Size and form in the analysis of flake debris: Review and recent approaches

Shott, Michael

doi:10.1007/bf02229424

Cited by 149 publications

(64 citation statements)

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“…In any case, we would recommend employing multiple methods when analyzing any assemblage to serve as a system of checks and balances. To aid in inter-site comparisons, a minimum set of attributes that is recorded in all studies as suggested by Shott (1994) still has merit. Insuring the validity of such comparisons may not be easy due to interobserver error, but the goal is worthy and necessary if we are to gain a fuller picture of the past.…”

Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2011

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The history of an organization of technology approach is complicated. Rather than trace specific strands, we examine its paradigm-like nature and connections to skeptical inquiry, as well as discussing the main studies influencing our own work. An examination and modification of a classic diagram of levels of analysis in this approach, especially the addition of a consideration of the life history of lithic artifacts, facilitates application. For such application, the importance and future of experimentation, both flintknapping and simulation, are discussed. Lithic analysts are called to identify a common assemblage which we can use to test our approaches and methods.This special issue is guest edited by Gilbert B. Tostevin (Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota). This is article #3 of 7. Throughout the development of behavioral research with stone tools, there is an interesting interplay of inductive and deductive reasoning, that is; between questions they ask, in the extreme: What can this stone tool tell us about behavior, and;What are the implications of behavior for stone tools? (Magne 1985: 22) I f the date for the opening quote from Martin Magne was not provided, the language would help place it in the heyday of processual archaeology. In the 1980s, processual archaeologists were interested in developing scientific methods to reconstruct human behavior, especially following Binford's (1981) call to link the static archaeological record with dynamic behavior by building middle range theory. Since that time, processual archaeology has undergone significant critique, theory wars have waged, and today there are a number of theoretical perspectives in contemporary archaeology, including "processual plus;" in some cases, individual archaeologists adopt an eclectic theoretical perspective (Hegmon 2003). Despite these changes, we still see much of use in the processual archaeology paradigm with some modifications, such as working to minimize and make explicit bias. While it is difficult to assess the current state of theory building in archaeology to determine if this constitutes a paradigmatic crisis (sensu T. Kuhn 1970), there remains a sense of normal science in the general activities of archaeologists. This makes for an interesting time to consider the epistemology of our approach to lithic analysis. In exploring this topic, we found ourselves best able to describe our personal involvement with the development of an organization of technology approach (referred to here as a "TO" approach following Cobb 2000) and identify directions for future research.Discussions of epistemology tend to simplify its meaning to how we know what we know. In this vein, Lett (1987: 11) defined epistemology as "the study of the nature and source of knowledge." However, these simplifications belie the actual complexity of explaining how we arrive at knowledge. There are numerous volumes outside of archaeology that address this philosophical issue and plenty of books and articles within the discipline tha...

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Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2011

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“…Differences in the size ratio of blank to finished tool might distinguish others. Debris-size distributions, of considerable theoretical and analytical value (Shott 1994), might differ as well.…”

Section: Inferring Reduction Sequencementioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2011

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The systematic production of usable flakes is often presented by lithic technologists as a rigid set of strategies or procedures to be followed in a step-by-step fashion. The quintessential example is the chaîne opératoire, developed by the French in the 1980s and widely applied today. An alternate view is that lithic reduction is a fluid behavioral set conditioned by an intimate familiarity with techniques and materials and tempered by environmental and situational circumstances. In an effort to address the 'how' and 'why' questions central to an epistemologically informed archaeology, and thus help lithic analysts from different research traditions better understand one another, we contrast models of discrete lithic reduction stages with those based on models of reduction continua. How we understand reduction influences how we interpret it. First, we summarize experimental data from North American bifacial reductions that can be modeled as continuous reduction processes using regression and principal components analyses. Then we apply these same methods to refitted cores from WHS 623x, an Upper Paleolithic site in west-central Jordan. The analysis shows that some aspects of lithic reduction are best modeled as continua, while others are better modeled as discrete. If reduction is continuous in some respects, it should be understood in continuous terms in those respects.This special issue is guest edited by Gilbert B. Tostevin (Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota). This is article #4 of 7. M any archaeologists view lithic reduction as a process that unfolds in essentially discrete, generalizable stages (e.g., Boëda 1993; Boëda et al. 1990;Callahan 1979). This view has a long history and can be traced to various sources. In the Old World, with its great time depth, it is often tied to assumptions and preconceptions about hominin cognitive evolution, with the implication that biology and culture are linked in a more or less linear fashion (e.g., Grahame Clark 1969, Foley and Lahr 1994), and that lithic typology and technology tend to co-vary with one another over space and time (e.g., Bar-Yosef 1994, 2002Bordes 1961;de Sonneville and Perrot 1953). In the New World, William Henry Holmes originated the reduction-sequence concept over a century ago (Holmes 1894;Shott 2003). But the possibility that reduction might be continuous in some cases and respects, shaped only by generalizable contingencies with which all Stone Age societies must contend, has seldom been addressed. Holmes apparently shared this view. He explicitly recognized that stages were analytical constructs, not revealed entities present in the minds of people long dead:"There can really be no line of demarcation separating the phenomena of one stage from those of another and there is a danger of the change being thought of as a definite and restricted episode, as marking a complete ending of one phase of existence, and as being a datum point from which to begin the study of the succeeding phase" (Holmes 1892: 248-249, cited in M...

