Rapid Increase in Production of Symbolic Artifacts after 45,000 Years Ago Is Not a Consequence of Taphonomic Bias

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Big Ideas to Match Our Future: Big Data and Macroarchaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Researchers have long been aware of an apparently rapid increase ca. 40,000–45,000 BP in the frequency of “symbolic” artifacts in the Old World paleolithic record. However, some hypothesize that if not for taphonomic loss the data would instead show a gradual increase in such artifacts’ frequency during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic. We test this hypothesis by correcting the record for taphonomic bias. We find that even after correction, the ca. 40,000–45,000 BP peak remains with no prior gradual increase. However, research bias may explain much of the peak.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Big Ideas to Match Our Future: Big Data and Macroarchaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38017.0