› › Examining Human Behavior And Tool Use Through Experimental Replications And A Technological Analysis Of Ground Stone In The Lower Columbia

Examining Human Behavior and Tool Use Through Experimental Replications and a Technological Analysis of Ground Stone in the Lower Columbia

Author :

Publisher :

Page : 230 pages

File Size : 14,61 MB

Release : 2019

Category : Archaeology

ISBN :

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Book Description

In this thesis I addressed questions regarding ground stone technology, including manufacturing time investments, tool recycling, and how ground stone tools were used through the application of experimental tool replication, use studies, and in depth analyses. I replicated tools that are common in the Pacific Northwest region, including a banded and notched net weight, a maul, two bowls, and a pestle. The replicated tools were all produced with raw materials collected from nearby sources and all ground stone tools were manufactured with cobble choppers. I conducted use wear studies in two phases to examine the impacts of processing both hard and soft materials using the replicated bowl and pestle. The tools underwent an in-depth analysis before and after manufacture and the use wear study to assess manufacturing and use wear attributes. The experimental replications and use study resulted in associating specific attributes with known activities and actions. These insights were then applied to the analysis of ground stone artifacts from the 35CO2 Rylander assemblage, a private artifact collection from a contact-period archaeological site located in the Lower Columbia.



Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses

Author : Lawrence H. Keeley

Publisher : University of Chicago Press

Page : 267 pages

File Size : 20,28 MB

Release : 1980-03-15

Category : Social Science

ISBN : 0226428893

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Book Description

A major problem confronting archeologists is how to determine the function of ancient stone tools. In this important work, Lawrence H. Keeley reports on his own highly successful course of research into the uses of British Paleolithic flint implements. His principal method of investigation, known as "microwear analysis," was the microscopic examination of traces of use left on flint implements in the form of polishes, striations, and breakage patterns. The most important discovery arising from Keeley's research was that, at magnifications of 100x to 400x, there was a high correlation between the detailed appearance of microwear polishes formed on tool edges and the general category of material worked by that edge. For example, different and distinctive types of microwear polish were formed during use on wood, bone, hide, meat, and soft plant material. These correlations between microwear polish and worked material were independent of the method of use (cutting, sawing, scraping, and so on). In combining evidence of polish type with other traces of use, Keeley was able to make precise reconstructions of tool functions. This book includes the results of a "blind test" of Keeley's functional interpretations which revealed remarkable agreement between the actual and inferred use of the tools tested. Keeley applied his method of microwear analysis to artifacts from three excavation sites in Britain—Clacton-on-the-sea, Swanscombe, and Hoxne. His research suggests new hypotheses concerning such Paleolithic problems as inter-assemblage variability, the function of Acheulean hand axes, sidescrapers, and chopper-cores and points the way to future research in Stone Age studies.



Getting a Handle on Ground Stone

Author : Ashley Brzezicki

Publisher :

Page : 253 pages

File Size : 32,74 MB

Release : 2015

Category : Ground stone implements

ISBN :

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Book Description

This research project is based on the technological analysis of a selection of edged, heavy ground stone tools (i.e., axes, adzes, gouges) in the George Frederick Clarke Collection; a private artifact assemblage acquired and curated by the University of New Brunswick. In this research, I use attribute analysis to better understand the linkages between artifact morphology, hafting, tool function, and human behavior. Three key components are offered in this research: 1) the development of a classification scheme for the ground stone axes, adzes, and gouges at the center of this research; 2) the identification of possible haft types for these artifacts, and; 3) the integration of regional data through which interpretations of tool function and human behavior are made possible. As is shown in the research, inferences based on morphology and hafting allow archaeologists to interpret a formerly inaccessible (i.e., due to organic decomposition) component of ground stone tools. I suggest that biconvex tools would have been secured in bound or socketed hafts, whereas plano-convex tools would have been secured in elbow or socketed-elbow hafts, and that depending on the stone/haft orientation, these tools would have been swung differently by the user. With regards to chronology, the research corroborates the dominant interpretation on the Maritime Peninsula that technological changes amongst edged, heavy ground stone tools seem to occur around the same time as shifts in heavy woodworking/birch bark technologies. I conclude that in addition to excavation, future research into use-wear, petrography, and morphology would bring forth new interpretations of a commonly under-studied Pre-Contact technology on the Maritime Peninsula.



