Fabric Analysis: Application to Paleolithic Sites

Artifact orientations and site formation processes from total station proveniences

“…Bertran and Texier [2] and Lenoble and Bertran [18] present data on artifacts and on natural stones, though it is not always clear which they are using in each instance. In a study similar to the one presented here, Dibble et al [11] collected orientations on the natural fabric of the deposit as well as on the artifacts and were able to show that both kinds of clasts were subject to the same formation processes.…”

“…Bertran et al [2] and Lenoble and Bertran [18] have followed this method and present data from experimentally derived data and from archaeological contexts. Eigenvalues represent the degree of clustering around three mutually orthogonal eigenvectors.…”

Particle size distribution of lithic assemblages and taphonomy of Palaeolithic sites

“…Case studies taken from French Palaeolithic sites are then discussed. The general aim of the paper is to propose a tool that could serve for taphonomic analysis of Palaeolithic sites and complement those already available like reffitings (Villa, 1982;Bordes, 2003), fabrics (Bertran and Texier, 1995;Lenoble and Bertran, 2003;McPherron, 2005), intra-site spatial analysis (Le Grand, 1994;Lenoble and Bertran, 2008), and artefact abrasion (Petraglia and Potts, 1994).…”

Cutmark data and their implications for the planning depth of Late Pleistocene societies

“…To explore patterns in cutmark orientations, we took advantage of the rose diagrams and mean vectors generated by Stereonet (v. 9.0.4, Cardozo and Allmendinger, 2013), whereas correlations between angular and linear measurements were calculated in Oriana v. 4 (Kovach, 2011). Preferential orientation of cutmarks was assessed in the sample using Curray's (1956) vector magnitude L, a twodimensional statistic commonly used in fabric analysis (e.g., Bertran and Texier, 1995;Lenoble and Bertran, 2004). Generally, the higher the L, the stronger the pattern of orientation.…”