scholarly journals The effect of eraser sampling for proteomic analysis on Palaeolithic bone surface microtopography

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Sinet-Mathiot ◽  
Naomi L. Martisius ◽  
Ellen Schulz-Kornas ◽  
Adam van Casteren ◽  
Tsenka R. Tsanova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Behaviour ◽  
Bone Surface ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Surface Microtopography ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Ancient Bone ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Non Destructive ◽  
Human Subsistence

AbstractBone surface modifications are crucial for understanding human subsistence and dietary behaviour, and can inform about the techniques employed in the production and use of bone tools. Permission to destructively sample such unique artefacts is not always granted. The recent development of non-destructive proteomic extraction techniques has provided some alternatives for the analysis of rare and culturally significant artefacts, including bone tools and personal ornaments. The Eraser Extraction Method (EEM), first developed for ZooMS analysis of parchment, has recently been applied to bone and ivory specimens. To test the potential impact of the EEM on ancient bone surfaces, we analyse six anthropogenically modified Palaeolithic bone specimens from Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria) through a controlled sampling experiment using qualitative and 3D quantitative microscopy. Although the overall bone topography is generally preserved, our findings demonstrate a slight flattening of the microtopography alongside the formation of micro-striations associated with the use of the eraser for all bone specimens. Such modifications are similar to ancient use-wear traces. We therefore consider the EEM a destructive sampling approach for Palaeolithic bone surfaces. Together with low ZooMS success rates in some of the reported studies, the EEM might not be a suitable approach to taxonomically identify Pleistocene bone specimens.

Development of a non-destructive method to measure football facemask stiffness

2018 ◽  
Vol 233 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-185
Author(s):  
Alexander J Bina ◽  
Gregory S Batt ◽  
John D DesJardins
Keyword(s):  
Static Loading ◽  
Individual Component ◽  
Test Method ◽  
American Football ◽  
Structural Stiffness ◽  
Impact Performance ◽  
Stiffness Measurement ◽  
Loading Method ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Non Destructive

Despite heightened awareness of the need for more protective headgear in American football, facemask performance as an individual component of the helmet system has been overlooked. Current methods used to evaluate facemasks are ineffective in separating facemask performance from the performance of the full-helmet system. This article evaluates the use of a non-destructive, quasi-static loading method to measure the structural stiffness of 11 football facemask designs that represent various geometries and materials. The test method determined quantifiable differences in facemask stiffness, while limiting permanent facemask deformation to less than 3.175 mm. The reliability of the structural stiffness measurement process was assessed through a test–retest analysis of three facemask styles. The coefficient of variation for each style of facemask was between 1.1%–3.3%. This novel facemask stiffness test can be used for the non-destructive evaluation of facemasks by reconditioners, as well as facemask manufacturers to differentiate the potential impact performance of novel facemask designs.

scholarly journals A method for the taphonomic assessment of bone tools using 3D surface texture analysis of bone microtopography

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi L. Martisius ◽  
Shannon P. McPherron ◽  
Ellen Schulz-Kornas ◽  
Marie Soressi ◽  
Teresa E. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Texture Analysis ◽  
Surface Texture ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
3D Surface ◽  
Texture Parameters ◽  
One Step ◽  
Ancient Bone ◽  
Anthropogenic Modifications ◽  
3D Surface Texture ◽  
Surface Texture Analysis

Abstract Increasingly researchers have employed confocal microscopy and 3D surface texture analysis to assess bone surface modifications in an effort to understand ancient behavior. However, quantitative comparisons between the surfaces of purported archaeological bone tools and experimentally manufactured and used bones are complicated by taphonomic processes affecting ancient bone. Nonetheless, it may be reasonable to assume that bones within the same deposits are altered similarly and thus these alterations are quantifiable. Here we show how unworked bones can be used to quantify the taphonomic effect on bone surfaces and how this effect can then be controlled for and incorporated into an analysis for evaluating the modified surfaces of purported bone tools. To assess the baseline taphonomy of Middle Paleolithic archaeological deposits associated with typologically identified bone artifacts, specifically lissoirs, we directly compare the surface textures of ancient and modern unworked ribs. We then compare the ancient unworked ribs and lissoirs to assess their differences and predict the ancient artifacts’ original surface state using a multilevel multivariate Bayesian model. Our findings demonstrate that three of five tested surface texture parameters (Sa, Spc, and IsT) are useful for distinguishing surface type. Our model predictions show that lissoirs tend to be less rough, have more rounded surface peaks, and exhibit more directionally oriented surfaces. These characteristics are likely due to anthropogenic modifications and would have been more pronounced at deposition. Quantifying taphonomic alterations moves us one step closer to accurately assessing how bone artifacts were made and used in the ancient past.