An Examination of Variability in Northern California Ground Stone Technologies

Author : Michelle Dawn Noble

Publisher :

Page : 584 pages

File Size : 18,85 MB

Release : 2011

Category :

ISBN :

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Book Description

Relative to flaked stone assemblages, ground stone implements have generally been subject to less intensive examination and interpretation. The present research uses a methodology that centers on functional associations within and between major ground stone artifact categories. In-depth analyses concentrating on the kinds and relative amounts of use-wear are more informative and accurate. The goal of this study was to better understand factors influencing the ground stone technologies of north-central California. This study examines variation in several archaeological assemblages from different areas and time periods, including the northern Sierra Nevada (CA-NEV-199), Lake Oroville and the Feather River Drainage (CA-BUT-84 and BUT-362/H), the Sacramento Valley (CA-SAC-225 and BUT-288), and the southern North Coast Ranges (multiple sites in the Clear Lake Basin and Warm Springs/Lake Sonoma locality). Analyses focused on specific use-wear attributes of mortars, pestles, handstones, mullers, and millingslabs ranging in age from approximately 5000 B.P. to the historic era. Nuances in the morphology and patterns of tool wear reveal differences across and between ground stone assemblages, identifying important temporal and spatial trends in north-central California. Several chronological trends become evident from in the data, however, most variability appears to relate to environmental constraints. Across all tool categories, environments, and time periods, the impressionability of a material has an overwhelming influence on many attributes. Dual-use tools -- "mullers" -- become an almost axiomatic part of one shift, indicating the need for a tool to perform sufficiently in multiple ways. In addition, some generally accepted notions are not separated by results of this study, i.e., that handstones were more shaped and formalized in earlier temporal intervals. Shifts in ground stone technology are reflected not only by changing ratios of tools within archaeological assemblages, but in the kinds and amounts of secondary modification, toolstone choice, use-wear, and other attributes.



Stone Tool Use at Cerros

Author : Suzanne M. Lewenstein

Publisher : University of Texas Press

Page : 238 pages

File Size : 48,33 MB

Release : 2014-08-04

Category : Social Science

ISBN : 0292749775

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Book Description

For centuries scholars have pondered and speculated over the uses of the chipped stone implements uncovered at archaeological sites. Recently a number of researchers have attempted to determine prehistoric tool function through experimentation and through observation of the few remaining human groups who still retain this knowledge. Learning how stone tools were made and used in the past can tell us a great deal about ancient economic systems, exchange networks, and the social and political structure of prehistoric societies. Suzanne M. Lewenstein used the artifacts from Cerros, an important Late Preclassic (200 BC–AD 200) Mayan site in northern Belize, to study stone tool function. Through a comprehensive program of experimentation with stone tool replicas, she was able not only to infer the tasks performed by individual tool specimens but also to recognize a wide variety of past activities for which stone tools were used. Unlike previous works that focused on hunter-gatherer groups, Stone Tool Use at Cerros is the first comprehensive experimental study of tool use in an agricultural society. The lithic data are used in an economic interpretation of a lowland Mayan community within a hierarchically complex society. Apart from its significance to Mayan studies, this innovative work offers the beginnings of a reference collection of identifiable tool functions that may be documented for sedentary, complex society. It will be of major interest to all archaeologists and anthropologists, as well as those interested in economic specialization and artisanry in complex societies.



Proceedings of the 3rd Meeting of the Association of Ground Stone Tools Research

Author : Patrick Nørskov Pedersen

Publisher : Archaeopress Archaeology

Page : 274 pages

File Size : 17,74 MB

Release : 2022-01-06

Category :

ISBN : 9781789694789

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Book Description

Ground Stone Tools and Past Foodways brings together a selection of papers presented at the 3rd meeting of the Association of Ground Stone Tools Research, which was held at the University of Copenhagen in 2019. Ground stone artefacts are one of the most enduring classes of material culture: first used by Palaeolithic gatherer-hunters, they are still used regularly by people in many parts of the world to grind, mash and pulverize plants, meat and minerals. As such, ground stone artefacts provide a well preserved record at the nexus of interaction between humans, plants and animals. The papers in this volume focus especially on the relationship between ground stone artefacts and foodways and include archaeological and ethnographic case studies ranging from the Palaeolithic to the current era, and geographically from Africa to Europe and Asia. They reflect the current state of the art in ground stone tool research and highlight the many ways in which foodways can be studied through holistic examinations of ground stone artefacts.



