1,720,977 research outputs found
Use-Wear Analysis on Quartz and Quartzite Tools Methodology and Application: Coudoulous I (Midi-Pyrénées, France)
No full textThe aim of this work is to contribute to the development of a use-wear analysis methodological framework on quartz and quartzite industries. After illustrating the main steps of the analysis, a small part is dedicated to archaeological application on a specimen from the site of Coudulous I (France). The difference lies in the different structure of quartz and quartzite, and in their response to mechanical stress. To understand the behaviour of quartz subjected to mechanical forces originated by its use on various materials (wood, horn, bone and meat), it is essential to create a comparative collection established by the experimental protocol and obtained from a series of tests by controlled parameters. This preliminary step is essential in order to comprehend and identify use-wear traces on archaeological material, which will be compared by analogy with the experimental ones. Use-Wear Analysis on Quartz and Quartzite Tools 125 In the study of use-wear traces, tribochemistry provides us with the guidelines to understand their formation. This discipline, in fact, studies the interaction with surfaces in motion and contact with each other or with a third body. The application of the tribological model to the use-wear traces of quartz and quartzite identified through structured series of experiments has proven very effective for the interpretation of the archaeological evidence
Identification and evaluation of mechanical wear traces on quartz assemblages: an experimental investigation
No full textIdentification and evaluation of post-depositional mechanical traces on quartz assemblages. An experimental investigation
No full textThe evaluation of the state of preservation of archaeological lithic artefacts is the first step before starting a functional analysis. If lithic artefacts show a variety of damage from many contact materials, they are also subject to modifications from “natural” causes, such as water transport, soil abrasion, trampling etc. Studying alteration features gives us information to reconstruct the life story of lithic tools after their abandonment and helps us to better understand formation processes of archaeological sites.
Prolonged movements under soil could be responsible for post depositional surface modifications that sometimes look like wear traces due to use. These alterations could have chemical and/or mechanical origin. Recognizing them is of paramount importance especially on quartz assemblages where usewear analysis requires a long and complex methodology that differs to a certain extent from the protocol applied to other artefacts produced with different raw materials such as flint, obsidian etc ... For this reason, the use wear and post-depositional surface modification analysis on quartz and quartzite tools have been undertaken by very few researchers until now. The aim of this paper is to increase the experimental quartz field through the attempt to recreate mechanical contact between quartz flakes and sediments such as in archaeological contexts.
Through the use of a Polishing Machine MECAPOL P320 equipped with two counter-rotating platens, it was possible to wear out two experimental flakes in a sandy quartzite sediment coming from Sai Island (Sudan) for 240 h.
After the experimentation, the two flakes showed no edge damage or other visible modifications, but some micro traces on the crystal surface were present. Although long and demanding, this step sharply reduces possible errors in the recognition of use-wear during the experimental stage. The micro traces definable as abrasions on some parts of the crystal surface, have been analysed by a metallographic microscope and compared with the same crystal portion taken before the experiment. Even if it is difficult to reconstruct post depositional processes in a laboratory, this attempt shows that the contact between sediment and stone tools in a continuous movement can randomly abrade the crystal surface
The role of burins and their relationship with art through trace analysis at the Upper Paleolithic site of Polesini Cave (Latium, Italy)
No full textPolesini Cave is located nearby Tivoli (RM) on the Eastern side of the Aniene river (RM).
The cave held archaeological deposits ranging from Late Upper Palaeolithic to Late Roman Empire.
The Late Upper Palaeolithic deposits are well known and studied since their richness in both lithic
and faunal remains and, moreover, for the conspicuous presence of mobile art and personal ornaments.
The huge lithic assemblage found in this site consists of 400.000 chipped stone tools, among which the
shaped items are 25.000. Many artefacts made of hard animal material are also present, together with
ornaments made out of the same raw materials. The mobile art is represented by various stone pebbles
and bones engraved with zoomorphic or geometric patterns that represent the most important evidence
of Palaeolithic art in Central Italy.
This article presents the results achieved from an investigation on the functional role of one of the most
common typological categories of chipped stone tools found at Polesini Cave: burins. Various
technological and use-wear studies have shown that the functional role of this type is not univocal. In
fact, a “burin like” morphology can be related to an artefact used to engrave but also to scrape; it can
be related to a hafting area or, instead to be an artefact, it could be a core or, simply, a technological
or a post-depositional accident.
Whit this picture in mind, we carried out the experimental and use-wear analysis of a selection of 500
burins coming from ten different layers. The results of the use-wear analysis show that only 20% of
the sample holds traces of use, suggesting that a great part of this category was unused. The functional
interpretation of the items with use-wear fits well with a systematic use as carving tools on different
materials, with few exceptions related to scraping activities.
Since Polesini Cave is rich in carved mobile art, we tried to investigate the role that these burins had
for the production of the artwork. The integration of the use-wear analysis of the lithic tools with the
techno-morphological analysis of the signs engraved on the stone mobile art allowed to recognize a
functional relation, although not exclusive, between burins and mobile art
Animal residues found on tiny Lower Paleolithic tools reveal their use in butchery
Full text linkStone tools provide a unique window into the mode of adaptation and cognitive abilities of Lower
Paleolithic early humans. The persistently produced large cutting tools (bifaces/handaxes) have long
been an appealing focus of research in the reconstruction of Lower Paleolithic survival strategies, at
the expenses of the small flake tools considered by-products of the stone production process rather
than desired end products. Here, we use use-wear, residues and technological analyses to show direct
and very early evidence of the deliberate production and use of small flakes for targeted stages of the
prey butchery process at the late Lower Paleolithic Acheulian site of Revadim, Israel. We highlight the
significant role of small flakes in Lower Paleolithic adaptation alongside the canonical large handaxes.
Our results demonstrate the technological and cognitive flexibility of early human groups in the Levant
and beyond at the threshold of the departure from Lower Paleolithic lifeways
The function of recycled lithic items at late Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel. An overview of the use-wear data
No full textThe study of lithic recycling in Paleolithic cultures throughout the OldWorld is increasingly becoming a topic of interest for many scholars. Technological analyses, refitting, and spatial analyses are disclosing the “recycling behavior” of many contexts, especially those of Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites. Still lacking, however, is a functional approach to the subject, which would certainly add new pieces to this intriguing jigsaw puzzle. Use-wear analysis, one of the most powerful methods to reach functional interpretations in lithic finds, can greatly improve our understanding of Paleolithic recycling behavior. Even in those cases where post- depositional alterations affected lithic items, use-wear analyses may produce important data despite the decrease in detail or less than optimal conditions of preservation. At the late Lower Paleolithic site of Qesem Cave, the high degree of conservation and preservation of the lithic tools maximizes the inference potential of this method. In this article, functional data are summarized following a study of a large sample of Amudian parent flakes (flakes from which were produced cores on flakes, termed COF-FFs) as well as recycled products (blanks produced from COF-FFs). Confirming the inference potential of use-wear analyses, this data allows for the delineation of functional peculiarities of the studied items, which, despite first impression, are anything but expedient. Moreover, the current use-wear analysis expands the scenario outlined by the technological study of the lithic recycling phenomenon at QesemCave, confirming its own role in the complex techno-functional system practiced by the hominins of Qesem Cave
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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