Reduction in the Acheulean: Identification of a relative reduction equation and application to the Boxgrove assemblage Público
Muschinski, Jana Maria (2015)
Abstract
One of the most common sources of information regarding early hominid behavior is stone tool debitage. Flakes are made during the creation of a stone tool, and if these flakes are viewed chronologically, they can be represented as a reduction sequence. Being able to identify what portion of the reduction sequence is present at an archaeological site would provide valuable information about resource transportation and management. Several studies have attempted to create a percent completion model for bifacial lithic tool creation based on flake attributes (Bradbury & Carr, 1999; Ingbar et al., 1989; Shott, 1996). This study creates a completion proportion equation for refined Acheulean handaxe debitage assemblages of flint using multiple linear regression. The identified model has an adjusted R-squared value of 0.434 and achieves a slope of 1 when the predicted values are plotted against the actual reduction proportion values for each flake. This model was applied to data from the middle Pleistocene Acheulean site of Boxgrove. According to the model, the assemblage consists of primarily early reduction flakes, contrary to past interpretations (Roberts & Parfitt, 1999). However, this application is problematic because the created model does not fully control for size, which differs between assemblages. Future research on both the model and its application to Boxgrove and other sites will be crucial. Ideally, the sample size used to create the models could be increased through further experimental replications and the model could be tested upon a further experimental assemblage. The overall effects of using a size dependent variable within the reduction equation also need to be investigated further. On the broadest scale, such reduction models could ideally be created for a variety of materials and technologies, enabling application to a wide range of archaeological sites.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Biface Reduction Sequence Studies 9
Stage Model 10
Continuum Model 12
Existing and Potential Limitations of Reduction Studies 16
Identifying the Gap 23
Materials and Methods 25
Debitage Measurement 27
Statistics 30
Results 35
Assessing the Value of the Model 37
Application 42
Discussion 44
Comparison to Past Studies 48
Boxgrove Application 50
Future Directions 55
Conclusion 57
Appendix A 58
Appendix B 67
Works Cited 73
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