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Formal variation in lithic projectile armatures

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Date Issued:
2008
Summary:
Lithic projectile armatures represent a significant innovation over thrusted spears in the subsistence strategies of hominins. Previous researchers have disagreed over the timing of the appearance of projectile weapons in the archaeological record (Brooks 2006; Shea 2006). To discover when projectile technology first appears in the Levant, I have compared tip cross-sectional areas, weights, and tip penetrating angles (three variables useful for discriminating between projectile and thrusting weapons) of pointed Blades, Levallois points, and Mousterian points with analogs from known and suspected chipped stone projectile points. Results indicate that pointed Blades from Tabun and Skhul caves are statistically indistinguishable from other suspected projectile point types. Levallois and Mousterian points from Tabun and Skhul are also statistically indistinguishable from suspected projectile types when the lower halves of the populations are compared. Consequently, I conclude that points from Tabun and Skhul caves fall within the known and suspected range of variation of projectile point morphology.
Title: Formal variation in lithic projectile armatures: re-interpreting points from Tabun Cave, Israel.
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Name(s): Leslie, David E.
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of Anthropology
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Issued: 2008
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Physical Form: electronic
Extent: xi, 114 p. : ill.
Language(s): English
Summary: Lithic projectile armatures represent a significant innovation over thrusted spears in the subsistence strategies of hominins. Previous researchers have disagreed over the timing of the appearance of projectile weapons in the archaeological record (Brooks 2006; Shea 2006). To discover when projectile technology first appears in the Levant, I have compared tip cross-sectional areas, weights, and tip penetrating angles (three variables useful for discriminating between projectile and thrusting weapons) of pointed Blades, Levallois points, and Mousterian points with analogs from known and suspected chipped stone projectile points. Results indicate that pointed Blades from Tabun and Skhul caves are statistically indistinguishable from other suspected projectile point types. Levallois and Mousterian points from Tabun and Skhul are also statistically indistinguishable from suspected projectile types when the lower halves of the populations are compared. Consequently, I conclude that points from Tabun and Skhul caves fall within the known and suspected range of variation of projectile point morphology.
Identifier: 317286132 (oclc), 172670 (digitool), FADT172670 (IID), fau:2846 (fedora)
Note(s): by David E. Leslie.
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.
Includes bibliography.
Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subject(s): Tools, Prehistoric -- Analysis
Stone implements -- Classification
Projectile points -- Analysis
Paleoanthropology
Excavations (Archaeology) -- Israel
Fossil hominids -- Israel
Tabun Cave (Israel) -- Antiquities
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/172670
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU