Paleolithic (Other Keyword)
151-175 (409 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Toward the end of the Paleolithic, foragers have been inferred to render small amounts of fat from cancellous bone in a process known as bone grease rendering (BGR). As the goal is to extract additional energy from each animal, the technology possibly emerged in response to seasonal resource stress. BGR is presently associated with the Holocene; more...
Imports and Outcrops: Characterizing the Baantu Obsidian Source and Artifacts from Mochena Borago Rockshelter, Wolaita, Ethiopia, Using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Material Sourcing and Provenience Studies in Africa" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Forty-two obsidian samples from the Baantu obsidian source, including 25 outcrop samples and 17 surface artifacts, were characterized using portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. These source data were then compared to 116 obsidian artifacts from Mochena Borago Rockshelter, excavated from levels dated to >50 ka BP...
In and "Out" of the Cave: Queerness on the Upper Paleolithic Funerary Landscape (2018)
Amongst many other facets of human life, the practice of burying the dead demarcates and changes a space, it becomes imbued and entwined with the identity of the deceased. The physical act of placing a body into the ground is a place-making practice, a performative act, and, in the process, the place becomes gendered. This has been true since the origins of burial practices in the human lineage, dating to at least the early Upper Paleolithic, and perhaps earlier. This paper is a preliminary...
An In-Depth Study of the Arma Veirana Pierced Shells and Pendants used as Grave Goods (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the 2017 excavation season at Arma Veirana, a cave site located in the Italian pre-Alps, a Final Epigravettian burial was discovered. Careful excavation of the feature has uncovered an important number of grave goods comprised of over 80 perforated marine shells. The majority of these ornaments were made from...
The Influence of Raw Material Availability on Lithic Assemblage Variability in the Koobi Fora Fm. (Kenya) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A defining feature of human tool use compared to our closest living relatives is the transport of tools. This distinction is most evident in the Early Stone Age where transport is a feature of even the earliest industries. Spatial variability in raw material proportions has often been assumed to reflect transport patterns; however, these measures must be...
Insights into the Late Upper Paleolithic of the Northern Adriatic from Ljubićeva Cave, Istria (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research on the Paleolithic in the Mediterranean Region" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of past and recent systematic research on the late Upper Paleolithic carried out in Ljubićeva Cave near Marčana, Croatia. The first excavations of the site occurred between 2008 and 2011 and yielded late Upper Paleolithic as well as Neolithic and Bronze Age discoveries. Since 2019, systematic...
Integrating Fracture Mechanics into the Design and Implementation of Controlled Lithic Experiments (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The underlying physics of stone tool production is an important component in the studies of lithic technology. The field of fracture mechanics offers rich literature on the basic principles of flake initiation, propagation, and termination. However, results from these fracture mechanics...
Integrating Research Methods with Local Regulations: Designing the Excavation and Proveniencing System for the Middle Paleolithic Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Theoretically informed research methods are only as good as the ability of the research team to put the methods into action. Between the well-intentioned plans of the PIs and the successful elucidation of fascinating anthropological questions lie the practicalities of...
An Integrative Approach to Cave, Open-Air and Underwater Mousterian Sites of Dalmatia (Croatia) (2018)
Paleolithic sites situated in the Hrvatsko zagorje region of north-western Croatia (Krapina, Vindija) are well known because they contain important finds of fossil human remains associated with both faunal remains and lithic industry. However, in recent years, work on Mousterian sites in Dalmatia (south Croatia) has intensified. It focuses on three types of sites, (caves, open-air, and an underwater site) as well as on a systematic survey of the region. This poster briefly presents one of each...
Interactions between Hominins and Mammalian Faunas in Southern Asia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As early humans and Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa, they encountered diverse communities of mammalian faunas in Asia. Here we document hominin migrations out of Africa over the last 500,000 years, discussing the degree to which humans interacted with faunas in Arabia and South Asia. Climate change seems to be the primary reason for the demise...
Interpreting Small-Scale, Intra-site Spatial Variation of Finds from the MSA Deposits at Sibudu Cave, South Africa (2018)
Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is a key Middle Stone Age site that provides a high-resolution stratigraphic record of cultural change. The sequence from Sibudu is well-dated and has been the focus of intense geoarchaeological research. This paper examines the spatial distribution of lithic artifacts, faunal remains, worked ochre, burnt materials and botanical finds to see if these distributions provide meaningful information on the changing use of space at the site. The study will...
Investigating Human Origins in the Kalahari Basin: New Results from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances and Debates in the Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Investigations of the southern African Middle Stone Age archaeological record are transforming our understanding of Homo sapiens origins and evolution, however, the intensity of research on coastal and near-coastal Middle Stone Age (MSA) records has outweighed that on the deep interior record. The North of Kuruman...
Investigating Stone Tool Recycling Behaviors in Surface Deposits in the Semizbugu Mountains, Kazakhstan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The surface site complex of Semizbugu is a well-known Paleolithic site in Pribalkhash, Kazakhstan. Tens of thousands of artifacts from all Paleolithic periods have been collected from 11 different locations across this landscape between 1961 and 2013. During our 2022 field season, we conducted a new study at Semizbugu. We...