scholarly journals Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Zupancich ◽  
Stella Nunziante-Cesaro ◽  
Ruth Blasco ◽  
Jordi Rosell ◽  
Emanuela Cristiani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Fallow Deer ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Early Stone Age ◽  
Lower Palaeolithic

Abstract For a long while, the controversy surrounding several bone tools coming from pre-Upper Palaeolithic contexts favoured the view of Homo sapiens as the only species of the genus Homo capable of modifying animal bones into specialised tools. However, evidence such as South African Early Stone Age modified bones, European Lower Palaeolithic flaked bone tools, along with Middle and Late Pleistocene bone retouchers, led to a re-evaluation of the conception of Homo sapiens as the exclusive manufacturer of specialised bone tools. The evidence presented herein include use wear and bone residues identified on two flint scrapers as well as a sawing mark on a fallow deer tibia, not associated with butchering activities. Dated to more than 300 kya, the evidence here presented is among the earliest related to tool-assisted bone working intended for non-dietary purposes, and contributes to the debate over the recognition of bone working as a much older behaviour than previously thought. The results of this study come from the application of a combined methodological approach, comprising use wear analysis, residue analysis, and taphonomy. This approach allowed for the retrieval of both direct and indirect evidence of tool-assisted bone working, at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Qesem Cave (Israel).

scholarly journals Author Correction: Artificial intelligence provides greater accuracy in the classification of modern and ancient bone surface modifications

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Domínguez‑Rodrigo ◽  
Gabriel Cifuentes‑Alcobendas ◽  
Blanca Jiménez‑García ◽  
Natalia Abellán ◽  
Marcos Pizarro‑Monzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Surface Modifications ◽  
Bone Surface ◽  
Ancient Bone

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Mastodon butchery: microscopic evidence of carcass processing and bone tool use

Paleobiology ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pat Shipman ◽  
Daniel C. Fisher ◽  
Jennie J. Rose
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Temporal Representation ◽  
Bone Modification ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Lake Site ◽  
Scanning Electron ◽  
Bone Tool

Scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination of bone surfaces from the Pleasant Lake mastodon, excavated in southern Michigan, documents features indicative of butchery. These features are identified by comparison with modern bones modified by human and natural processes. We report new studies of (1) marks made by bone tools during removal of meat from and disarticulation of carcasses and (2) use wear developed on bone tools. We also apply previously developed criteria for recognizing stone tool cutmarks and stages in the burning of bone. The Pleasant Lake site, dated to between 10,395 ± 100 and 12,845 ± 165 b.p., provides compelling evidence of mastodon butchery and bone tool use. Another site, near New Hudson, Michigan, provides replication of much of this evidence. Together these sites offer new examples of patterns of bone modification and extend the geographic and temporal representation of the much discussed, but still controversial, late Pleistocene bone technology.

Broken Bones, Bone Expediency Tools, and Bone Pseudotools: Lessons from the Blast Zone around Mount St. Helens, Washington

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Broken Bones ◽  
Patterns Of Use ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Blast Zone ◽  
Mount St Helens ◽  
The Way

Criteria for recognizing technological and use-wear modifications have been used to identify “bone expediency tools” by archaeologists who analyze bone assemblages recovered from sites where butchering of animals took place. These criteria are here reviewed and then used to identify bone pseudotools in cervid bone assemblages completely formed by non-human processes and recovered from the blast zone around the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington. The procedures for identifying stone tools and bone tools share similar strengths and weaknesses that seem to originate with the logical criteria used for recognizing modifications to the objects under study. Less equivocal inferential identifications of bone objects as “tools” can be facilitated by turning to the problem of constructing testable hypotheses about the way patterns of use-wear modifications to bone tools can be expected to appear in the archaeological record.

scholarly journals A 1.4-million-year-old bone handaxe from Konso, Ethiopia, shows advanced tool technology in the early Acheulean

