Skill Matters

Bleed, Peter

doi:10.1007/s10816-007-9046-0

Cited by 70 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Sin embargo, podemos objetivar el juicio sobre lo que tradicionalmente se ha denominado oficio, asimilándolo a un aspecto particular del conocimiento tecnológico; esta vía nos permite compararlo con otras tecnologías y destrezas (Bleed 2008). La regularidad sería una de las señas de identidad del buen oficio; en este sentido contamos con una producción abundante en número de ejemplares, aunque reducida en número de hallazgos.…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Arqueometría y contexto artesanal de los discos áureos de Fortios (Portalegre, Alto Alentejo, Portugal)

2017

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A partir del estudio topográfico y el análisis elemental de cuatro ejemplares del conjunto portugués definimos un tipo de objeto de oro poco conocido y recogemos todos los hallazgos realizados hasta la fecha. Argumentamos la conveniencia de adecuar la técnica analítica al problema planteado para obtener resultados fiables, que en nuestro caso nos han permitido observar procesos técnicos de soldadura con material de menor punto de fusión. El estudio comparativo con otros datos analíticos de hallazgos similares nos permite reconstruir el ámbito tecnológico, de carácter mediterráneo, en el que se inscriben. Finalmente, el contexto arqueológico entre los siglos VIII y VII a.C. y las características de taller los sitúan entre las producciones artesanales del periodo orientalizante en el cuadrante suroccidental peninsular.

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Section: Discussionunclassified

Arqueometría y contexto artesanal de los discos áureos de Fortios (Portalegre, Alto Alentejo, Portugal)

2017

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“…These assemblages come from the Kakuniyama and the Arraya sites located in Central Honshu (Bleed 1996(Bleed , 2008.…”

Section: Models Of Microblade Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Kakuniyama knappers, for example, resorted to a variety of rejuvenation techniques that the Araya microblade makers got along without. Since these differences parallel the availability of raw material, they suggest that skill is a technological variable that could develop in response to local conditions (Bleed 2008). With its relative abundance of flakable stone, Kakuniyama may have been a place where knappers practiced the skills and learned the process of microblade production.…”

Section: Cognitive Management Of Sequential Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2011

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Sequential analysis has become a well established means of describing the operation of past activities. As their applications have expanded, the nature and implications of the models archaeologists have developed for the consideration of sequential activities have come into focus and debate. Difference in the steps used to produce microblades in two terminal Paleolithic sites in Japan exposes "breadth" and "depth" in routinized activities. Ideas from modern psychology can augment archaeological use of sequence models to reveal how technological information was organized and in that way help to address cognitive aspects of archaeologically observed behaviors.This special issue is guest edited by Gilbert B. Tostevin (Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota). This is article #2 of 7.T reating routine activities in sequential terms has become an extremely popular archaeological research tactic. In particular, modeling the production and use of stone tools as a series of actions that can be recognized by distinctive materials has provided archaeologists with a powerful means of addressing issues such as how ancient individuals and communities made tools (Callahan 1979), managed raw materials (Kuhn 1991), moved across large and small landscapes (Blades 2003;Hofman 2003), and designed technical systems (Goodyear 1975). Beyond their analytical utility, archaeologists also have considered the theoretical significance of sequential models of behaviors (Bleed 2001;Mesoudi and O'Brien 2008;Shott 2003). In particular, the chaîne opératioire concept, an approach to sequence modeling developed by French archaeologists, has drawn great theoretical attention and has recently been the topic of a major synthetic presentation by Ofer Bar-Yosef and Philip Van Peer (2009). Given all of this, one might ask if anything more needs to be said about archaeological uses of sequence models.A strongly positive response to that question is offered by Frederick Coolidge and Thomas Wynn (2009: 97ff) in their recent synthesis of Paleolithic archaeology presented in terms of cognitive science. In their view, the ability to manage sequential activities and to move routinely through series of decision points marks an important development of the hominin mind. This ability was the context of cranial growth and expansion of the motor cortex that marked the development of long-term memory capacity. Coolidge and Wynn's provocative consideration of a demonstrably powerful archaeological tool invites further consideration of the thought processes reflected by archaeological sequence models. This paper seeks to do that and sets the modest goal of suggesting that psychological research might expand the interpretive power of archaeological sequence models. MODELS OF MICROBLADE PRODUCTIONTo provide a specific archaeological example of how archaeological sequence models can address past behavior I will call on models developed for two Japanese microblade assemblages dating from the terminal Pleistocene in Japan. These assemblages come fro...