Investigating the Formation History of Surface Archaeology in the Doring River Valley, South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Southern Africa’s Late Pleistocene archaeology is pursued through the lens of rockshelter deposits. However, their spatial coverage is small and geographically biased, distorting our understanding of human behavioral evolution. To overcome this, researchers are...
Investigating the Impact of a Recent Wildfire on Tortoises at Cape Point, South Africa: Implications for Our Understanding of Ancient Pyrotechnology and Its Uses (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists commonly interpret burnt materials at archaeological sites as relicts of human fire use activities, but processes other than human fire use may create burnt materials. Here, we examine if wildfires would leave specific heating signatures regarding the temperature or heating pattern on the skeleton that would be different from...
Investigating the Nature and Timing of the Earliest Human Occupation of North America Using a Lipid Biomarker Approach (2018)
Coprolites contain a suite of lipid biomolecules and are an invaluable source of palaeobiological and palaeoecological information. The identification of faecal matter through the presence of highly-specific lipid biomarkers (5β-stanols and bile acids) has been used to identify and characterise faecal input from a range of different sources. Differentiation of these faecal markers is enabled through the diet, digestion and metabolism of the source animal. Lipid analysis of coprolites has also...
An Investigation into Ochres from Arene Candide Cave: Implications for Mineralogical Properties and Provenance Studies in the Liguria Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Arene Candide Cave, a key sequence for western Mediterranean prehistory, became famous in 1942 after the discovery of a Gravettian adolescent buried in a pit filled with ochre and spectacularly ornamented. At the end of the last glaciation, with a similar choice, at least 20 Final Epigravettian burials were...
Investigation of Thermal Alteration of Dry Bone via Spectroscopic Analysis (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The initial status of bone prior to burning and thermal alteration influences the resultant chemical and structural composition, monitored in this study with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) attachment. Fresh, fully hydrated mammalian cortical bone and dry mammalian cortical bone, with...
Is Analogical Reference Possible for the Earliest Paleoarchaeological Assemblages? (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Inference in Paleoarchaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is no consensus about how to define the first paleoarchaeological record, or how old it is. An assemblage of flaked stone artifacts from Lomekwi 3, Kenya, dates to 3.3 million years ago. Two fossil specimens at the 3.34-million-year-old site of Dikika-55, Ethiopia, preserve butchery marks on their surfaces. The strength of interpretation that these...
Is It Only the Blank Size That Matters? The Effect of Edge Segmentation on Lithic Blank Cutting-Edge Efficiency (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lithic blank/tool efficiency has been the subject of some experimental research in the last two decades. However, most of the research has largely been focused on the general morphology of the edge (straight, convex, or concave), or on some specific characteristic such as angle or the length of the cutting portion. What has not received attention is the...
Is There (and What Is) a “Nubian-Levallois” from the Etic Perspective of Flake and Fracture Formation? (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lithic experimentation and the understanding of the so-called nubian-levallois technology are just two among many aspects of Harold’s legacy. The results of so far the only controlled experiment on core surface morphology, some of which resembles nubian-levallois in featuring a prominent...
Island Arrivals: the Ideal Free Distribution and Prey Choice Models in Neolithic Taiwan and Beyond (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Neolithic transition of Taiwan, current evidence indicates that farmer-gardeners immigrated from China's southeast coast about 6,000 BP and brought a diverse subsistence of cultivation, foraging, and fishing. The migration would have influenced habitat choice and interactions with Paleolithic foragers already existed in residence. The Ideal Free...
Isotopic tracking of trophic relationships (predation, competition, commensalism) between paleolithic humans and predators (2017)
Predators are usually considered not so informative in zooarchaeological investigations, except when their bones carry cut-marks. They are more viewed as a disturbing factor for the bone assemblage. However, tracking their paleoecology using stable isotopes in their bones can yield valuable information on several key aspects of their relationships with paleolithic human populations. Especially carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic composition in bone collagen of predators compared to those of...
Knapping for the Thrill of It? The Non-Conservation of Raw Materials at Middle Paleolithic Sites (2018)
Open-air Middle Paleolithic sites in France are characterized by dense piles of lithic material surrounded by low density "empty" areas. Spatial analysis can be used to segregate lithics artifacts based on whether they are located in the high or low density zones. This analysis is supported by the spatial tracking of refitting sets. The results indicate that high density zones likely correspond with knapping locations and low density areas contain lithics selected from the knapped material for...
Landscape Connectivity, Habitat Suitability and Cultural Transmission during the Last Glacial Maximum in Western Europe (2018)
During the Last Glacial Maximum the population of Western Europe contracted its range as the climate became less hospitable and more unpredictable. Mobility decisions must have been a key part of human adaptation during this time but are notoriously difficult to extract from archaeological data. Agent-based modelling offers one way to explore human mobility heuristically, producing test implications that can be tested using the archaeological record. We use a model of habitat suitability derived...