Paleolithic (Other Keyword)
351-375 (409 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Gravettian is a slice of human history that takes place during prehistory from 32 to 22 ka BP in Europe (from the Urals to the south of the Iberian Peninsula). This long period of our history was mostly built on lithic industries models with limited consideration for evidence of other technical and cultural practices, like coloring materials. Based on the...
Taught or Copied? Using 2-Mode Network Visualization to Distinguish between the Two (2018)
Traditional research on European Upper Paleolithic social networks rely on raw material sourcing as well as the distribution of similar "artistic" styles. This project aims to improve the methods of the latter. While similar representations found in different sites have often been assumed to represent the presence of social contacts between those sites, the possibility that such representations were exchanged or even simply copied without direct contact has always loomed over researchers’ head....
A Techno-morphological Analysis of Gravettian Stone Tools from Four Sites, Dordogne, France (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We examine techno-morphological attributes of Gravettian tools from four sites in the Dordogne region of France to argue truncated elements were not recycled broken Gravette points. Truncated elements were the focus of a specific chaîne opératoire to produce tools for composite hunting technology.Our previous work at La Grotte Seize and La Ferrassie support...
A Techno-morphological Analysis of Gravettian Stone Tools from La Grotte Seize and La Ferrassie, Dordogne, France (2016)
The Gravettian cultural sequence has become of greater interest to Paleolithic scholars now that the relationships of previous industries have been sorted out. Our focus here is on Gravettian truncated elements. Morpho-typology suggests that this tool type is a recycled, broken Gravette point. We suggest that truncated elements were deliberately produced tools used as different armatures than Gravette points based on techno-morphological differences. We suggest that truncated elements were part...
Technological and Methodological Developments in Approaches to Species Identification: Advancements in Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. ZooMS, or ‘Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry’, is a relatively recently developed method in the field of archaeology, with the ability to identify large numbers of fragmentary animal bone to genus or species level. Most importantly, its advantages over ancient DNA-based approaches of identification are that it can be...
Technological Organization on the Paleo-Agulhas Plain: Robberg Lithic Technology from Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (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. Lithic technological organization is based on the landscape-scale distribution and availability of resources. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the landscape off the southern coast of South Africa was a different world than it is today. At its most extreme, the...
The Technological Sequence of Heuningneskrans (Limpopo, South Africa) around the Time of the Last Glacial Maximum (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. The southern African region comprises a mosaic of biomes influenced by various physical and atmospheric parameters. Pleistocene hunter-gatherer societies would have exploited those biomes differently, which would have contributed to generate different lithic...
Technological, Typological and Forensic Analysis of the Small Finds from the Early Middle Paleolithic Beds at Tabun Cave, Israel. (2015)
Tabun Cave, Israel, has provided the reference sequence for the Late Lower and Middle Paleolithic in the Levant. Re-excavation by Jelinek (1968-73) recovered a large sample of lithics including over 23,000 small finds. This paper reports the first detailed typological, technological and forensic analysis of the small lithics from beds 60 to 68, the Early Middle Paleolithic (EMP) "D-Type" Levallois Mousterian. These pieces provide clues to lithic reduction sequences, as well as examples of...
Temporal Changes in Obsidian Procurement Strategy during the Upper Paleolithic on Hokkaido (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Obsidian Studies of the Old and New Worlds" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Reconstruction of obsidian procurement strategies based on systematic obsidian sourcing analysis in the Upper Paleolithic on Hokkaido will provides an important basis for examining several key issues of human evolutionary history, including how modern humans adapted to the cold, harsh environment of the north, and how these...
Testing the Danube-Corridor-Hypothesis—New Results from Chonometric Modelling of the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic Biocultural Shift (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic biocultural shift is an important turning point for Human Evolution. As Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) enter Europe, Neanderthals disappear, eventually leaving AMH as the only representative of their species. To understand the trajectory of AMH dispersal, and the processes underlying this biocultural shift, a robust...
Testing Theoretical Approaches for Inferring Hominin Behavior at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis and Human Origins: Archaeological Perspectives" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent debates in anthropology surround the utility of human behavioral ecological (HBE) approaches for inferring archaeological phenomena. Criticisms of popular HBE approaches, including optimal foraging theory (OFT), challenge the assumption that humans will always maximize their behavior. Thus, these...
That High Lonesome Sound: The MIS 5a (~80 ka) Middle Stone Age Lithic Assemblages from Melikane Rockshelter, Highland Lesotho (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. Multidisciplinary research suggests Marine Isotope Stage 5 (~130–74 ka) was an important evolutionary stage in African deep history. Population expansion and growth spurred changes in material culture and the exploration of previously unoccupied regions and...
To What Extent Is the Concept of Convergence Applicable to Lithic Technology: An Overview (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. For many Paleolithic archaeologists, it is important to determine whether similar characteristics of lithic artifacts and/or assemblages resulted from convergent evolution because this may help us better understand the evolutionary developments of stone artifact technologies from H....
