The Uses of Cultural Phylogenetics in Archaeology

Straffon, Larissa Mendoza

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11117-5_8

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 48 publications

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“…Our seriation identifies a clear-cut difference in preferred ornament types between sites roughly located east and west of the 112°E longitude, as well as a chronological continuity encompassing the period between 40 and 10 ka in the West, and a shorter timespan, 40 to 25 ka, during which different ornament types were used in the East. Seriation, however, or any other multivariate analysis to which archaeological data may be subjected, does not disclose, in and of itself, the factor or factors that have shaped the resulting pattern (Shennan, 2009;García Rivero, 2016;Straffon, 2019). It has been cautioned that continuity or regionalization of environmental conditions, convergent evolution and particular artifact functions may constitute main drivers of these trends (Lyman and O'Brien, 2006;Shennan, 2009).…”

Section: Personal Ornaments and Late Pleistocene Population Dynamics In Northern Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Zhoukoudian Upper Cave personal ornaments and ochre: Rediscovery and reevaluation

d’Errico

Martí

Wei

et al. 2021

Journal of Human Evolution

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Personal ornaments have become a key cultural proxy to investigate cognitive evolution, modern human dispersal and population dynamics. Here we reassess personal ornaments found at Zhoukoudian Upper Cave and compare them with those from other Late Paleolithic Northern Chinese sites. We reappraise the information provided by Pei Wen Chung on Upper Cave personal ornaments lost during WWII and analyze casts of 17 of them, along with two unpublished objects displayed at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum and three original perforated teeth rediscovered at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum. We apply archeozoological, technological and use-wear analyses to document variation in ornamental practices and their change throughout the site stratigraphy. Badger, fox, red deer, sika deer, marten and tiger teeth as well as carp bone, bird bone, Anadara shell, limestone beads and perforated pebble appear to have been the preferred objects used as ornaments by Upper Cave visitors. Multivariate analysis of technological data highlights a correspondence between cultural layers and perforation techniques, with radial incising being typical of layer L2 and bidirectional incising of L4. The three rediscovered badger canines display features suggesting they were sewed on clothing rather than suspended from necklaces or bracelets. Elemental (SEM-EDS) and mineralogical (µ-Raman) analyses of red residues adhering to the rediscovered teeth indicate these objects were originally coated with ochre and identify variations that match differences in technology. The two ornaments exhibited at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum are ancient teeth that were recently perforated and should be excluded from the Upper Cave assemblage. A seriation of Late Paleolithic ornaments found at Northern Chinese sites identifies a clear-cut difference in preferred ornament types between western and eastern sites, interpreted as reflecting two longlasting traditions in garment symbolic codes.

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Section: Personal Ornaments and Late Pleistocene Population Dynamics In Northern Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Zhoukoudian Upper Cave personal ornaments and ochre: Rediscovery and reevaluation

d’Errico

Martí

Wei

et al. 2021

Journal of Human Evolution

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Archaeology and Epigraphy in the Digital Era

Matsumoto

2021

J Archaeol Res

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More than the Sum of their Parts?

Coward

2023

Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology

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Cognitive evolution is driven by network variables, including adaptive changes in group size, population density and effective population size, and the connectivity among individuals and groups. Concepts and methods developed to study networks offer enormous potential for studying cognitive evolution, providing practical analytical methods for handling the archaeological and anthropological data sets that comprise the only hard evidence for it. In addition, they also offer valuable tools for understanding key features of hominin cognition and the selective pressures driving its evolution. Accordingly, this chapter reviews the theoretical and practical bases for the application of network concepts and methods to the investigation of hominin and human cognition.

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The Uses of Cultural Phylogenetics in Archaeology

Cited by 3 publications

References 48 publications

Zhoukoudian Upper Cave personal ornaments and ochre: Rediscovery and reevaluation

Zhoukoudian Upper Cave personal ornaments and ochre: Rediscovery and reevaluation

Archaeology and Epigraphy in the Digital Era

More than the Sum of their Parts?

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