1,721,005 research outputs found
Looking at caves from the bottom-up: a visual and contextual analysis of four Paleolithic painted caves in southwest France (Dordogne)
No full textA century of hypotheses concerning Paleotlithic cave use has focused either on individual activities (such as vision quests or shamanistic visits) or group activities such as initiations. This thesis proposes and tests systematic criteria for assessing whether painted caves were locations of group or individual ritual activity in four caves in the Dordogne Region of Southwest France (Bernifal, Font-de-Gaume, Combarelles, and Villars). Resolving this issue provides an important foundation for examining more complex questions such as the exclusivity/inclusivity of groups using caves and their possible roles in the development and maintenance of inequalities in the Upper Paleolithic. Models for the emergence of socioeconomic complexity among hunters and gatherers have increasingly stressed the importance of ritual and ideology in understanding how inequality emerged. Addressing the issue of group dynamics and rituals associated with cave use may provide critical insight in our quest to understand Upper Paleolithic culture
Looking for the individual: an examination of personal adornment in the European Upper Palaeolithic
No full textA new focus in Palaeolithic archaeology is to look at the possibility of the individual as a unit of analysis in the prehistoric record. This involves looking at the Palaeolithic actor as more than just an invisible entity that had a minor role in the production of long term patterns. The Palaeolithic individual was a ‘lived life’, with all aspects of agency, identity, and decision-making abilities. One area that is potentially illuminating for the examination of the individual is personal adornment, as this can lead to an understanding of the body and identity and the role of material culture in social life and self-making. A catalogue of Upper Palaeolithic sites in Europe and Siberia with evidence of items of personal adornment was recorded. From this information, patterns and sites that potentially show the individual are discussed through the categories of body, identity, and material culture
Exoticism of portable art and ornaments: a study of social networks around the Last Glacial Maximum.
Get PDFThis research aims to test the hypothesis that portable art objects and ornaments were used to create and maintain social networks between groups of hunter-gatherers coping with climatic insecurity. This is tested through the materials used to produce such objects. The results of tests indicate that the movement of objects of portable art and ornaments did not correlate with climatic values such as precise temperature and variance of temperature, which goes against the assumptions of the main hypothesis mentioned above. However, the variation in the production of these objects correlates well with broad climatic changes and with demographic events. This suggests that portable art objects and ornaments might have been used to a certain extent to help facilitate the population movements that were themselves affected by climate change.Graduat
Debitage analysis of ʻUyun al-Hammâm : the reconstruction of epipalaeolithic reduction sequences
Get PDFThe transition from a hunter-gatherer way of life to sedentary food-producing societies was a pivotal shift in human prehistory, affecting social, political, economic and ideological structures. The Epipalaeolithic in the Levant precedes the "origins of agriculture" and is the key to understanding the beginnings of social and economic phenomena seen in the later periods. Excavations at the site `Uyun al-Hammâm, located in northern Jordan, has uncovered a large amount of lithic material, faunal remains, and several human burials suggesting this site was a place of importance on the Epipalaeolithic landscape. This thesis explores the lithic debitage from `Uyun al-Hammâm to determine the stages of reduction that are represented in the assemblage. Debitage analysis, in conjunction with other site data, contributes to a robust understanding of the site's unique function during the Epipalaeolithic
Tracing Ice age artistic communities: 3D modeling finger flutings in the Franco-Cantabrian
No full textFinger flutings are lines and markings drawn with the human hand in soft cave sediment in caves and rock shelters throughout southern Australia, New Guinea and southwestern Europe, dating back to the Late Pleistocene. Analysis of these markings can reveal characteristics of the creators, such as age, sex and group sizes. However, despite a comprehensive method of study, data collection is still reliant on in field measurements and is often constrained by physical challenges within the caves. Advances in technology allow us to record archaeological data in three dimensions. Creating 3D models of finger fluting panels would allow for off-site measurements and other forms of detailed analysis. In this thesis, I test three different 3D scanning techniques, photogrammetry, tripod structured light scanning, and handheld structured light scanning, to determine the most appropriate method for the documentation of finger flutings based on factors such as portability, cost, efficiency, accuracy, as well as other challenges present in cave and rock shelter settings. I created replica fluting panels in three different media and created 3D models of them. I then compared measurements taken from the panels in person to measurements taken from the 3D-scanned models to see if there is statistically significant difference between the models and the panel. The results of my experiment show that 3D models of finger fluting panels are accurate representations of the experimental panels and that photogrammetry is the technique that best meets the requirements of finger fluting research.Graduat
Hands on Research: The Application of the 2D:4D Ratio to Children’s Hand Stencils
No full textHandprints and hand stencils are a ubiquitous element of rock art. For archaeologists, they
represent a window onto the lives and communities of practice of prehistoric peoples. They are a means of recognizing the individual in the archaeological record and their contribution to the production of rock art. Children represent an understudied archaeological demographic despite comprising 50% of many prehistoric populations. In this thesis, I investigate the applicability of the 2D:4D ratio for sexing children’s hand stencils in a modern context. Based on a sample of 318 living children between the ages of 5 and 16 years old, I analyzed the degree of variance between the ratio derived from the soft-tissue measurements, and the ratio derived from a hand stencil created by the same child. The results of this research support my prediction that the 2D: 4D ratio cannot be used reliably to sex children’s hand stencils [email protected]
Making the abstract concrete: the place of geometric signs in French upper paleolithic parietal art
No full textIn Paleolithic cave art, geometric signs tend to outnumber figurative images and yet, they remain relatively understudied. To address this gap in our knowledge, I compiled a digital catalogue of all known geometric signs found in parietal art in France, and then trended the results looking for patterns of continuity and change over time and space. I focused on parietal art, as I could be certain of its provenance, and picked France as my region due to its abundance of decorated sites and its natural boundaries of water and mountain ranges. The database is searchable by a variety of criteria such as sign category, method of production, date range, site type, geographical coordinates and region. It is now being converted into an online resource. To provide a visual dimension, it includes a selection of linked photographs and reproductions of the different signs. In this thesis, I detail the chronological and regional patterning in sign type and frequency and the implications of these patterns for understanding where, when and why the making of these signs was meaningful to the Pleistocene peoples who created them
Human-material interaction in the Aurignacian of Europe, 35,000-27,000 BP: an analysis of marine shell ornament distribution
Get PDFThe Aurignacian period (35,000-27,000 BP) is the earliest phase of human occupation in the European Upper Paleolithic. As early inhabitants moved across the landscape they came into contact with others and left behind material traces of these interactions. Ornaments, or beads and pendants, made from marine shells are found in large numbers in Aurignacian assemblages. These objects are particularly useful for exploring the circulation of people and materials, as their presence far from the sea can be indicative of dynamic interactions between materials, individuals, and groups.
