An Experimental Archaeological Approach to Modeling and Testing Bone Artifacts in 3D Space

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In recent years, 3D modeling has become a more common method for evaluating archaeological materials, as it is a non-destructive method to test how artifacts will handle stress. 3D modelling has advantages over testing of physical artifacts because the exact same artifact can be reused multiple times to test different hypotheses. However, 3D models must be tested against the artifacts they are replicating to be sure that simulated space accurately represents the natural world. Experimental archaeology is therefore a necessary step in determining the veracity of the virtual environment. By testing artifact reproductions both physically and virtually, we compare how artifacts respond to mechanical stresses in both the real and virtual worlds. Focusing on bone fishhooks, we produced and mechanically stressed 15 bone fishhooks based on artifacts curated at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. Each hook was stressed to breaking in one of three dimensions. The fracture patterns were then compared to the breaks expected when subjected to the same stress in virtual space. The virtual models are subjected to conditions they would experience during use, given the physical properties of modern pig bone. These data provide insight into constructing a more realistic virtual world to test artifacts.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32594