Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Geometric morphometrics is the quantitative analysis of shape, form, allometry, and asymmetry. The methods of geometric morphometrics enlist shape outlines or specific landmarks, returning multivariate data for statistical analyses, and a rich suite of visualization tools. Given that a primary goal of archaeology is to observe and study variation in the material record of the past, geometric morphometric methods hold remarkable potential for accomplishing this in an objective, and reproducible manner while retaining much of the complexity inherent in the object’s shape. The number of archaeological studies that enlist a geometric morphometric approach remains relatively small but is growing rapidly as a testament to the utility of the approach. New software and analytical packages, which include add-ons and updates to existing software, have increased the accessibility of geometric morphometric methods. Coupled with the increased availability of 3D technology, geometric morphometrics promises to be an important and widely used tool for answering sophisticated and elegant questions related to artifact shape. This session aggregates researchers from a variety of geographical and archaeological domains to address theoretical concepts, novel methods, and procedures, and also includes a series of case studies.
Other Keywords
Lithic Analysis •
geometric morphometrics •
Paleoindian and Paleoamerican •
Craft Production •
Hohokam •
Material Culture and Technology •
Digital Archaeology: 3D Modeling •
Experimental Archaeology •
Colonialism •
Cultural Transmission
Culture Keywords
Hohokam
Investigation Types
Collections Research •
Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis
Material Types
Chipped Stone
Temporal Keywords
Classic Hohokam period
Geographic Keywords
United States of America (Country) •
North America (Continent) •
USA (Country) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Republic of Panama (Country) •
Netherlands Antilles (Country) •
Aruba (Country) •
North America •
Gila County (County) •
New Mexico (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-9 of 9)
- Documents (9)
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2D Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Ceramic Vessel Profiles from Phoenix Basin Hohokam Sites (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This work tests the feasibility of using 2D geometric morphometric analyses of archival vessel profiles to reevaluate vessel form classifications from Pueblo Grande in order to aid in asking new questions of the dataset. Two-dimensional profile drawings of whole and reconstructible ceramic vessels were routinely made during archaeological projects...
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Allometry, Modularity, and Integration: Applying Biological Concepts and Statistical Tests to Stone Tool Shapes (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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...
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Can You Predict the Pot? Using Morphometric Variability to Predict Potting Techniques (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While geometric morphometrics (GMM) roots are in biology, there has been an increase of studies applying GMM to archaeological material in recent years. Archaeologists have utilized morphometrics to determine the level of craft specialization at prehistoric sites, test the symmetry of stone tools, classify ceramic sherds, examine the level of...
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Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Hohokam Projectile Points from the Tonto Basin (2021)
DOCUMENT Full-Text
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...
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Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Inca *Aríbalos from the Bandelier Collection, American Museum of Natural History (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Found from highland Ecuador to northwest Argentina, the Inca narrow-mouth jar, or *aríbalo, is the most widely distributed marker of the period of imperial expansion across the Andes (ca. 1400–1530s). Hiram Bingham made the first formal description of the *aríbalo more than a century ago, as part of the first formal classification of Inca pottery....
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Investigating the Morphological Variation of Endthinning Scars on Paleoindian Bifacial Projectile Point Morphologies Using Geometric Morphometrics (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
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...
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Re-evaluating Butchery Marks from a Mastodon Assemblage Using 3D Geometric Morphometrics and Experimental Archaeology (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the end of the Pleistocene, North America experienced a mass extinction of megafauna, including proboscideans—mammoths and mastodons. Archaeologists and other scientists continue to debate the role of human predation in these extinctions. Some point to traces of human butchery, such as cut marks and other bone surface modifications (BSM), as...
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The Toyah Phase Paradox: In Three Dimensions (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Toyah Phase has been the subject of debate since J. Charles Kelly first defined it in 1947. Known widely as the Toyah Phase Paradox, research has struggled to reconcile the homogenous expression of this protohistoric to historic archaeological record in central Texas and the high levels of ethnic diversity witnessed by French and Spanish...
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An Update on the Sonvian-Hoabinhian Controversy: Shape Analysis of Flakes and Cores from Mau A, Northern Vietnam (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "Geometric Morphometrics in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding stone artefact variation in northern Vietnam can be challenging because of the underspecified cultural taxonomies that have dominated analytical frameworks. For example the Hoabinhian is often thought to be a descendant taxa to the Sonvian. Our recent excavations at Mau A challenge this sequence. We apply statistical shape analysis...