Detecting signatures of cultural transmission: an actualistic study

Summary

The potential to detect signatures of cultural transmission in stone tool technology is quickly gaining traction in Paleolithic archaeology (e.g. Tostevin 2012). These methods, rooted in middle range theory, remain to be tested through controlled experiment. This project uses experimental flint knapping and a social learning framework to test the hypothesis that signatures of direct cultural transmission can be detected in core reduction strategies. The participant pool included experienced North American flint knappers. The experiment consisted of three isolated sessions simulating different degrees of information transfer ranging from Baseline (low fidelity) to Imitation (high fidelity). Preliminary results suggest that variation in core form is driven primarily by shape of the original cobble and skill level. Skill was determined by both post-experiment questionnaire and by pre-experiment observation. Variation in flake morphology was correlated to different stages of reduction intensity. This study attempted to empirically elucidate signatures of cultural transmission and demonstrates the importance of analyzing these markers across the reduction sequence. The lithic variables measured in this study can be applied to various spatial and temporal contexts.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords