Standardization of ceramic shape: A case study of Iron Age pottery from northeastern Taiwan

Wang, Liying; Marwick, Ben

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102554

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Serwatka & Riede, 2016;Shott & Trail, 2010). The bulk of archaeological applications of GMM have so far relied on landmark-based approaches (Cardillo, 2010;Okumura & Araujo, 2018), although a surge of recent studies is demonstrating the utility of whole-outline approaches using so-called elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA; Kuhl and Giardina, 1982) and cognate approaches (Fox, 2015;Lipo et al, 2016;Wang & Marwick, 2020). Many of these studies also address shape change trajectories and discuss classification issues in Palaeolithic stone tools (e.g.…”

Section: Landmark and Outline Approaches In Geometric Morphometricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Space Constraints and the Cultural Taxonomy of European Final Palaeolithic Large Tanged Points: A Comparison of Typological, Landmark-Based and Whole-Outline Geometric Morphometric Approaches

2021

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The identification of material culture variability remains an important goal in archaeology, as such variability is commonly coupled with interpretations of cultural transmission and adaptation. While most archaeological cultures are defined on the basis of typology and research tradition, cultural evolutionary reasoning combined with computer-aided methods such as geometric morphometrics (GMM) can shed new light on the validity of many such entrenched groupings, especially in regard to European Upper Palaeolithic projectile points and their classification. Little methodological consistency, however, makes it difficult to compare the conclusions of such studies. Here, we present an effort towards a benchmarked, case-transferrable toolkit that comparatively explores relevant techniques centred on outline-based GMM. First, we re-analyse two previously conducted landmark-based analyses of stone artefacts using our whole-outline approach, demonstrating that outlines can offer an efficient and reliable alternative. We then show how a careful application of clustering algorithms to GMM outline data is able to successfully discriminate between distinctive tool shapes and suggest that such data can also be used to infer cultural evolutionary histories matching already observed typo-chronological patterns. Building on this baseline work, we apply the same methods to a dataset of large tanged points from the European Final Palaeolithic (ca. 15,000–11,000 cal BP). Exploratively comparing the structure of design space within and between the datasets analysed here, our results indicate that Final Palaeolithic tanged point shapes do not fall into meaningful regional or cultural evolutionary groupings but exhibit an internal outline variance comparable to spatiotemporally much closer confined artefact groups of post-Palaeolithic age. We discuss these contrasting results in relation to the architecture of lithic tool design spaces and technological differences in blank production and tool manufacture.

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Section: Landmark and Outline Approaches In Geometric Morphometricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Space Constraints and the Cultural Taxonomy of European Final Palaeolithic Large Tanged Points: A Comparison of Typological, Landmark-Based and Whole-Outline Geometric Morphometric Approaches

2021

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“…Coefficent of variation (CV) is used to assess relative differences in standardization (Bamforth and Finlay 2008; Buchanan et al 2012; Eerkens and Bettinger 2008; Jennings 2016; Shott 1986; Smith and De Witt 2016). For CV of GM PC scores, we follow Wang and Marwick (2020) by normalizing to 1–10 and testing for significant differences (Krishnamoorthy and Lee 2014) using the R package cvequality (Version 0.2.0; Marwick and Krishnamoorthy 2019). We use Mann-Whitney U tests to compare measurements and PC scores for the 3D and 2D GM analyses.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using 3D Models to Understand the Changing Role of Fluting in Paleoindian Point Technology from Clovis to Dalton

et al. 2022

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Fluting is a technological and morphological hallmark of some of the most iconic North American Paleoindian stone points. Through decades of detailed artifact analyses and replication experiments, archaeologists have spent considerable effort reconstructing how flute removals were achieved, and they have explored possible explanations of why fluting was such an important aspect of early point technologies. However, the end of fluting has been less thoroughly researched. In southern North America, fluting is recognized as a diagnostic characteristic of Clovis points dating to approximately 13,000 cal yr BP, the earliest widespread use of fluting. One thousand years later, fluting occurs more variably in Dalton and is no longer useful as a diagnostic indicator. How did fluting change, and why did point makers eventually abandon fluting? In this article, we use traditional 2D measurements, geometric morphometric (GM) analysis of 3D models, and 2D GM of flute cross sections to compare Clovis and Dalton point flute and basal morphologies. The significant differences observed show that fluting in Clovis was highly standardized, suggesting that fluting may have functioned to improve projectile durability. Because Dalton points were used increasingly as knives and other types of tools, maximizing projectile functionality became less important. We propose that fluting in Dalton is a vestigial technological trait retained beyond its original functional usefulness.

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“…shape variables). As the PC values can be negative, before calculating CVs we normalized them using the min-max normalization function to a range between 1 and 10, following Wang and Marwick (2020). To compare the equality of CVs among the knapping techniques, we employed the modified signed-likelihood ratio (MSLR) test (Krishnamoorthy and Lee, 2014).…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outlining the knapping techniques: Assessment of the shape and regularity of prismatic blades using elliptic Fourier analysis

Radinović

Kajtez

2021

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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An important aspect of prismatic blade production is the choice of a knapping technique. This study tests the utility of elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) for discriminating between different knapping techniques and offers a new perspective on blade variability. Our results indicate that there is an overlap in the outline shape and symmetry of individual blades produced by direct percussion, indirect percussion, and pressure debitage. Nevertheless, the EFA points out certain group-level differences regarding the shape and regularity of blade outlines and yields classification accuracy which is comparable to the previously proposed quantitative approaches for distinguishing blades produced by different knapping techniques. However, a more detailed analysis of technique-related factors shows that the emerging variability of blade outlines is more complex and that tripartite division might not always be suitable for reconstructing the past knapping behavior. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this method, and how it could complement the standard technological analysis in exploring and explaining blade variability.

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Standardization of ceramic shape: A case study of Iron Age pottery from northeastern Taiwan

Cited by 21 publications

References 70 publications

Design Space Constraints and the Cultural Taxonomy of European Final Palaeolithic Large Tanged Points: A Comparison of Typological, Landmark-Based and Whole-Outline Geometric Morphometric Approaches

Design Space Constraints and the Cultural Taxonomy of European Final Palaeolithic Large Tanged Points: A Comparison of Typological, Landmark-Based and Whole-Outline Geometric Morphometric Approaches

Using 3D Models to Understand the Changing Role of Fluting in Paleoindian Point Technology from Clovis to Dalton

Outlining the knapping techniques: Assessment of the shape and regularity of prismatic blades using elliptic Fourier analysis

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