Articles producció científica> Història i Història de l'Art

Morphometric assessment of convergent tool technology and function during the early middle Palaeolithic: The case of Payre, France

  • Dades identificatives

    Identificador: PC:1561
    Autors:
    M. Gema ChacónFlorent DétroitAude CoudenneauMarie-Hélène Moncel
    Resum:
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155316 URL: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155316
  • Altres:

    Autor segons l'article: M. Gema Chacón; Florent Détroit; Aude Coudenneau; Marie-Hélène Moncel
    Departament: Història i Història de l'Art
    Autor/s de la URV: CHACÓN NAVARRO, MARÍA GEMA; Florent Détroit; Aude Coudenneau; Marie-Hélène Moncel
    Paraules clau: Està en blanc
    Resum: There appears to be little doubt as to the existence of an intentional technological resolve to produce convergent tools during the Middle Palaeolithic. However, the use of these pieces as pointed tools is still subject to debate: i.e., handheld tool vs. hafted tool. Present-day technological analysis has begun to apply new methodologies in order to quantify shape variability and to decipher the role of the morphology of these pieces in relation to function; for instance, geometric morphometric analyses have recently been applied with successful results. This paper presents a study of this type of analysis on 37 convergent tools from level Ga of Payre site (France), dated to MIS 8-7. These pieces are non-standardized knapping products produced by discoidal and orthogonal core technologies. Moreover, macro-wear studies attest to various activities on diverse materials with no evidence of hafting or projectile use. The aim of this paper is to test the geometric morphometric approach on non-standardized artefacts applying the Elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA) to 3D contours and to assess the potential relationship between size and shape, technology and function. This study is innovative in that it is the first time that this method, considered to be a valuable complement for describing technological and functional attributes, is applied to 3D contours of lithic products. Our results show that this methodology ensures a very good degree of accuracy in describing shape variations of the sharp edges of technologically non-standardized convergent tools. EFA on 3D contours indicates variations in deviations of the outline along the third dimension (i.e., dorso-ventrally) and yields quantitative and insightful information on the actual shape variations of tools. Several statistically significant relationships are found between shape variation and use-wear attributes, though the results emphasize the large variability of the shape of the convergent tools, which, in general, does not show a strong direct association with technological features and function. This is in good agreement with the technological context of this chronological period, characterized by a wide diversity of non-standardized tools adapted to multipurpose functions for varied subsistence activities. © 2016 Chacón et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
    Grup de recerca: Autoecologia Humana del Quaternari
    Àrees temàtiques: History Historia Història
    Accès a la llicència d'ús: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/
    ISSN: 1932-6203
    Identificador de l'autor: n/a; n/a; n/a; n/a
    Data d'alta del registre: 2016-06-14
    Volum de revista: 11
    Versió de l'article dipositat: info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
    Enllaç font original: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155316
    URL Document de llicència: https://repositori.urv.cat/ca/proteccio-de-dades/
    DOI de l'article: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155316
    Entitat: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
    Any de publicació de la revista: 2016
    Pàgina inicial: Article number e0155316
    Tipus de publicació: Article Artículo Article
  • Paraules clau:

    Paleolític -- França
    Està en blanc
    History
    Historia
    Història
    1932-6203
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