Post-depositional Processes and Their Impact of Inferences of Behavior at FxJj 34 (Koobi Fora Formation, Northern Kenya)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

It is often argued that surface assemblages provide insight into human behaviors at a regional scale. Measures of artifact use life and reduction intensity at this broad scale are often used to characterize the structure of stone tool use across space. However, once re-exposed, artifacts are subject to a variety of processes that potentially bias the behavioural signatures evident in lithic assemblages. Size sorting is a particularly common effect. Here, we study both the surface and excavated assemblages at the site FxJj34 (Okote Member, Koobi Fora Formation, northern Kenya) to characterize the impact of modern erosional process on lithic assemblages as well as the potential biases they introduce into behavioral patterns evinced by stone tool reduction. In addition to measures of stone tool reduction, we also apply resampling methods. This documents distinctions between surface and excavated assemblage and also investigates the statistical significance between these assemblages. Our results indicate that despite the logical chain linking artifact winnowing as a source of bias in measures of stone artifact reduction, inferences of behavior based on reduction proxies in surface and in situ artifact assemblages are identical at FxJj34.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26034