Tool Fragments from the Late Lower Paleolithic of Tabun Cave, Israel (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Acheulo-Yabrudian (A-Y) is the final manifestation of the Lower Paleolithic of the Levant. This paper reports on numerous A-Y tool fragments discovered among the small finds collected during the Jelinek excavation of Tabun Cave, Israel. Tabun is the longest stratified Paleolithic sequence in the Eastern Mediterranean and includes all three facies of the...
Total Station Archaeology: Digging the Dibble Way (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The methods that we use to excavate archaeological sites shape the resulting data in an unchangeable manner and have significant downstream impacts on our ability to study and interpret our data. In 1987 Harold Dibble published “Measurement of Artifact Provenience with an Electronic...
Toward standardization of lithic use-wear identification in conjunction with technological organization and raw material variability (2017)
The paper examines theoretical problems concerning characteristics of lithic micro-wear traces in the Paleolithic. Use-wear studies already experienced 40 years of research since the discovery of micro-polish varieties which reflect worked materials with wide applications to site structure analysis. However, global standardization of identification criteria still needs comparative efforts, especially on raw material variability and behavioral diversity among regional settlement and subsistence...
Toward the Remote Identification of Stone Tools in Submerged, Buried Contexts Using Acoustics (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the inception of geophysical survey, archaeologists have longed for the ability to detect the presence or absence of artifacts in buried contexts remotely. This ability is particularly desirable underwater, where accuracy in site location and efficiency in excavation are paramount given the expense and logistical burden associated with performing...
Tracing Ice Age Artistic Communities: 3D Digital Modeling Finger Flutings (2018)
Finger flutings are lines and markings drawn with the human hand in soft cave sediment in caves and rock shelters throughout southern Australia, New Guinea and southwestern Europe, dating back to the Late Pleistocene. Two decades ago, Kevin Sharpe and Leslie Van Gelder developed a rigorous methodological framework for the measurement and analysis of finger flutings that allows researchers to identify characteristics of the creators, such as age, sex and group sizes. However, despite a...
Tracing Late Quaternary Highland-Dryland Social Connectivity in Southern Africa with Ostrich Eggshell Bead Strontium Values: Preliminary Results (2018)
Humans have frequented southern Africa’s highest reaches – Lesotho’s Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains – for ≥90,000 years. As with many high mountain systems worldwide, the Maloti-Drakensberg cast a rainshadow over closely neighboring arid lowlands (the eastern Karoo Desert). Based on previous archaeological and paleoenvironmental work in highland Lesotho, researchers have posited that source populations for human dispersals into the mountain zone often originated in the Karoo, particularly during...
Tracking Paleoaridity through Multi-isotope Analyses of Ostrich Eggshells at Spitzkloof Rockshelter A, South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotopes in ratite eggshells record information about the birds’ diet during shell formation, making them valuable proxies for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Here we present the results of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen stable isotope analyses in ostrich (Struthio camelus australis) eggshell (OES) collected in excavation at Spitzkloof A, a rock...
TThe Use of Shells as Personal Ornaments in Liguria during the Upper Paleolithic: A Review (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of Liguria: Recent Research and Insights" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Personal ornaments are commonly attributed to a modern human dispersal in western Asia and Europe, representing a veritable key tool for understanding the human dispersal out of Africa. Objects loaded with symbolic meaning such as beads made from modified marine shells were largely used during the Upper Paleolithic in...
Understanding the Short-term Occupations of the Lateglacial and Early Mesolithic Groups in Western Europe (2017)
Prehistoric archaeology is now focusing on past hunter-gatherers societies behaviors and relationships with their environments. In Western France, the Late glacial and the Early Holocene were the stage of an important research dynamic. The chrono-cultural organization has been revised relying in particular on the excavation of new key sites. This research shed greater light on the human territories and paleo-economic behaviors. Understanding human mobility depends on our control of time linked...
An Undisturbed Earlier Stone Age Locality on the Southern Coast of South Africa, Exposed by Fire (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Knysna Estuary and River Basin on the southern coast of South Africa provided attractive resources for Pleistocene foragers. Isolated Earlier Stone Age (ESA) finds, including large bifacially flaked core tools, are commonly found in upland areas around the basin, particularly during construction projects, but dense vegetation cover has thus far prevented...
The Unexpected Fauna of Pleistocene Saudi Arabia and the Earliest Evidence of Hominin Butchery Activity (2018)
Work in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia, has been fundamental for establishing the importance of the Arabian Peninsula for Pleistocene hominin populations and their dispersals out of Africa. Recent palaeontological and archaeological exploration in the Western Nefud Desert has uncovered numerous fossiliferous palaeolake deposits and associated archaeology. Fossil assemblages include taxa with both African and Eurasian affinities and indicate a greater diversity in large mammals than resides in...
Unmodified Cobbles and Boulders from the Middle Stone Age Occupation of Witberg 1, Southern Kalahari, South Africa (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Witberg 1 is an open-air Middle Stone Age (MSA) occupation within diatom-rich sediments in the southern Kalahari, suggestive of a small ancient lake system (~360,000–140,000 years-ago). The occupation horizon is dense with flakes, blades, cores, and MSA points, mostly less than 10 cm. However, there are numerous...