geometric morphometrics (Other Keyword)

1-20 (20 Records)

Allometry, Modularity, and Integration: Applying Biological Concepts and Statistical Tests to Stone Tool Shapes (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only David Thulman. Michael Shott. Justin Williams. Alan Slade.

This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most landmark-based geometric morphometric statistical analyses of stone tools are lifted from biological applications. The concepts are not always directly applicable, leading to unfounded interpretations of statistical results. Sometimes the problem is an imprecise definition of terms, but often the problem is an imperfect translation of a...


Aurignacian Projectile Points Do Not Represent a Proxy for the Initial Dispersal of Homo sapiens into Europe: Insights from Geometric Morphometrics (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Luc Doyon.

It has been argued that Aurignacian projectile points made of antler, bone, or ivory represent a proxy for the initial dispersal of Homo sapiens into Europe. Our research reassesses this claim by using geometric morphometric analysis to study 547 Aurignacian osseous implements recovered from 49 European sites. This approach allowed the identification of eight volumetric templates reproduced by Aurignacian artisans during the manufacture of split-based points. Two templates were identified for...


Current Methodological Considerations in the Application of Two-Dimensional Geometric Morphometrics within Handaxe Assemblages (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Christian Hoggard. Cory Cuthbertson.

In the construction of past hominin behaviour, frameworks emphasise the role of morphological variation within a particular artefact class, as deviations and commonalities in shape exemplify conscious/unconscious decisions by past populations and individuals. For early prehistory this is best illustrated through discussions of shape variance, and its role in understanding cognition and aspects of cultural transmission. In the formal categorisation of handaxe shape variance, within a statistical...


Divergence of Domestic Dog Morphology through Deep Time (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Keith Dobney. Ardern Hulme-Beaman. Carly Ameen. Allowen Evin. Thomas Cucchi.

The modern domestic dog is behaviourally and morphologically far removed from its ancient counterpart. Increasingly, research has demonstrated that using modern comparative collections for identifying domestic animals in archaeological contexts is problematic. This is likely the result of the intensive breeding that modern animals have undergone in at least the last two centuries. It is unclear how far back the current modern morphology of dogs goes, or how different ancient dogs were from their...


Exploring Cranial Vault Modification in the Andes Using 3D Imaging Methods (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Esteban Rangel. Susan Kuzminsky.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Intentional cranial vault modification (CVM) has long been considered to be a permanent marker of social identity widely practiced among ancient Andean communities. CVM styles are broadly categorized into annular and tabular types among ancient Andean communities, yet there is substantial variability of among them. In this study, we use three-dimensional...


Florida’s Fluted Paleoindian Points: A Reassessment of the Typology (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only David Thulman.

Paleoindian points from Florida are different from the rest of the Southeast. Instrument-assisted fluting was never adopted, and Florida produced some apparently post-Clovis forms that are unlike any elsewhere. Several attempts have been made to sort out the myriad forms. This attempt uses landmark-based geometric morphometrics to more objectively distinguish fluted point forms.


Fluted-point technology and the nature of its transmission in the Western Canadian Ice-free Corridor (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Smith.

Recent analyses suggest that Paleoindian stage technology in the archaeological record of the Western Canadian Ice-free Corridor—fluted projectile points—can provide valuable evidence of the dispersal of Clovis and descendant groups northward as early Americans spread throughout the New World. This paper discusses recent geometric morphometric and technological evidence for fluted-point variation in the Ice-free Corridor, which possibly represents a variety of typological specimens spanning over...


A geometric morphometric analysis of cranial vault modification in Ancash, Peru (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Shaina Molano.

Cranial vault modification is a cultural practice used throughout much of the Andes and study of body modifications is a powerful tool for understanding group identity, social structure, and status. Different modification types have been found in the prehistoric Ancash region of north-central Peru, although the significance of this practice has yet to be further explored in the area. As cranial modifications are variable by nature, quantitative assessment of different vault shapes allows for the...


Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Hohokam Projectile Points from the Tonto Basin (2021)
DOCUMENT Full-Text Robert Bischoff.

This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditional analyses of projectile points often use visual identification, the presence or absence of discrete characteristics, or linear measurements to classify points into distinct types. Geometric morphometrics provides additional tools for analyzing, visualizing, and comparing projectile point morphology. In this study, I compare the...


Geometric Morphometric Approaches to Casas Grandes Ceramic Specialization (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only John Topi. Philip Leflar.

Previous studies of the Casas Grandes region have suggested that several craft items, including ceramics and ground stone, were produced by part or full-time specialists. In this study, we build upon previous approaches to ceramic specialization by conducting geometric morphometric analysis on an extensive collection of scaled digital photographs of Viejo and Medio period whole vessels. Geometric morphometrics allows for the statistical analysis of shape as indicated by the relationship...


