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

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.

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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

Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology ◽

10.1007/s41982-021-00097-2 ◽

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.

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Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission

Investigating Archaeological Cultures ◽

10.1007/978-1-4419-6970-5_1 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 1-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Benjamin W. Roberts ◽

Marc Vander Linden

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Culture Variability ◽

Archaeological Cultures

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Benjamin W. Roberts and Marc Vander Linden, eds. Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability and Transmission (Berlin: Springer, 2011, 300pp., 49 figs., hbk, ISBN 978-1-4419-6970-5)

European Journal of Archaeology ◽

10.1179/146195713x13721618715876 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 729-736 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stephen Shennan

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Culture Variability ◽

Archaeological Cultures

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Desert Habitation History by 14C Dating of Soil Layers in Rural Building Structures (Negev, Israel): Preliminary Results from Horvat Haluqim

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/s0033822200047160 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 54 (3-4) ◽

pp. 391-406 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Hendrik J Bruins ◽

Johannes van der Plicht ◽

Mordechai Haiman

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Iron Age ◽

Negev Desert ◽

Building Structures ◽

Building Structure ◽

Relative Probability ◽

14C Dating ◽

Undisturbed Soil ◽

Preliminary Results ◽

Human Habitation

Traditional archaeological approaches in the central Negev Desert used to employ excavation techniques in post-prehistoric periods in which stratigraphy is based on architecture, while material culture forms the basis for dating assessment and chronology. Such an approach was understandable, as it focused on the most visible remains of past human habitation. However, the detailed habitation record is in the soil rather than in the walls. Moreover, ceramics and stone tools in desert cultures often have limited time resolution in terms of absolute chronology. The rural desert site of Horvat Haluqim in the central Negev yielded 2 habitation periods with the traditional methodology: (1) Roman period, 2nd–3rd centuries CE; (2) Iron Age IIA, 10th century BCE. We have conducted at Horvat Haluqim initial excavations in small building remains that were never excavated before. Our excavation methodology focuses on detailed examination of the archaeological soil in building structures, coupled with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating for chronology, and micromorphology of undisturbed soil samples to study stratigraphy and soil contents at the microscopic scale. Here, we report preliminary results, concentrating on the 14C dates. These suggest a much longer habitation history at the site during the Iron Age. The 14C dates obtained so far from these building remains cover Iron Age I, II, III, and the Persian period. The oldest calibrated date (charred C4 plants) in a rectangular building structure (L100) is 1129–971 BCE (60.5%, highest relative probability). The youngest calibrated date in a round building structure (L700) is 540–411 BCE (57.9%, highest relative probability). This excavation methodology provides additional “eyes” to look at past human habitation in the Negev Desert, seeing more periods and more detail than was possible with traditional schemes and ceramic dating.

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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

Journal of Lithic Studies ◽

10.2218/jls.5629 ◽

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.

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

Samara Journal of Science ◽

10.17816/snv201982215 ◽

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.

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Material Expressions of Religious Culture

Religion, Hypermobility and Digital Media in Global Asia ◽

10.5117/9789463728935_ch03 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Hickey-Moody ◽

Marissa Willcox

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Focus Group ◽

Material Culture ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Religious Culture ◽

Historical Records ◽

Group Discussions ◽

Complex Information ◽

Community Perspectives

Materiality communicates complex information, often about the perspectives of people whose voices are silenced, or left off historical records. Material cultures provide indirect archives of such social histories, values and feelings. Examining the expressive qualities of material culture, we draw on data from the trans-national research project ‘Interfaith Childhoods’. This project generates and documents community perspectives on faith, identity and belonging. In response to our data generated through arts workshops with children and focus group discussions with parents, we develop a theoretical framework which observes how the materiality of religion can shape the ways young people and their parents build relationships with those from different religions. Here, we theorise how our empirical evidence makes a case for thinking through visual and material cultures of religion.

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On Vastness and Variability: Cultural Transmission, Historicity, and the Paleoindian Record in Eastern South America

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências ◽

10.1590/0001-3765201520140219 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 87 (2) ◽

pp. 1239-1258 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

ASTOLFO G.M. ARAUJO

Keyword(s):

Population Structure ◽

South America ◽

Material Culture ◽

Cultural Transmission ◽

Raw Material ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

South American ◽

Human Occupation ◽

Cultural Traditions ◽

Early Human

Eastern South America, or what is today Brazilian territory, poses interesting questions about the early human occupation of the Americas. Three totally distinct and contemporaneous lithic technologies, dated between 11,000 and 10,000 14C BP, are present in different portions of the country: the Umbu tradition in the south, with its formal bifacial industry, with well-retouched scrapers and bifacial points; the Itaparica tradition in the central-west / northwest, totally unifacial, whose only formal artifacts are limaces; and the "Lagoa Santa" industry, completely lacking any formal artifacts, composed mainly of small quartz flakes. Our data suggests that these differences are not related to subsistence or raw-material constraints, but rather to different cultural norms and transmission of strongly divergent chaînes opératoires. Such diversity in material culture, when viewed from a cultural transmission (CT) theory standpoint, seems at odds with a simple Clovis model as the origin of these three cultural traditions given the time elapsed since the first Clovis ages and the expected population structure of the early South American settlers.

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Development of Infant Behavior Simulator: Modeling Grasping Achievement Based on Developmental Behavior Model and Environmental Interest Induction Model

Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics ◽

10.20965/jrm.2005.p0705 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 17 (6) ◽

pp. 705-716 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Koji Kitamura ◽

◽

Yoshifumi Nishida ◽

Naoaki Matsumoto ◽

Yoichi Motomura ◽

...

Keyword(s):

External Factor ◽

Basic Function ◽

Virtual Space ◽

Infant Behavior ◽

Comprehensive Understanding ◽

Internal Factor ◽

Developmental Behavior ◽

New Findings ◽

Simulation Results ◽

Induction Model

Comprehensive understanding of infant behavior is required to prevent infant accidents in the home. We are developing a system to simulate infant behavior and accidents in virtual space to comprehensively understand infant behavior and accidents. We model infant grasping achievement in daily life, focusing on interaction with objects as a basic function of the infant behavior simulator we are developing. Grasping achievement refers to behavior in which an infant sees an object, approaches it, and grasps it. We classified elements related to infant behavior into developmental behavior, which is an internal factor, and environmental interest induction, which is an external factor. We created models by representing these factors in a stochastic form based on the knowledge on developmental behavior, which is known in the medicine field, and our new findings on environmental interest induction, which was obtained from infant observation. We integrated these models in a stochastic manner to create a grasping achievement model. We validated this model by comparing data on infant behavior with simulation results using the grasping achievement model.

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