Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin W. Roberts ◽  
Marc Vander Linden
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Culture Variability ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

scholarly journals Design Space Constraints and the Cultural Taxonomy of European Final Palaeolithic Large Tanged Points: A Comparison of Typological, Landmark-Based and Whole-Outline Geometric Morphometric Approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
David N. Matzig ◽  
Shumon T. Hussain ◽  
Felix Riede
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Clustering Algorithms ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Geometric Morphometric ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Cultural Evolutionary ◽  
Culture Variability ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

AbstractThe identification of material culture variability remains an important goal in archaeology, as such variability is commonly coupled with interpretations of cultural transmission and adaptation. While most archaeological cultures are defined on the basis of typology and research tradition, cultural evolutionary reasoning combined with computer-aided methods such as geometric morphometrics (GMM) can shed new light on the validity of many such entrenched groupings, especially in regard to European Upper Palaeolithic projectile points and their classification. Little methodological consistency, however, makes it difficult to compare the conclusions of such studies. Here, we present an effort towards a benchmarked, case-transferrable toolkit that comparatively explores relevant techniques centred on outline-based GMM. First, we re-analyse two previously conducted landmark-based analyses of stone artefacts using our whole-outline approach, demonstrating that outlines can offer an efficient and reliable alternative. We then show how a careful application of clustering algorithms to GMM outline data is able to successfully discriminate between distinctive tool shapes and suggest that such data can also be used to infer cultural evolutionary histories matching already observed typo-chronological patterns. Building on this baseline work, we apply the same methods to a dataset of large tanged points from the European Final Palaeolithic (ca. 15,000–11,000 cal BP). Exploratively comparing the structure of design space within and between the datasets analysed here, our results indicate that Final Palaeolithic tanged point shapes do not fall into meaningful regional or cultural evolutionary groupings but exhibit an internal outline variance comparable to spatiotemporally much closer confined artefact groups of post-Palaeolithic age. We discuss these contrasting results in relation to the architecture of lithic tool design spaces and technological differences in blank production and tool manufacture.

scholarly journals Simulating cultural transmission: preliminary results and their implications for the study of formal variability of material culture in the Central Balkan Neolithic

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 137-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Porčić ◽  
Miloš Nešić
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
External Factor ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Spatial Distributions ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Culture Variability ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

 In this paper, we adopt the theoretical framework of evolutionary archaeology in order to model and simulate cultural transmission between hypothetical Neolithic sites in Balkans. We simulate neutral cultural transmission in order to compare the simulation results with empirically observed patterns of material culture variability such as traditional archaeological cultures. Our preliminary results show that a series of random local interactions can result in spatial groupings of typologically similar assemblages that correspond to the spatial distributions of traditional archaeological cultures, even in the absence of any other ‘external’ factor such as an overarching regional political structure or shared collective identity.

scholarly journals Book review: The prehistoric apprentice: Investigating apprenticeship, know-how and expertise in prehistoric technologies; L’apprenti préhistorique: Appréhender l’apprentissage, les savoir-faire et l’expertise à travers les productions techniques des soci

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manek Kolhatkar
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Technological Organization ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
French And English ◽  
Culture Variability

Describing cultural change and variability and inferring sociocultural dynamics about past people and communities may be among archaeology’s main goals as a field of practice. In this regard, the concept of skill has proved its usefulness to, time and again, expand the breath of archaeologists and lithic technologists’ analyses. It covers a wide range of applications, from apprenticeship, cognition, paleo-sociology, spatial organization. It is one of the main causes for material culture variability, up there with raw material constraints, design, technological organization or cultural norms. Yet, while skill has certainly been the focus of some research in the last decades, it remains quite peripheral, when considering how central the concept should be to technological inquiries. Whatever the reasons may be, this book, edited by Laurent Klaric and fully bilingual (French and English), aims at changing that, and argues for skill to become a central concern in lithic technology. Its chapters do so strongly and the end-result is a book that should become a reference for lithic technologists, whatever their research interests or schools of thought may be.

