Measuring Movement: The Influence of Scraper Reduction Models on the Early Pleistocene

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The identification of the “Frison Effect” on Middle Paleolithic scraper variability has had numerous subsequent implications. The initial influence revolved around our understanding of the then-prevailing use of typological distinctions in the Middle Paleolithic. However, the quantitative approach to evaluating reduction, use-life, discard, and site formation has had tremendous impacts throughout Paleolithic approaches. We summarize the major components of understanding reduction and its implication for how and where assemblages are formed, with a particular focus on how we understand movement in the archaeological record. This begins with direct applications of scraper reduction to the Early Pleistocene record. Subsequent studies explore the quantification of reduction, use-life, and movement. The most recent examples include detailed predictions based on modeling of emergent patterns in the archaeological record. We highlight the specific long-term influences that scraper reduction has had on how we identify changes in movement patterns in the past, with specific reference to the archaeological record of the Early Pleistocene in Africa.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part I   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37197.0