Identifying Local Learning Communities During the Terminal Palaeolithic in the Southern Levant: Multi-scale 3-D Analysis of Flint Cores

Abstract

A methodology for identifying prehistoric local learning communities is proposed. We wish to test possible relationships among communities based on continuity and variability in lithic reduction sequence technological traits with different visibility and malleability. Quantitative features reflecting different technological traits are measured on 3-D models of flint cores in different scales: the ratio between core thickness and reduction surface width, the angle between subsequent bands of production blank scars to the relative striking platform, and the average curvature of the ridge between each blank scar striking platform pair. Continuity and variability in these features are used to establish the relations among lithic assemblages on different hierarchical levels: local learning communities and geographically widespread cultural lineages.The Late Upper Palaeolithic and the Epipalaeolithic of the Southern Levant (ca. 27,000-15,000 cal BP) provide an opportunity to test our method. A progressive increase in territoriality is hypothesized throughout this timespan, yet the precise timing and modes of this phenomenon need to be defined. The present study analyzes six core assemblages attributed to different cultural entities, representing chronologically separated occupations of the Ein Gev area and the coastal Sharon Plain. Continuity in technological traits between the Atlitian (ca. 27,000-26,000 cal BP) and Nizzanan (ca. 20,000-18,500 cal BP) occupations of the Ein Gev area suggests that the same learning community repeatedly settled there during a long time span. Two geographically separate learning communities were defined in the study areas within the Kebaran cultural entity (ca. 24,000-18,000 cal BP); the group occupying the Ein Gev area possibly continued to settle there during the Geometric Kebaran (ca. 18,000-15,000 cal BP). Continuity in more conservative traits of the reduction sequence allows to tie these two communities to the same cultural lineage. The ability to track prehistoric learning communities based on quantitative features helps increase the objectivity and the resolution in the reconstruction of past cultural dynamics.

After the Revolution: A Review of 3D Modelling as a Tool for Stone Artefact Analysis

“…In Cluster 2, keywords are associated with industries with highly standardised reduction strategies, such as blade production (e.g. Bretzke and Conard 2012;Clarkson 2013;Porter, Roussel and Soressi 2019;Valletta, Dag and Grosman 2021;, discoidal cores (e.g. Clarkson 2013;Lombao et al 2020;Malinsky-Buller, Grosman and Marder 2011;Ranhorn et al 2019) and other types of prepared cores (e.g.…”

“…Researchers affiliated with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have been pioneers in the development of software packages for analysis of 3D models (Grosman et al 2014(Grosman et al , 2022Herzlinger and Grosman 2018;Valletta, Dag and Grosman 2021). University of Queensland affiliated researchers have published experimental quantitative studies, generally focusing on testing new reduction indices (Clarkson 2013;Clarkson and Hiscock 2011;Clarkson 2014, 2016;Shipton and Clarkson 2015a).…”

Inferring cultural reproduction from lithic data: A critical review

“…It represents the more visible trait that can be inferred from the end‐product relatively easily, which is used to infer cultural continuity through time. The second one is longitudinal profile, calculated as “the average angle between the most regular portion of the relative striking platform and different, consecutive portions of the blank scar surface.” 117 ,pp.150‐152 This technological trait is argued to be only visible through the knapping actions and thereby indicating more strict contemporaneity and stronger social intimacy of the demonstrators and learners, justifying its use in the identification of different learning communities within a region. This study essentially shares the inner logic of Tostevin's taskscape visibility approach, 1 which includes a series of logically feasible but empirically untested assumptions in terms of the differential visibility of various technological traits.…”

“…116 A common feature of the case studies presented above is that they are all large-scale syntheses using second-hand data, but it is also possible to infer intersite cultural reproduction from detailed technologies studies of just a few assemblages. This approach is recently demonstrated in an attempt to reconstruct the potential cultural transmission processes in different temporal and spatial scales based on the 3-D analysis of cores by Valletta et al 117 They defined three quantifiable technological indices to identify cultural "lineages" and local learning communities, among which two indices are particularly relevant here in that they reflect different levels of transmission visibility. The first one is core reduction modality, measured as "the ratio between width of the reduction surface and core thickness" and generally operationalized into two types in this case study, namely the narrow-front and the wide-front.…”

Artifact3-D: New software for accurate, objective and efficient 3D analysis and documentation of archaeological artifacts

“…Beyond bifaces, we also developed a method for automatically segmenting, displaying, and analyzing the scars on the dorsal surfaces of stone tools [ 18 , 19 ]. Most recently, we used these 3D methods to measure and illustrate Epipaleolithic stone tool assemblages from the Levant [ 20 ], as well as precisely compare the edge angles of microliths from these sites [ 21 ].…”