Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX227302.

The purpose of this research is to construct and test a model of the organization of microcore technology, a standardized core technology, within the subsistence-settlement system of prehistoric, semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers. The study of technological organization involves investigation of why a society selects particular tool designs, and how it structures the manufacture, use, maintenance and discard of tools and associated debitage across the landscape. The model tested here associates the use of microcore technology with a design for a maintainable and transportable tool assemblage which conserves lithic material, and with a regional distribution focused on residential camps as the locus of microcore manufacture and microblade production and use. The model is tested through a comparative case study of archaeological tools and debitage from microlithic and non-microlithic sites in two upland valleys in the British Columbia Southern Interior Plateau. Research hypotheses and corresponding test implications are evaluated with data and analyses relating to core reduction and tool production stages, to tool use, and to activity area patterning within the sites. Results of hypothesis testing indicate that the model only partially explains the role of this particular standardized core technology in the study areas. Microcore technology is found to be associated with high residential and logistical mobility; a transportable, expediently-used tool assemblage; and the conservation of a specific raw material in one valley. Thus, this research proposes that microcore technology was a standardized technology which was variable in design goals and distribution, even within the same geographically and ethnographically defined region. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Intercontinental similarities in microblade technology have long been used as evidence in support of the hypothesis that human populations migrated from East Asia to northwestern North America during the late Pleistocene. This study synthesizes the available data in an effort to provide a preliminary overview of this technological tradition. Comparative analysis reveals that wedge-shaped cores from Chinese Upper Paleolithic assemblages, the Dyuktai Culture of eastern Siberia, Japan, and the American Paleo-Arctic Tradition of Alaska share many similarities in the selection of raw materials, core morphology, platform preparation and rejuvenation, and edge angle variation. However, it also reveals that Alaskan wedge-shaped cores are more closely related to Dyuktai Culture cores than they are to Hokkaido cores. The study concludes that the distribution of microblade complexes is best explained by migration and/or diffusion from inland Asia to North America during the late Pleistocene.

No description available.

A dissertation submitted to the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg 2013. / Tool manufacturing played a major role in the development and evolution of our species, and by studying the tools left behind by our ancestors we gain valuable insight into their development and behaviours through time. This study was conducted on the Swartkrans Oldowan (2.2 - 1.7 Ma), early Acheulean (1.5 - 1 Ma), and Middle Stone Age (<110 ka) assemblages to determine the degree of lithic raw material selectivity for making stone tools, and if they practiced ever increasing selection towards better quality stone over time. The presence of quality selection was determined by comparing the various Swartkrans assemblages with experimentally created lithic tools from rock types found in the study area. Three main characteristics that determine selection of rock types were isolated: flaking predictability, durability and sharpness. Analysis of the data provided further evidence that our early stone tool making ancestors had the ability to understand how different rock types behave when knapped and tended to select rocks that had a high flaking predictability, high durability and could produce fairly sharp edges. It was also apparent that they could identify features that diminish the above mentioned characteristics. Variables such as the impurity encounter rate, fracture encounter rate, weathering, grain size and homogeneity were semiquantitatively recorded for the three techno-complexes at Swartkrans and compared to each other to help identify the degree of selectivity that was practiced over time. The data revealed that selection for quality of lithic raw materials was practiced to some extent during the Oldowan and improved slightly in the early Acheulean. The most marked selection for quality was seen for the Middle Stone Age when modern humans used the site. These results indicate that as time progressed in the Sterkfontein valley, and the stone tool technologies became more complex, so too did the selective pressures and thus an increase in selection for quality lithic raw materials over the course of time.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Michael K. Faught, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 6, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Palaeoarchaeology))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, 2003 / This project was inspired by the identification of 108 bone tools (dated roughly to between 2 and 1 Mya) from sites in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, Gauteng. An experimental study was lUldertaken in an attempt to answer the basic question of "what caused modification marks on early hominid bone tools?" Five experimental tools were used in each of seven different task oriented experiments. The purpose of this project was to broaden the existing database of experimentally employed bone tools and the associated process-pattern relationships. Analysis was based on an optical comparison of primarily microscopically, but also macroscopically visible usewear patterns observed on the experimental tools. The experimental data were then used to make inferences on a middle range theoretical level regarding the use of the fossil specimens and comment on the currently held opinions.

Thèse--Paris. / At head of title: Université de Paris, Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Diagnostic flake analysis is based on the concept that distinct flintknapping techniques produce distinctive flakes. Seen in this light, the information potential of flakes is enormous. Unfortunately, this information is virtually lost in analyses based upon size-grading a flake assemblage or separating flakes statistically based on a few "key" attributes. The intent of this study is to provide and apply a well-integrated analytical approach based upon the diagnostic flake concept.In order to integrate the static lithic artifacts to the dynamic behavior that produced them, a generalized flow chart model of the knapping event is developed. The flow chart model emphasizes the debitage produced during knapping, rather than finished lithic tools. The flow chart model is described in detail, and the terms"technology", "strategy", and "techniques" are defined and contrasted.A total of 30 reduction experiments were conducted in the course of this study, producing an estimated 27,000 flakes and flake fragments. Based on this sample and previous work conducted by Flenniken (n. d. ) and others, nine diagnostic flake types and three significant flake attributes are defined.An ideal methodology for a lithic analysis is developed. This ideal methodology includes: 1) assessing the types of raw materials present on a site; 2) reconstructing the technology based on negative-flake scars on finished tools; 3) flake refitting; 4) classifying flakes into the diagnostic flake categories nonstatistically and polythetically, with special emphasis placed on recognizing previously unidentified diagnostic flake types; 5) developing a flow chart model of reconstructed prehistoric technology; and 6) summarizing the flow chart i n verbal form.The methodology is applied to the Middle and Late Woodland components of the stratified All Seasons site located in central Indiana. Analysis of the Middle Woodland assemblage results in the recognition and definition of conical core flake blanks.The methodology is applied to a blind test manufactured by Donald Cochran to assess bias that may have been introduced into the flake type definitions by using debitage produced only by the author. Cochran's behavior is accurately reconstructed.Finally, the results of the study are discussed, and the study's strengths and weaknesses are determined. Diagnostic flake analysis is found to be a powerful approach that derives an optimal amount of high-quality information from a chipped stone assemblage. / Department of Anthropology