This research explores the processes of human-material interactions during the Aurignacian based on the shapes of marine shells used as ornaments. More specifically, a network analysis is used to determine whether there are discernible patterns in the geographic distribution of marine shell shapes used for the creation of ornaments. Through the use of a social network analysis software called Gephi, this research visually maps the interactions between sites and regions during the Aurignacian. By creating network visualizations that are analyzed mathematically, in addition to geographic maps of site locations, patterns in the interactions within which materials and people were entangled are explored. Engaging with theories of materiality and material affordances (Conneller 2011; Gosden 2005; Malafouris 2013; Robb 2015; Wells 2008, 2012), this research sheds light on the active role of ornaments in the complex interactions between people and materials during the Aurignacian. The results support the notion that particular shapes of shells were preferentially selected and that some regions, such as the Dordogne of France, were important centers in the broader circulation of materials.Graduate2019-10-2
Exploring handaxe function at Shishan Marsh – 1: combining qualitative and quantitative approaches using the edge damage distribution method
Get PDFHandaxes are some of the longest lasting and most iconic stone tools throughout human evolution. Appearing in the early Pleistocene, these bifacially flaked tools persisted around one and a half million years and span across all of the Old World, from Africa to eastern Asia. Despite their ubiquitous nature, relatively little is known about their function. Handaxes are often speculated to be multi-functional tools which were selected for due to their large cutting edge; however, only a handful of use-wear studies have attempted to elucidate their use in the archaeological record. The lack of experimental use-wear studies surrounding handaxe function is due to preservation issues and the fact that manufacturing and curating handaxes compounds the ambiguity of microwear signatures. The methodology undertaken in this research provides a pathway to overcoming these obstacles through experimental archaeology in conjunction with low powered microscopy, image-based GIS, and statistical hypothesis testing. In particular, this thesis investigates handaxe function at an assemblage scale (n = 56) in a late Lower Paleolithic to Middle Paleolithic archaeological site called Shishan Marsh – 1 (SM-1) in al-Azraq, Jordan. Experimental handaxes (n = 22) were replicated and used in various activities such as butchery, plant processing, woodworking, shellfish processing, and digging. The results of this research corroborates the idea of handaxes being used as multifunctional tools. These results have implications for handaxe function, hominin tool use in a desert refugia, and provides a new pathway to investigate inter-site variability in handaxe use.Graduate2018-08-0
Hominin survival and lithic procurement strategies at a Pleistocene desert refugium during periods of environmental stress: a case study from Shishan Marsh 1 in the Azraq Basin, Jordan
Get PDFA century of intermittent archaeological research in the Azraq Basin of the eastern desert of Jordan has demonstrated that a long period of hominin occupation exists in this environmentally inhospitable region during the Pleistocene. Recent excavations at the site of Shishan Marsh 1 in the Azraq Basin have uncovered several artifact-bearing layers that correspond to the Middle (266 ± 40 kya) and Upper (125 ± 12 kya) Pleistocene. An examination of paleoclimatic data from this period indicates predominantly warm and dry conditions in the region and a gradual reduction of water availability. These factors forced hominins to modify their resource acquisition strategies and exploit the receding spring- and wadi-fed Azraq wetlands. This dissertation investigates the nature of lithic procurement strategies practiced by hominins at Shishan Marsh 1, a Middle-Upper Pleistocene site in the former wetlands, during periods of environmental stress. It involves a provenance analysis of sources within the region and a sample of lithic artifacts from Shishan Marsh 1 through laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The results indicate that the artifacts were procured from local and regional sources and likely through embedded procurement in an effort to provision individuals. They further provide insight into the nature of survival within the Azraq Basin, as hominin groups performed tethered mobility whereby they contracted around the Azraq wetlands. In this case, this stable water source operated as a desert refugium for hominins within the Azraq Basin.Graduate2021-11-1
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