scholarly journals Early Neolithic of Trans-Urals: the contemporary view on historiographic problems

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-208
Author(s):  
Vadim Sergeevich Mosin ◽  
Ekaterina Sergeevna Yakovleva
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Statistical Processing ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Decorative Motifs ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Source Study ◽  
Bodies Of Evidence ◽  
Radiocarbon Chronology ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

This paper is devoted to the critical issues of historiography and source study in the early Neolithic of the Trans-Urals. The authors consider basic dated monuments in the context of radiocarbon chronology; analyze the established criteria for identifying archaeological cultures and ceramic traditions and types of this period. Based on statistical processing of the ceramics of the forest-steppe Tobol region settlements: Tashkovo 1, Dolgovskoe 3, Kochegarovo 1, Ust-Suerka 4, the authors distinguish some stadial features in the evolving of the material culture of the early Neolithic in the first and second halves of 6 thousand BC. Attention is paid, firstly, to the co-existence of Koshkino and Kozlovo ancientries within the settlements, and, secondly, to the coincidence of a number of characteristics of Koshkino and Kozlovo material culture regarding the morphology of potteries, ornamentation techniques and basic decorative motifs. Within the framework of a sociocultural approach, it is proposed to consider the bodies of evidence as complexes of two coexisting and interacting traditions within one sociocultural space, understood in the source sense as an archaeological culture, instead of dividing them into two independent lines of development. Besides it is emphasized that the problem of the Neolithization of Trans-Urals, on the basis of the available data, at this time cannot be solved plausible.

scholarly journals Time-dependent taphonomic site loss leads to spatial averaging: implications for archaeological cultures

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Coco ◽  
Radu Iovita
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Spatial Data Sets ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

Abstract Archaeologists typically define cultural areas on the basis of similarities between the types of material culture present in sites. The similarity is assessed in order of discovery, with newer sites being evaluated against older ones. Despite evidence for time-dependent site loss due to taphonomy, little attention has been paid to how this impacts archaeological interpretations about the spatial extents of material culture similarity. This paper tests the hypothesis that spatially incomplete data sets result in detection of larger regions of similarity. To avoid assumptions of cultural processes, we apply subsampling algorithms to a naturally occurring, spatially distributed dataset of soil types. We show that there is a negative relationship between the percentage of points used to evaluate similarity across space and the absolute distances to the first minimum in similarity for soil classifications at multiple spatial scales. This negative relationship indicates that incomplete spatial data sets lead to an overestimation of the area over which things are similar. Moreover, the location of the point from which the calculation begins can determine the size of the region of similarity. This has important implications for how we interpret the spatial extent of similarity in material culture over large distances in prehistory.

scholarly journals Time-dependent taphonomic site loss leads to spatial averaging: implications for archaeological cultures

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Coco ◽  
Radu Iovita
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Multiple Spatial Scales ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Dependent Site ◽  
Incomplete Datasets ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

Archaeologists typically define cultural areas on the basis of similarities between the types of material culture present in sites. The similarity is assessed in order of discovery, with newer sites being evaluated against older ones. Despite evidence for time-dependent site loss due to taphonomy, little attention has been paid to how this impacts archaeological interpretations about the spatial extents of material culture similarity. This paper tests the hypothesis that spatially incomplete datasets result in detection of larger regions of similarity. To avoid assumptions of cultural processes, we apply subsampling algorithms to a naturally occurring, spatially distributed dataset of soil types. We show that there is a negative relationship between the percentage of points used to evaluate similarity across space and the absolute distances to the first minimum in similarity for soil classifications at multiple spatial scales. This negative relationship indicates that incomplete spatial datasets lead to an overestimation of the area over which things are similar. Moreover, the location of the point from which the calculation begins can determine the size of the region of similarity. This has important implications for how we interpret the spatial extent of similarity in material culture over large distances in prehistory.