A Geometric Morphometrics Approach to Test Microlith Variability at Cabeço da Amoreira Shellmidden (Muge, Portugal) (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Joana Belmiro. Joao Cascalheira. Celia Goncalves.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geometric microliths are one of the most important lithic technological adaptations of the Mesolithic in Westernmost Europe. At Muge shellmiddens, previous studies have revealed great variability in the morphology of these implements, especially the triangles, although the reason for such variability is still unclear. Three hypotheses have been suggested to...


Geometric Morphometrics on the Spot: When Artifact Shape Tells Us More of Prehistoric Lithic Variability in São Paulo State, Brazil (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Renata Araujo. Mercedes Okumura. Astolfo Araujo.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation contemplates the application of a method of analysis for the study of artifact shape named geometric morphometrics (GM). GM is a quantitative method originated in the biological sciences with a large application in evolutionary biology for the analysis of organismal form. Evolutionary archaeologists have been employing this approach to...


Investigating the Morphological Variation of Endthinning Scars on Paleoindian Bifacial Projectile Point Morphologies Using Geometric Morphometrics (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Jennings. Ashley Smallwood. Heather Smith.

This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Endthinning, the removal of longitudinal flakes from the base of a biface, is a key diagnostic flaking characteristic of Clovis, Gainey, Folsom, Cumberland, and other Early and Middle Paleoindian biface and projectile point technologies. In the Late Paleoindian Dalton tradition in the eastern United States, endthinning occurs less consistently on...


The late Pleistocene transmission of fluted-point technology across a continent: A morphological investigation. (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Smith.

The Northern Fluted-Point Complex represents a paleoindian occupation in northern Alaska and the Canadian Yukon and appears to form part of an adaptive strategy similar to that of late paleoindians in the North American plains. This paper presents the results of a shape analysis that uses geometric morphometrics as a tool to identify major factors of variability in fluted projectile-point morphology across a continent by comparing artifacts from Alaska and more temperate regions in North...


Local scale cultural transmission: how are neutral artifact traits manifested at neighborhood boundaries? (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only David Thulman. Maile Neel.

Archaeologists are paying increasing attention to prehistoric social organization using learning theory, social networks, and the distributions of artifact variation. A starting assumption is that artifact variation will present an isolation-by-distance distribution, a concept developed by Sewall Wright to explain population genetic distributions. Here we extend Wright’s work and adopt his neighborhood model as an analog to explore the small scale interactions between two groups making different...


Methods for the identification of dog and dog/wolf hybrids from wild canids in the Northern Plains (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Fisher.

In Native North America, dogs (Canis familiaris) were an important resource, used for traction, food, security, and ritual. Given their ubiquity in settlements and their tendency to consume human food waste, dogs remains can provide significant information about past human diet. Stable carbon isotope (δ13C) ratios may be used to reconstruct maize consumption, while nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios increase by trophic level, and can be used to differentiate between marine, freshwater, and...


Regional Variation Among Ancestral Pueblo Water Jars: A Geometric Morphometric Approach (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathleen Barvick.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pottery in the US Southwest has long been studied for the insights it provides into social identity. Differences in construction may suggest differences in conceptions of the correct way to make a ceramic vessel; when studied through the lens of practice theory, variation in form speaks to alternate communities of practice and may show boundaries in...


Rocks through the Ages: A 360° Geometric Morphometric Approach to Middle Pleistocene Bifacial Technological Variability in Central Armenia (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Jayson Gill. Daniel Adler. Keith Wilkinson. Ana Barun. Boris Gasparyan.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study applies a three-dimensional landmark-based geometric morphometric (GM) technique to evaluate chronological variation in Acheulian bifacial technology during the Middle Pleistocene of Armenia. This analysis utilizes 360° documentation of biface shape to supplement more commonly used single-surface and outline GM approaches. Furthermore, traditional...


Stone tools from the outside: correlating object mass and shape (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Fox.

This poster describes a novel high-resolution 3D geometric morphometric outline method that is able to describe object shape in great detail. Elliptical Fourier spherical harmonics - SPHARM –quantifies the shape of an object by producing values for the elliptical Fourier harmonic formula over multiple iterations of the object’s surface. This technique is applied to a series of handaxes from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa, and the data is correlated with the volumetric research of Riddle and...


Variability in Clovis Biface Morphology from the Type-site, Blackwater Draw Locality 1 (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Smith. Brendon Asher.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Blackwater Draw Locality 1 site provides one of the most unique perspectives of Paleoindian behavior in North America. Spatial evidence surrounding faunal and lithic assemblages have inspired researchers to hypothesize site function to represent kill, scavenging, caching, or domestic activities. Its setting relative to other localities of resource...