The WEIRDest People in the World

Author : Joseph Henrich

Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Page : 420 pages

File Size : 11,69 MB

Release : 2020-09-08

Category : Psychology

ISBN : 0374710457

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Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 A Bloomberg Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020 A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2020 A Human Behavior & Evolution Society Must-Read Popular Evolution Book of 2020 A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world. Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries? In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world. Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history. Includes black-and-white illustrations.



The Organization of North American Prehistoric Chipped Stone Tool Technologies

Author : Philip J. Carr

Publisher : International Monographs in Prehistory

Page : 136 pages

File Size : 21,28 MB

Release : 1994-01-01

Category : History

ISBN : 9781879621152

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Book Description

The eleven papers in this volume explore current methods and theories concerned with the organization of stone tool technology through a variety of case studies. Contributors include: P J Carr (The organization of technology: Impact and potential); D S Amick (Technological organization and the structure of inference in lithic analysis: An examination of Folsom Hunting behaviour in the American southwest); P J Carr (Technological organization and prehistoric hunter-gatherer mobility: Examination of the Hayes site); E E Ingbar (Lithic material selection and technological organization); M L Larson (Toward a holistic analysis of chipped stone assemblages); G H Odell (Assessing hunter-gatherer mobility in the Illinois valley); W J Parry (Prismatic blade technologies in North America); K E Sassaman (Changing strategies of biface production in the South Carolina coastal plain); J F Simek (The organization of lithic technology and evolution: Notes from the Continent); R Torrence (Strategies for moving on in lithic studies); R L Kelly (Some thoughts on future directions in the study of stone toll technological organization).



Bone Tools and Technological Choice: Change and Stability on the Northern Plains

Author : Janet Griffitts

Publisher :

Page : 1258 pages

File Size : 26,81 MB

Release : 2006

Category :

ISBN :

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Book Description

This study examines decision making concerning tool use and rawmaterial choice through the analysis of bone technology from five sites from the MiddleMissouri subarea of the Northern Plains of North America. The research methods employed include high power optical microwear analysis, experimental replication, and the study of modern bone tool use. At the time of contact with Europeans andEuroamericans, the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara lived in semi sedentary villages along the Missouri River where they practiced a mixed economy centered on both agriculture and bison hunting. The villagers were central in indigenous trade networks and later in the international fur trade, as European and Euroamericans traders and explorers sought to insert themselves into the existing networks. Occasional trade goods are found as early as the seventeenth century, increasing through time as more Europeans and Euroamericans entered the area, indicating that the villagers supplied the newcomers with food, horses, and furs in exchange for those goods. They also were impacted by European diseases, increasing violence, and by accompanying changes in many aspects of their society. Post contact technological change is often modeled as a relatively simple unilinear process in which metal tools quickly replaced older technologies. Analysis of modified bone and antler from historic sites indicates the processes were more complicated. Some tool types were quickly replaced, while others persisted, and there was also variation within tool types. Rather than immediately rendering bone technology obsolete, as has been suggested, there was an initial period of experimentation as people used the new metal cutting and chopping tools to modify the older bone technology. Some tools were made by simply shaping the bone with metal rather than stone, but in other cases the new metal tools were used to create bone tools in completely new forms. Both social and functional factors influence tool choices in raw material, form, and use. This study provides a deeper understanding of many processes involved in technological change in the contact period.



Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference

Author : William R. Shadish

Publisher : Cengage Learning

Page : 664 pages

File Size : 44,70 MB

Release : 2002

Category : Education

ISBN :

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Book Description

Sections include: experiments and generalised causal inference; statistical conclusion validity and internal validity; construct validity and external validity; quasi-experimental designs that either lack a control group or lack pretest observations on the outcome; quasi-experimental designs that use both control groups and pretests; quasi-experiments: interrupted time-series designs; regresssion discontinuity designs; randomised experiments: rationale, designs, and conditions conducive to doing them; practical problems 1: ethics, participation recruitment and random assignment; practical problems 2: treatment implementation and attrition; generalised causal inference: a grounded theory; generalised causal inference: methods for single studies; generalised causal inference: methods for multiple studies; a critical assessment of our assumptions.