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (31) ◽  
pp. 18393-18400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsuhiro Sano ◽  
Yonas Beyene ◽  
Shigehiro Katoh ◽  
Daisuke Koyabu ◽  
Hideki Endo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Core Reduction ◽  
Active Research ◽  
Tool Technology ◽  
Advanced Tool

In the past decade, the early Acheulean before 1 Mya has been a focus of active research. Acheulean lithic assemblages have been shown to extend back to ∼1.75 Mya, and considerable advances in core reduction technologies are seen by 1.5 to 1.4 Mya. Here we report a bifacially flaked bone fragment (maximum dimension ∼13 cm) of a hippopotamus femur from the ∼1.4 Mya sediments of the Konso Formation in southern Ethiopia. The large number of flake scars and their distribution pattern, together with the high frequency of cone fractures, indicate anthropogenic flaking into handaxe-like form. Use-wear analyses show quasi-continuous alternate microflake scars, wear polish, edge rounding, and striae patches along an ∼5-cm-long edge toward the handaxe tip. The striae run predominantly oblique to the edge, with some perpendicular, on both the cortical and inner faces. The combined evidence is consistent with the use of this bone artifact in longitudinal motions, such as in cutting and/or sawing. This bone handaxe is the oldest known extensively flaked example from the Early Pleistocene. Despite scarcity of well-shaped bone tools, its presence at Konso shows that sophisticated flaking was practiced by ∼1.4 Mya, not only on a range of lithic materials, but also occasionally on bone, thus expanding the documented technological repertoire of African Early PleistoceneHomo.

Applications of Laboratory-Based X-Ray Microfluorescence Analysis in Archaeometry

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (S2) ◽  
pp. 368-369
Author(s):  
N.E. Pingitore ◽  
J.D. Leach ◽  
A. Iglesias ◽  
C.G. Sampson ◽  
D.L. Carmichael ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Dispersive Spectrometer ◽  
Optical Microscope ◽  
Beam Diameter ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Price Range ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Academic Laboratory ◽  
Non Destructive

X-ray microfluorescence (XRMF) is spatially resolved x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of elemental composition. Formerly available only at synchrotron sources, recent development of commercial instruments has brought a tamer version of this technique into the size and price range of the academic laboratory. Our Kevex Omicron system features a primary beam diameter as small as 30 μm, with an energy dispersive spectrometer collecting the x-ray spectrum from Na to U. The micro-positioning stage and optical microscope permit selective spatially resolved analysis on the surfaces of objects as large as a desktop dictionary. The large sample stage, functional spatial resolution, and non-destructive analysis present significant opportunities for elemental analysis of a variety of archaeological materials. In particular, objects which for aesthetic, religious, regulatory, or economic reasons cannot be subjected to any alteration in sample preparation may still be analyzed by XRMF. Our laboratory has been conducting a number of investigations which illustrate the potential impact of XRMF technology on archaeometry.

scholarly journals Artificial intelligence provides greater accuracy in the classification of modern and ancient bone surface modifications

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo ◽  
Gabriel Cifuentes-Alcobendas ◽  
Blanca Jiménez-García ◽  
Natalia Abellán ◽  
Marcos Pizarro-Monzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Neural Networks ◽  
Surface Modifications ◽  
High Accuracy ◽  
Correct Identification ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Bone Surface ◽  
Analytical Technique ◽  
Ancient Bone

Abstract Bone surface modifications are foundational to the correct identification of hominin butchery traces in the archaeological record. Until present, no analytical technique existed that could provide objectivity, high accuracy, and an estimate of probability in the identification of multiple structurally-similar and dissimilar marks. Here, we present a major methodological breakthrough that incorporates these three elements using Artificial Intelligence (AI) through computer vision techniques, based on convolutional neural networks. This method, when applied to controlled experimental marks on bones, yielded the highest rate documented to date of accurate classification (92%) of cut, tooth and trampling marks. After testing this method experimentally, it was applied to published images of some important traces purportedly indicating a very ancient hominin presence in Africa, America and Europe. The preliminary results are supportive of interpretations of ancient butchery in some places, but not in others, and suggest that new analyses of these controversial marks should be done following the protocol described here to confirm or disprove these archaeological interpretations.

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