Conceptual Metaphor in the Archaeological Record: Methods and an Example from the American Southwest

2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 613-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott G. Ortman
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Textile Fabrics ◽  
Archaeological Cultures ◽  
Preliminary Application ◽  
Psychological Experiments

This paper attempts to unify recent theorizing on cultural meaning in material culture using the notion of conceptual metaphor. Research in several disciplines suggests that conventional metaphorical concepts are central to cultural cognition. Ethnographic studies and psychological experiments indicate that conceptual metaphors are expressed in numerous forms of human expression, including speech, ritual, narrative, and material culture. Generalizations on the nature and structure of metaphor emerging from cognitive linguistic research can be used to develop methods for reconstructing ancient metaphors from archaeological evidence. In a preliminary application, I argue that pottery designs from the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest were conceptualized as textile fabrics, and suggest that connections between these media derived from a worldview grounded in container imagery. The ability to decipher conceptual metaphors in prehistoric material culture opens up many new avenues for research, including the role of worldview in cultural evolution, and the discovery of cultural continuities between archaeological cultures and historic ethnolinguistic groups.

scholarly journals EARLY AND MIDDLE BRONZE AGE CHRONOLOGY OF THE CARPATHIAN BASIN REVISITED: QUESTIONS ANSWERED OR PERSISTENT CHALLENGES?

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Robert Staniuk
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Carpathian Basin ◽  
Land Occupation ◽  
Linear Scheme ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Archaeological Cultures

ABSTRACT The Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin is often viewed as a long period of transition from a dispersed form of land occupation to one of increasing aggregation, ultimately resulting in the formation of tell settlements and large cemeteries. This developmental trajectory remains a legacy of early 20th century archaeology, where the similarity of material culture recovered from cemeteries and settlements was used to develop a multi-linear scheme of progression of regional chronologies tied to specific archaeological cultures. While typologically conclusive, the recent increase in the availability of radiocarbon determinations suggests that these sequences represent a priori interpretation of social development rather than empirically verified observations. In order to do so, it is necessary to re-evaluate the existing dataset in order to determine whether the formation of tells was a chronologically contemporary development and whether the regional chronological sequences are supported by independent dating.

scholarly journals Crypt with Third-Century Coins in the Cemetery of Opushki

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-278
Author(s):  
Igor Khrapunov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Methods ◽  
Late Roman Period ◽  
Archaeological Cultures ◽  
Made In ◽  
Grave Goods ◽  
Late Roman

The cemetery of Opushki is located about 15 km east of Simferopol, in the Crimean foothills. In the process of excavations, carried out since 2003, a variety of funerary constructions belonging to different archaeological cultures have been discovered. The crypt researched in the current article contained four burials, which were especially interesting because of the find of six coins inside of them. The excavation above the burial chamber of this vault discovered a childs burial accompanied with varied grave goods, similarly to those made in the crypt. The burials discussed in the present study were made in the second half of the third century AD. The second half of the 3rd century AD was the period represented in Crimea by the smallest number of complexes in comparison with the previous and the following periods. Varied grave goods from the crypt and the childs grave greatly expand our notion of the material culture of those people who inhabited the Crimean foothills in that half of the century, which is difficult to be discovered by archaeological methods. Furthermore, the crypt No. 133 belongs to a big group of grave constructions which were widely spread in Crimea in the Late Roman period. Their distinctive feature is a short dromos. Initially, the latter crypts appeared in the first half of the 3rd century AD. However, several of them as well belong to the second half of the 3rd century AD. In the fourth century AD, the majority of burials were made in such crypts close to the Crimean foothills. Many researchers interpret specific construction of these crypts as an evidence of the penetration into Crimea of the forefathers of mediaeval North Caucasian Alans. The material culture of the population of the Crimean foothills in the Late Roman period could be interpreted as eclectic, developed under the influence from various factors. Its sources were ancient and the Sarmatian cultures. Besides, the research showed that there were found some local hand-made vessels, analogies of which were never found outside of the peninsula. Some of the artefacts had penetrated to Crimea area from the areas populated by Germanic tribes.

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