The Spear Horizon: First spatial analysis of the Schöningen site 13 II-4

A detailed analysis of the spatial distribution of Schöningen 13II-4 ‘Spear Horizon’ faunal remains

“…Among the sites, Schöningen 13II-4 (site 13, channel II, level 4) contained the richest deposit of archaeological finds. The level 4 'Spear Horizon' was divided into four sedimentological layers (4a, 4b, 4b/c, and 4c), but most of the finds were recovered from layer 4b, a 20-40 cm thick layer of dark brown, organic-rich, silt (Böhner et al, 2015;. The presence of some archaeological materials in other layers can be explained by percolation from layer 4b, due to the wet depositional context or trampling.…”

“…Despite its exceptional record, only recently have some of the first spatial analyses been presented (Böhner et al, 2015;Hutson et al, 2020;Peters and van Kolfschoten, 2020).…”

Detecting human activity areas in Middle Palaeolithic open-air sites in Northern France from the distribution of faunal remains

“…Taphonomic conditions often interfere with the conservation of faunal remains, and, as a result, the spatial analysis of Middle Palaeolithic faunal remains is underdeveloped in relation to the analysis of lithic remains. Apart from several rare exceptions (Gabucio et al, 2018), spatial studies are often limited to the distribution of remains classified by size, or by the degree of combustion for the study and identification of hearths (Böhner et al, 2015;Spagnolo et al, 2018;Vaquero et al, 2017). Given this context, this article focuses on the application of our spatial analysis protocol to the faunal assemblages from the sites of Caours and Beauvais.…”

“…The high variability of the methods used to this end results from the complexity to find one single method adapted to the largest diversity of datasets -size, distribution schema… (Harpole et al, 2014). Among the methods applied to Palaeolithic contexts, the trial and error approach is one of the most developed (Alperson-Afil et al, 2009;Böhner et al, 2015;Clark, 2017;Neruda, 2017;Oron and Goren-Inbar, 2014). This approach is relatively simple to apply but is extremely time-consuming and not very objective, which raises reproducibility issues (Harpole et al, 2014).…”

Formation processes at the early Late Pleistocene archaic human site of Lingjing, China

“…Artefact properties, such as size profiles, abrasion, rounding, spatial distributions, and orientations, are commonly used as proxies of preservation for archaeological assemblages (e.g., Isaac, 1967;Schick, 1984Schick, , 1986Bertran and Texier, 1995;Shea, 1999;Lenoble and Bertran, 2004;McPherron, 2005;Kuman and Field, 2009;Bernatchez, 2010;Braun et al, 2013;Hovers et al, 2014;Lotter et al, 2016). With reference to the latter, in recent years spatial analysis using Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques has increasingly been used (Alperson-Afil et al, 2009; Benito-Calvo and de la Torre, 2011; Gallotti et al, 2011;Böhner et al, 2015;de la Torre and Wehr, in press).…”