Core Use-Life Distributions in Lithic Assemblages as a Means for Reconstructing Behavioral Patterns

Authors

Matthew J. Douglass, University of Auckland, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sam C. Lin, University of WollongongFollow
David R. Braun, University of Cape Town, George Washington University, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Thomas W. Plummer, City University of New York

RIS ID

114178

Publication Details

Douglass, M. J., Lin, S. C., Braun, D. R. & Plummer, T. W. (2018). Core Use-Life Distributions in Lithic Assemblages as a Means for Reconstructing Behavioral Patterns. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 25 (1), 254-288.

Abstract

Artifacts with varying use-lives have different discard rates and hence are represented unequally among archaeological assemblages. As such, the ability to gauge the use-lives of artifacts is important for understanding the formation of archaeological assemblage variability. In lithic artifacts, use-life can be expressed as the extraction of utility, or work potential, from existing stone volume. Using experimental data and generalized linear modeling, this study develops models of artifact use-life on cores in the form of reduction intensity. We then apply these models to two archaeological case studies to (a) reconstruct the reduction intensities of archaeological cores and (b) investigate the survivorship curves of these archaeological cores across the reduction continuum using the Weibull function. Results indicate variation in core reduction and maintenance with respect to raw material properties and place use history and implicate evolutionary differences between Early Stone Age hominins and Holocene modern humans.