Is Analogical Reference Possible for the Earliest Paleoarchaeological Assemblages?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Inference in Paleoarchaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

There is no consensus about how to define the first paleoarchaeological record, or how old it is. An assemblage of flaked stone artifacts from Lomekwi 3, Kenya, dates to 3.3 million years ago. Two fossil specimens at the 3.34-million-year-old site of Dikika-55, Ethiopia, preserve butchery marks on their surfaces. The strength of interpretation that these are anthropogenic sites from the Late Pliocene rely heavily on analogical inference. Where the fossils or artifacts manifest differently from later archaeological sites, stone tool flaking and butchery experiments offer an explanation for why these differences exist. However, these are still experiments conceived and conducted by modern humans in a modern context. The earliest paleoarchaeological record was created by hominins that were not analogous in anatomy, behavior, or life experience. They existed within ecological systems with no modern analogues. Moving more deeply into the paleoarchaeological record, therefore, faithful replication of complex suites of processes becomes less feasible. These theoretical and methodological challenges can be addressed by complementing replication studies with experiments that identify how the physical properties of materials (bone, stone) react to different kinds of forces, some of which may be created by very different agents.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Inference in Paleoarchaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33357