Multiple Approaches to the Study of Bifacial Technologies

Multiple Approaches to the Study of Bifacial Technologies
Author: Marie Soressi
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN:

Bifacial chipped stones have been used by archaeologists to document the evolution of human technology and cognition during the Pleistocene and as index fossils for a myriad of cultures in both the Old World and the New. Bifaces provide some of the most convincing dimensions of stylistic variability observable in stone tool assemblages. With an international cast of contributors, from St. Petersburg to South Carolina, this volume shows how bifacial technology changed through time and according to different environments, complementing the evolution of human cognition and physical abilities. It also addresses how the different technological and social systems of past hunter-gatherers are reflected in bifacial technology, from the earliest African bifaces to North American Woodland projectile points. University Museum Monograph, 115

New Perspectives on Old Stones

New Perspectives on Old Stones
Author: Stephen Lycett
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2010-09-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 144196861X

As the study of Palaeolithic technologies moves towards a more analytical approach, it is necessary to determine a consistent procedural framework. The contributions to this timely and comprehensive volume do just that. This volume incorporates a broad chronological and geographical range of Palaeolithic material from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. The focus of this volume is to provide an analysis of Palaeolithic technologies from a quantitative, empirical perspective. As new techniques, particularly quantitative methods, for analyzing Palaeolithic technologies gain popularity, this work provides case studies showcasing these new techniques. Employing diverse case studies, and utilizing multivariate approaches, morphometrics, model-based approaches, phylogenetics, cultural transmission studies, and experimentation, this volume provides insights from international contributors at the forefront of recent methodological advances.

Connections and Complexity

Connections and Complexity
Author: Shinu Anna Abraham
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2016-06-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315431831

This compilation of original research articles highlight the important cross-regional, cross-chronological, and comparative approaches to political and economic landscapes in ancient South Asia and its neighbors. Focusing on the Indus Valley period and Iron Age India, this volume incorporates new research in South Asia within the broader universe of archaeological scholarship. Contributions focus on four major themes: reinterpreting material culture; identifying domains and regional boundaries; articulating complexity; and modeling interregional interaction. These studies develop theoretical models that may be applicable researchers studying cultural complexity elsewhere in the world.

Quaternary of the Levant

Quaternary of the Levant
Author: Yehouda Enzel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 789
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107090466

Over eighty contributions from leading researchers review 2.5 million years of environmental change and human cultural evolution in the Levant.

Lithics

Lithics
Author: William Andrefsky, Jr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2005-12-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1139448196

This book is a fully updated and revised edition of William Andrefsky Jr's ground-breaking manual on lithic analysis. Designed for students and professional archaeologists, this highly illustrated book explains the fundamental principles of the measurement, recording and analysis of stone tools and stone tool production debris. Introducing the reader to lithic raw materials, classification, terminology and key concepts, it comprehensively explores methods and techniques, presenting detailed case studies of lithic analysis from around the world. It examines new emerging techniques, such as the advances being made in lithic debitage analysis and lithic tool analysis, and includes a new section on stone tool functional studies. An extensive and expanded glossary makes this book an invaluable reference for archaeologists at all levels.

The Nature of Culture

The Nature of Culture
Author: Miriam N. Haidle
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2016-01-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401774269

This volume introduces a model of the expansion of cultural capacity as a systemic approach with biological, historical and individual dimensions. It is contrasted with existing approaches from primatology and behavioural ecology; influential factors like differences in life history and demography are discussed; and the different stages of the development of cultural capacity in human evolution are traced in the archaeological record. The volume provides a synthetic view on a) the different factors and mechanisms of cultural development, and b) expansions of cultural capacities in human evolution beyond the capacities observed in animal culture so far. It is an important topic because only a volume of contributions from different disciplines can yield the necessary breadth to discuss the complex subject. The model introduced and discussed originates in the naturalist context and tries to open the discussion to some culturalist aspects, thus the publication in a series with archaeological and biological emphasis is apt. As a new development the synthetic model of expansion of cultural capacity is introduced and discussed in a broad perspective. ​

From the Early Preboreal to the Subboreal period - Current Mesolithic research in Europe.

From the Early Preboreal to the Subboreal period - Current Mesolithic research in Europe.
Author: Annabel Zander
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2021-02-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 393807826X

This volume 5 of the Mesolithic Edition publishes the papers of lectures and posters presented during the conference of the AG Mesolithikum in Wuppertal in March 2017. 30 authors from Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany publish their latest research on the Mesolithic. A total of 16 contributions offer site analyses, regional and supra-regional studies as well as theoretical and methodological essays. At the end of the volume, the full publication list of the honouree Bernhard Gramsch is published.

Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions

Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions
Author: Marta Camps
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2009-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0387764879

As the study of Palaeolithic technologies moves towards a more analytical approach, it is necessary to determine a consistent procedural framework. The contributions to this timely and comprehensive volume do just that. This volume incorporates a broad chronological and geographical range of Palaeolithic material from the Lower to Upper Palaeolithic. The focus of this volume is to provide an analysis of Palaeolithic technologies from a quantitative, empirical perspective. As new techniques, particularly quantitative methods, for analyzing Palaeolithic technologies gain popularity, this work provides case studies particularly showcasing these new techniques. Employing diverse case studies, and utilizing multivariate approaches, morphometrics, model-based approaches, phylogenetics, cultural transmission studies, and experimentation, this volume provides insights from international contributors at the forefront of recent methodological advances.

Squeezing Minds From Stones

Squeezing Minds From Stones
Author: Karenleigh A. Overmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 543
Release: 2019-04-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0190854626

Cognitive archaeology is a relatively new interdisciplinary science that uses cognitive and psychological models to explain archeological artifacts like stone tools, figurines, and art. Squeezing Minds From Stones is a collection of essays from early pioneers in the field, like archaeologists Thomas Wynn and Iain Davidson, and evolutionary primatologist William McGrew, to 'up and coming' newcomers like Shelby Putt, Ceri Shipton, Mark Moore, James Cole, Natalie Uomini, and Lana Ruck. Their essays address a wide variety of cognitive archaeology topics, including the value of experimental archaeology, primate archaeology, the intent of ancient tool makers, and how they may have lived and thought.

Across Atlantic Ice

Across Atlantic Ice
Author: Dennis J. Stanford
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520275780

"Who were the first humans to inhabit North America? According to the now familiar story, mammal hunters entered the continent some 12,000 years ago via a land bridge that spanned the Bering Sea and introduced the distinctive stone tools of the Clovis culture. Drawing from original archaeological analysis, paleoclimatic research, and genetic studies, noted archaeologists Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley challenge that narrative. Their hypothesis places the technological antecedents of Clovis technology in Europe, with the culture of Solutrean people in France and Spain more than 20,000 years ago, and posits that the first Americans crossed the Atlantic by boat and arrived earlier than previously thought."--Back cover.