Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In a career spanning four decades, Harold Dibble’s work had a profound impact on (1) the interpretation of Mousterian variability, (2) our understanding of lithic technology, (3) our evaluation of Neanderthal behavior, and (4) the methods we use to excavate Paleolithic sites. Underlying these contributions was his unwavering commitment to archaeology as a scientific endeavor. This commitment included hypothesis testing, quantification of data, statistical evaluation of results, and sharing of data. His legacy consists of a radically revised understanding of Neanderthal cultural behavior, where fire-making, symbolic burial, and language must be demonstrated, not assumed; a new science of lithic technology; and a clarification of the meaning of Mousterian industrial variability. His excavation methods have established a new standard for the field. At his untimely death in 2018, Dibble left behind a robust experimentation program; active field research that was producing new data on Neanderthal behavior; and countless colleagues and students pursuing groundbreaking work, inspired by his call for a rigorous scientific-based approach to archaeology. This session, part 2 of 2, brings together Dibble’s students and colleagues to present new results and to reflect on his legacy and the way in which it has changed the future of Paleolithic archaeology.

Other Keywords
Paleolithic • Lithic Analysis • History Of Archaeology • Caves and Rockshelters • Middle Stone Age • Geoarchaeology • Excavation • Zooarchaeology • Theory • Formation Processes

Geographic Keywords
Principality of Monaco (Country) • Kingdom of Spain (Country) • Principality of Andorra (Country) • Gibraltar (Country) • Portuguese Republic (Country) • French Republic (Country) • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort (Country) • Ireland (Country) • Isle of Man (Country) • Kingdom of Belgium (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-12 of 12)

  • Documents (12)
Documents
  • Core Variability in the Middle Stone Age of East Africa (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alison Brooks. Joshua Porter. John Yellen.

    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. Harold Dibble made major contributions to the study of cores and their relation to flake morphology. Other experimental studies have shown that repeated core morphologies may be the result of a complex series of learned steps, which are culturally transmitted (e.g., K. L. Ranhorn, PhD...

  • Formation Processes and Biases in Big Data (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Flint Dibble.

    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. Much of Harold Dibble’s career was focused on the formation processes of the archaeological record. Initially, formation theory encompassed both natural and cultural formation processes; however, in the last few decades most scholars have focused on natural biases in the formation of the...

  • Geoarchaeology, the French Paleolithic, and Harold (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Goldberg. Vera Aldeias.

    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. Geoarchaeology requires the practitioner to be versed in both geology and archaeology. To do it right necessitates active participation of other specialists on the team, starting with the archaeologist(s). Without them, even the best geoarchaeological endeavors can fall flat. Both of us...

  • Harold Dibble: Skepticism, Null models, and p < 0.05 (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Shannon McPherron.

    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. Harold Dibble thought that one of the most important attributes of a good scientist is deep skepticism. He brought a persistent skepticism to every aspect of his scientific curiosity whether it was in his own field of prehistory or elsewhere. His skepticism also made him argumentative, a...

  • Harold Dibble’s Approach to Understanding the Middle Paleolithic Archaeological Record: Neanderthals outside the Box (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dennis Sandgathe.

    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. Harold Dibble was one of the most prominent Paleolithic archaeologists of the last century researching the Middle Paleolithic of Eurasia. While he made significant contributions in a number of important areas, one of his main contributions was to encourage researchers to try to think...

  • Measuring Intensity: Harold Dibble’s Contributions to Paleoanthropology and Specifically to the Measure of Site Occupational Intensity (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Gilbert Tostevin.

    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. Harold Dibble’s contributions to Paleolithic archaeology are numerous. Of the two contributions that I feel had the largest impact, the first is the intensity of energy Dibble brought to every endeavor, particularly to broadening the application of rigorous empiricism to the...

  • Moving toward a Nuanced View of Symbols and Symbolic Culture (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Erella Hovers. Anna Belfer-Cohen.

    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. Harold Dibble had strong views about the cognitive abilities and symbolic behavior of premodern humans as he gleaned them from the archaeological record through engravings, ornaments, burials, etc. After publishing a number of papers touching on these issues, mostly in the 1990s, Dibble...

  • MSA Technology in Kerma, Sudan: The Development of Fieldwork Methods for Data Acquisition in Basalt Outcrop Settings (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nuno Bicho. João Cascalheira. Jonathan Haws. Matthieu Honegger.

    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. One of the primary centers for understanding Anatomically Modern Human dispersal is the Nile Valley. In this paper, we present preliminary results from a survey and MSA lithic collection during a second field season to take place in the Kerma region, northern Sudan, during January 2023....

  • Namib IV: Assessing Acheulean Technology in Relation to Depositional Processes in an Arid Landscape (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only George Leader. Rachel Bynoe. Ted Marks. Dominic Stratford. Abi Stone.

    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. Namib IV is an Earlier and Middle Stone Age interdunal pan site in the Namib Desert’s Sand Sea. New investigations of the this hyper-arid landscape are piecing together the hominin occupations in relation to dry/wet climatic cycles. Hominins at Namib IV occupied the site multiple times...

  • The Scientific Method in Paleolithic Archaeology (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melanie Chang. April Nowell.

    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. Paleoanthropological hypotheses are often qualitatively different from questions asked by scientists studying the evolution of other living groups. They are frequently complex and very specific. Rather than seeking to illuminate basic evolutionary processes and mechanisms, they focus on...

  • Total Station Archaeology: Digging the Dibble Way (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Curtis Marean.

    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...

  • What Drives the Variability in MSA Lithic Assemblages from Sibhudu Cave, South Africa (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Conard. Manuel Will.

    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. After over a decade of excavation and analysis at the Middle Stone Age site of Sibhudu in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the team from the University of Tübingen has established a uniquely complete and well-documented record of cultural change from the end or the Middle Pleistocene until...