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“…Ahler 1989;Austin 1997;Bradbury and Carr 1999;e.g. Bradley 1975;Flenniken 1981;Newcomer 1971;Odell 1989;Patterson 1982Patterson , 1990Patterson and Sollberger 1978;Shott 1996;Stahle and Dunn 1984;Steffen et al 1998;Baulmer and Downum 1989;Bradbury 1998;Bradbury and Carr 1999;Morrow 1997;Prentiss 1998;Prentiss and Romanski 1989;Root 1997;Shott 1994;Sullivan and Rozen 1985). Unfortunately, these analyses generally fail to demonstrate that the stages followed experimentally were those followed in the creation of the archaeological assemblage (as might be demonstrated through refitting for example) (Hiscock 1988;Newcomer 1975:98;Schindler et al 1984), or that the debitage resulting from each step can be reliably identified in archaeological contexts.…”

Section: Modelling Flake Reductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lithics in the land of the lightning brothers : The Archaeology of Wardaman Country, Northern Territory

Clarkson¹

2007

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terra australis 25Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. List of volumes in Terra AustralisVolume 1: Burrill Lake and Currarong: Coastal Sites in Southern New South Wales. R.J. Lampert (1971) Volume 2: Ol Tumbuna: Archaeological Excavations in the Eastern Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea. J.P. White (1972) Volume 3 6.7. Cores found at quarries associated with lancet flakes. Note the large amounts of cortex on both cores, the cortical platform on one (A) and the single conchoidal scar on the platform of the other (B). 92 6.8. Conjoined quartzite cores and lancet flakes from A: a quarry near Wynbarr waterhole (Site 17), B and C: a quarry near Garnawala 2. Illustration C shows the actual conjoined core, while A and B show reconstructions of the original nodules and the series of flake removals taken as a slice through the centre of the platform. 93 6.9. Graphs showing the mean and standard deviations for changes in various aspects of scraper morphology as reduction intensity increases, as measured using Kuhn's GIUR or % perimeter retouched. A: mean retouched edge angle, B: % step terminated retouch, C: % perimeter retouched, D: curvature of the retouched edge, and E: % with notches. 96 6.10. Graphic depiction of changes to the frequency and evenness with which retouch is distributed across eight segments as retouch increases. 97 6.11. A reduction model for scrapers from Wardaman Country. A-C: increasing reduction. 98 6.12. Graphs showing the selection of a restricted range of flake shapes for scraper manufacture. A: marginal angle and elongation, and B: marginal angle and cross-section. 100 6.13. Changes in the morphology of points over the reduction sequence. A and B: changes in weight, and C: changes in the % of perimeter retouched. 103 6.14. Changes in point cross-section measured in two ways. A: lateral cross-section (width:thickness ratio), and B: longitudinal cross-section (length:thickness ratio). ForewordAlthough Chris Clarkson journeyed to the remote Victoria River region of the Northern Territory to investigate the prehistoric past, it is not the exotic location of the s...

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Size and form in the analysis of flake debris: Review and recent approaches

Cited by 149 publications

References 62 publications

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Lithics in the land of the lightning brothers : The Archaeology of Wardaman Country, Northern Territory

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