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“…Working memory is the capacity to integrate moment-to-moment perception with archival information (Baddeley 1988;Coolidge and Wynn 2001). The practice required to master stone knapping and the inherent unpredictability of individual knapping sequences (Bamforth and Finlay 2008;Bleed 2008;Geribàs et al 2010;Nonaka et al 2010;Stout 2002) make knapping a good candidate for an activity that is demanding on working memory. Each flaking strategy in the mind of the knapper must be continually reappraised and adapted in light of the somewhat unpredictable nature of flake removals and the encounter of any internal imperfections in the stone.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous approaches to knapping skill include considerations of the presence of successes or failures in the knapping sequence (Bleed 2008;de la Torre 2004;Delagnes and Roche 2005), experimental attempts to identify markers of knapping skill in the individual (Eren et al 2011b), ethnographic reconstructions of complex knapping sequences (Stout 2002), and analyses of the effect of raw material quality on knapping skill (Brantingham et al 2000;Eren et al 2011c). In experiments and the archaeological record, successive step or hinge terminations, overshot flakes, flakes with an undesired morphology, percussor marks attempted too far from the platform edge or on platforms of unsuitable angles have all been used as evidence of comparatively unskilful knapping (de la Torre 2004; Delagnes and Roche 2005;Eren et al 2011b;Eren et al 2011c;Finlay 2008;Geribàs et al 2010;Harmand et al 2015;Nonaka et al 2010;Shelley 1990).…”

Section: Skillmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of experimental knapping in empirically testing key themes in the evolution of lithic technology: reduction intensity, efficiency and behavioural complexity

Muller¹

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Experimental knapping has complimented and stimulated lithic analyses for over a century.Throughout this period, the discipline has witnessed an increase in the scientific rigour and theoretical grounding with which these studies are conducted. This thesis charts these key trends and in doing so establishes a best-practice model of experimental knapping, the veracity of which is in turn tested using four new lithic experiments. These case-studies employ experimental knapping to advance our understanding of flake platform measurement, reduction intensity, technological efficiency, and behavioural complexity.The first case-study, Chapter 3, offers a more accurate and precise calliper-based method of flake platform measurement that relies on simple geometric approximations of platform shape rather than the inflexible and unreliable existing method of multiplying platform width by thickness. In Chapter 4, a new reduction intensity metric for backed blades, a hitherto overlooked tool-type, is developed and tested on the backed blades from an early Neolithic site in Turkey. This new metric allows a reconstruction of the raw material consumption patterns at the site, finding that the backed blades These four case-studies, coupled with a consideration of existing knapping experiments, allow an understanding of how experimental knapping is embedded in the broader archaeological research process, and ultimately tests the efficacy of a best-practice model of experimental knapping. This model identifies the initial scope, methodological control, and breadth of interpretations as the key variables dictating the validity of an experiment. While knapping experiments may differ markedly in their scope and control, they do not necessarily vary in their validity. Instead, it is the interplay of these variables that dictates the validity of experimentation. Within this best-practice model, lithic experiments are most robust when the scale of the initial scope, methodological control and ensuing interpretations are congruent, and when they involve explicit and falsifiable hypothesis testing.iii

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Skill Matters

Cited by 70 publications

References 16 publications

Arqueometría y contexto artesanal de los discos áureos de Fortios (Portalegre, Alto Alentejo, Portugal)

Arqueometría y contexto artesanal de los discos áureos de Fortios (Portalegre, Alto Alentejo, Portugal)

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The role of experimental knapping in empirically testing key themes in the evolution of lithic technology: reduction intensity, efficiency and behavioural complexity

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