Diagnostic properties of hammerstone-broken long bone fragments, specimen identifiability, and Early Stone Age butchered assemblage interpretation

2017 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 114-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Merritt ◽  
Kellyn M. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Long Bone ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age ◽  
Bone Fragments ◽  
Diagnostic Properties

scholarly journals Quantifying 3D Micro‐Surface Changes on Experimental Stones Used to Break Bones and Their Implications for the Analysis of Early Stone Age Pounding Tools

Archaeometry ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Benito‐Calvo ◽  
A. Arroyo ◽  
L. Sánchez‐Romero ◽  
M. Pante ◽  
I. Torre
Keyword(s):  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age ◽  
Surface Changes

scholarly journals A 115,000-year-old expedient bone technology at Lingjing, Henan, China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Doyon ◽  
Li Zhanyang ◽  
Wang Hua ◽  
Lila Geis ◽  
Francesco d'Errico
Keyword(s):  
Long Bone ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Faunal Assemblage ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Technological Potential ◽  
Bone Fragments ◽  
Anthropogenic Processes ◽  
Stone Knapping

Activities attested since at least 2.6 Myr, such as stone knapping, marrow extraction, and woodworking may have allowed early hominins to recognize the technological potential of discarded skeletal remains and equipped them with a transferable skillset fit for the marginal modification and utilization of bone flakes. Identifying precisely when and where expedient bone tools were used in prehistory nonetheless remains a challenging task owing to the multiple natural and anthropogenic processes that can mimic deliberately knapped bones. Here, we compare a large sample of the faunal remains from Lingjing, a 115 ka-old site from China which has yielded important hominin remains and rich faunal and lithic assemblages, with bone fragments produced by experimentally fracturing Equus caballus long bones. Our results provide a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria that can help zooarchaeologists and bone technologists distinguish faunal remains with intentional flake removal scars from those resulting from carcass processing activities. Experimental data shows marrow extraction seldom generates diaphyseal fragments bearing more than six flake scars arranged contiguously or in interspersed series. Long bone fragments presenting such characteristics can, therefore, be interpreted as being purposefully knapped to be used as expediency tools. The identification, based on the above experimental criteria, of 56 bone tools in the Lingjing faunal assemblage is consistent with the smaller size of the lithics found in the same layer. The continuity gradient observed in the size of lithics and knapped bones suggest the latter were used for tasks in which the former were less or not effective.

scholarly journals Prefrontal cortex activation supports the emergence of early stone age toolmaking skill

NeuroImage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 199 ◽  
pp. 57-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelby S.J. Putt ◽  
Sobanawartiny Wijeakumar ◽  
John P. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age

scholarly journals Raw material optimization and stone tool engineering in the Early Stone Age of Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (162) ◽  
pp. 20190377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Key ◽  
Tomos Proffitt ◽  
Ignacio de la Torre
Keyword(s):  
Functional Performance ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Cutting Tools ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Material Optimization ◽  
Early Stone Age

For more than 1.8 million years hominins at Olduvai Gorge were faced with a choice: whether to use lavas, quartzite or chert to produce stone tools. All are available locally and all are suitable for stone tool production. Using controlled cutting tests and fracture mechanics theory we examine raw material selection decisions throughout Olduvai's Early Stone Age. We quantify the force, work and material deformation required by each stone type when cutting, before using these data to compare edge sharpness and durability. Significant differences are identified, confirming performance to depend on raw material choice. When combined with artefact data, we demonstrate that Early Stone Age hominins optimized raw material choices based on functional performance characteristics. Doing so flexibly: choosing raw materials dependent on their sharpness and durability, alongside a tool's loading potential and anticipated use-life. In this way, we demonstrate that early lithic artefacts at Olduvai Gorge were engineered to be functionally optimized cutting tools.

Production and use of percussive stone tools in the Early Stone Age: Experimental approach to the lithic record of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 367-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Policarpo Sánchez Yustos ◽  
Fernando Diez-Martín ◽  
Isabel M. Díaz ◽  
Javier Duque ◽  
Cristina Fraile ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Olduvai Gorge ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age

scholarly journals Aesthetic sense and social cognition: a story from the Early Stone Age

Synthese ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Currie ◽  
Xuanqi Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Regular Feature ◽  
Aesthetic Responses ◽  
Aesthetic Sense ◽  
Early Stone Age

AbstractHuman aesthetic practices show a sensitivity to the ways that the appearance of an artefact manifests skills and other qualities of the maker. We investigate a possible origin for this kind of sensibility, locating it in the need for co-ordination of skill-transmission in the Acheulean stone tool culture. We argue that our narrative supports the idea that Acheulean agents were aesthetic agents. In line with this we offer what may seem an absurd comparison: between the Acheulean and the Quattrocento. In making it we display some hidden complexity in human aesthetic responses to an artefact. We conclude with a brief review of rival explanations—biological and/or cultural—of how this skills-based sensibility became a regular feature of human aesthetic practices.

The Early Stone Age of the Nomos of Preveza: Landscape and Settlement

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis N. Runnels ◽  
Tjeerd H. van Andel
Keyword(s):  
Stone Age ◽  
Early Stone Age

Surgical Treatment of Distal Femur Fractures using LISS System

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
D Cherkes-Zade ◽  
M Monesi ◽  
A Causero ◽  
M Marcolini ◽  
D Cherkes-Zade ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Technology ◽  
Weight Bearing ◽  
Long Bone ◽  
Operative Trauma ◽  
Early Weight Bearing ◽  
Femur Fractures ◽  
Bone Fragments ◽  
Total Knee ◽  
Using Data

Osteosynthesis with LISS system (less invasive stabilization system) is a new technology and this conception of stabilization of long bone fragments is a new step in the development of AO philosophy. Indications to application of this system are distal metaepiphysis and diaphysis femur fractures, supra- and transcondylar fractures in polytrauma, fractures in osteoporosis as well as fractures after total knee replacement. During the last 3 years 35 patients were operated on by that technique. The follow-up period ranged from 6 months to 3 years. Assessment of outcomes was performed using data of clinical examination and evaluation of radiograms with modified Neer-Grantham-Shelton scale. In patients who were operated on I year ago the total score varied from 70 to 80 (maximum - 100). Advantages of this technology as compared to the traditional methods of osteosynthesis are the following: limited operative trauma, less blood loss, shortening of surgery duration, preservation of tissue physiology as well as absence of the necessity to use cement and bone auto- and allografts. Disadvantages include the difficulty for reposition prior to fixation and impossibility of correction in postoperative period as well as early weight-bearing load.

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