landscapes have discrete material sources, a distance-decay effect, and increasing use of stone materials away from sources, the Taï chimpanzees provide a relevant analogy for understanding the formation of those landscapes.

show abstract

Section: (B) Use-wear Intensitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Distance-decay effect in stone tool transport by wild chimpanzees

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]). This paper explores whether this technology was used for plant processing by hunter-gatherer societies of the Southern Levant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of plant food processing in the Levant: insights from use-wear analysis of Early Epipalaeolithic ground stone tools

Dubreuil

Nadel

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, the study of percussive, pounding and grinding tools has provided new insights into human evolution, more particularly regarding the development of technology enabling the processing and exploitation of plant resources. Some of these studies focus on early evidence for flour production, an activity frequently perceived as an important step in the evolution of plant exploitation. The present paper investigates plant food preparation in mobile hunter-gatherer societies from the Southern Levant. The analysis consists of a use-wear study of 18 tools recovered from Ohalo II, a 23 000-year-old site in Israel showing an exceptional level of preservation. Our sample includes a slab previously interpreted as a lower implement used for producing flour, based on the presence of cereal starch residues. The use-wear data we have obtained provide crucial information about the function of this and other percussive tools at Ohalo II, as well as on investment in tool manufacture, discard strategies and evidence for plant processing in the Late Pleistocene. The use-wear analysis indicates that the production of flour was a sporadic activity at Ohalo II, predating by thousands of years the onset of routine processing of plant foods.

show abstract

“…8 I and II) materials (remaining are unidentified); the former could indicate contact with fresh bone, while the latter could indicate contact with stone, like with hammerstones during nut or bone cracking, with flint/ hammerstones during bipolar knapping, or from contact with dry bone. As shown experimentally, damage from nut cracking and pounding is limited and mostly consists of accidental impact marks through hammerstone contact, while the nuts absorb most of the energy (Arroyo and de la Torre 2016;de la Torre et al 2013). Hazel shrubs were abundant in the local environment (Bakels 2014;Strahl et al 2010) and a few charred hazelnut remains have been found at the NN2/2 site (Kuijper 2014), similar to the evidence from other Eemian sites (Hérisson et al 2015;Thieme et al 1985;e.g.…”

Section: Percussive Tool Functionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Middle Palaeolithic Percussive Tools from the Last Interglacial Site Neumark-Nord 2/2 (Germany) and the Visibility of Such Tools in the Archaeological Record

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite a strong increase in the research on hominin percussive tool use, the primary focus in the study of technological behaviour still lies on flaked stone artefacts, especially for the Middle Palaeolithic. This paper aims to contribute to a more thorough understanding of the full spectrum of homi;nin technological behaviour, by presenting a systematic analysis of ground stone tools from the Last Interglacial Middle Palaeolithic site Neumark-Nord 2/2 (NN2/2) (Germany). At NN2/2, coarse gravel-and cobblesized pieces (n = 351) were sourced from local outcrops of glacial deposits, with a preferential selection for quartzite and sandstone. Low-power use wear analysis and the archaeological context of these finds provide evidence for the possible use of at least 58 pieces for active (hammerstones) and 5 for passive (anvils) percussive tasks, specifically lithic production and potentially bone processing. These grounds stone tools are larger and heavier than the manuports. The hammerstones were preferentially made of quartz and quartzite, while the anvils are mostly of limestone. The limited build-up of use wear on the tools is interpreted as expedient use. The presence of post-depositional J Paleo Arch (2018)

show abstract

Experimental protocols for the study of battered stone anvils from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Cited by 90 publications

References 21 publications

Distance-decay effect in stone tool transport by wild chimpanzees

Distance-decay effect in stone tool transport by wild chimpanzees

The development of plant food processing in the Levant: insights from use-wear analysis of Early Epipalaeolithic ground stone tools

Middle Palaeolithic Percussive Tools from the Last Interglacial Site Neumark-Nord 2/2 (Germany) and the Visibility of Such Tools in the Archaeological Record

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About