An experimental and archaeological investigation of the role of edge angle in lithic artifact damage: Applications to the Koobi Fora Fm. Kenya.

Summary

The analysis of damage patterning on lithic artifacts has the potential to distinguish between pre-depositional use of artifacts and post-depositional taphonomic processes, providing important evidence for particular hominin behaviors. Previous study has suggested that damage accrues in a non-random fashion in archaeological assemblages. Limited work has been done using the quantified variable of edge angle to account for patterns of edge damage. This study focuses on assemblage-level patterns of flake edge angle and their relationships to macroscopic damage. Experimentally produced lithics were subjected to different use and taphonomic treatments. This provided a means for investigating the relationship between edge angle and damage across a variety of different processes. Preliminary results suggest the pattern of damage across edge angles varies based on the processes of use or taphonomy to which an assemblage is subjected. These results were compared to damage patterns of surface collections from two Okote Member (1.6 -1.39 Ma) sites in the Koobi Fora Formation, Kenya exhibiting both ancient and modern instances of edge damage. We use this dataset to explore the extent to which experimental edge damage/angle relationships conform to archaeological data. An overview of potentially diagnostic angle/damage relationships is presented.

Research sponsored by NSF-IRES (OISE-1358178 and 1358200).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17125