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Publications (29)
Experimental, actualistic, and replicative studies are foundational for facilitating interpretations of faunal remains. However, these studies are often limited by uncontrollable factors, such as the variation inherent in bone as a product of living individuals and the ways animals are handled after their death. Bone varies with each species and el...
Understanding Palaeolithic hominin subsistence strategies requires the comprehensive taxonomic identification of faunal remains. The high fragmentation of Late Pleistocene faunal assemblages often prevents proper taxonomic identification based on bone morphology. It has been assumed that the morphologically unidentifiable component of the faunal as...
Varsche Rivier 003 (VR003) is located in the Knersvlakte region of southern Namaqualand, South Africa, an arid region characterized by low, undulating hills coated with quartz gravels and distinctive dwarf succulents. VR003 preserves an extended sequence of Middle Stone Age materials, which provides a view of early human adaptations to marginal env...
Ancient people used perishable resources much as people do today. Such materials do not preserve well in the archaeological record, and so there are types of items that would have been made from animal skins or vegetal matter like clothing, footwear, and containers that are not present in many assemblages. Direct evidence for such items is often la...
The expansion of Homo sapiens and our interaction with local environments, including the replacement or absorption of local populations, is a key component in understanding the evolution of our species. Of special interest are artifacts made from hard animal tissues from layers at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria) that have been attributed to the Initial...
Africa’s Middle Stone Age preserves sporadic evidence for novel behaviours among early modern humans, prompting a range of questions about the influence of social and environmental factors on patterns of human behavioural evolution. Here we document a suite of novel adaptations dating approximately 92–80 thousand years before the present at the arc...
Bone surface modifications are crucial for understanding human subsistence and dietary behaviour, and can inform about the techniques employed in the production and use of bone tools. Permission to destructively sample such unique artefacts is not always granted. The recent development of non-destructive proteomic extraction techniques has provided...
The behavioral dynamics underlying the expansion of Homo sapiens into Europe remains a crucial topic in human evolution. Owing to poor bone preservation, past studies have strongly focused on the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) stone tool record. Recent excavations and extensive radiocarbon dating at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria) pushed back the arriv...
Evidence for complex behaviours appears sporadically through the Middle Stone Age of Africa, leaving unclear the major factors shaping the evolution of human behaviour. Here we present evidence for a novel suite of adaptations in the arid Knersvlake region of southern Africa that were deployed during a specific set of environmental conditions datin...
Increasingly researchers have employed confocal microscopy and 3D surface texture analysis to assess bone surface modifications in an effort to understand ancient behavior. However, quantitative comparisons between the surfaces of purported archaeological bone tools and experimentally manufactured and used bones are complicated by taphonomic proces...
The stratigraphy at Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria, spans the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition, including an Initial Upper Palaeolithic (IUP) assemblage argued to represent the earliest arrival of Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens in Europe. We applied the latest techniques in 14C dating to an extensive dataset of newly excavated animal and human b...
Five nearly identical fragments of specialized bone tools, interpreted as lissoirs (French for “smoothers”), have been found at two Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest France. The finds span three separate archaeological deposits, suggesting continuity in the behavior of late Neandertals. Using standard morphological assessments, we determined th...
The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe witnessed the replacement and partial absorption of local Neanderthal populations by Homo sapiens populations of African origin1. However, this process probably varied across regions and its details remain largely unknown. In particular, the duration of chronological overlap between the two grou...
Use-wear analysis provides a means of studying traces produced on animal bone during manufacture and use in an effort to reconstruct these processes. Often, these analyses are qualitative and based on experience and expertise. Previous studies have focused on interpreting final traces, but little is known about how these traces develop and change o...
Comparison of bone versus mold for four ISO 25178 parameters: Sa, Sal, Spc, and Smr1.
Open circles are pairwise comparisons of the meshed axiomatic 3D models taken on bones and molds shortly after they were produced. Black dots are pairwise comparisons of bone and their molds scanned at least one year after they were produced. Lines represent equiv...
Additional scans for Rescan test.
List of scans taken for the Rescan test one year after the molds were formed.
(XLSX)
Quantile-quantile plot of scaled and squared Mahalanobis distances.
Mahalanobis distances (between observations and their predicted values) versus theoretical quantiles of the F-distribution (see [89] for details). The bulk of observations follow the theoretical quantiles well. The extreme point in the upper right corner depicts an observation that...
Measurement details of each specimen.
Specimen details indicating measurements of the bone and between scanned locations (C: center, D: distal, P: proximal, L: left, R: right) with the Nanofocus.
(XLSX)
Experimental details of each specimen.
Specimen details indicating Manufacturing state and direction, duration of experiment, material worked, sampling method, and any additional notes.
(XLSX)
Additional scans in selected locations on some specimens.
List of additional scans taken in selected locations. Data from these meshed axiomatic 3D models are not included in the statistical model.
(XLSX)
Scatterplot matrices at time 90 and 450.
Plot shows all observations (o: modeled points; x: non-modeled points) displayed in the pairwise space of parameters: surface roughness [Sa], autocorrelation length [Sal], peak curvature [Spc], and upper material ratio [Smr1]. Colored observations are representative of Material type (green: fresh skin; orang...
Scatterplot matrices at time 90 and 450.
Plot shows all observations (o: modeled points; x: non-modeled points) displayed in the pairwise space of parameters: surface roughness [Sa], autocorrelation length [Sal], peak curvature [Spc], and upper material ratio [Smr1]. Colored observations are representative of Material type (green: fresh skin; orang...
In 2013 we reported [1] the discovery that Neandertals produced a specialized bone tool previously thought to be restricted to Homo sapiens. We interpreted four nearly identical fragments of shaped and worn animal ribs as lissoirs, a French term meaning "smoothers". The bones come from two Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest France, Pech-de-l' Az...
Use-wear analysis provides a tool for studying traces produced on animal bone during manufacture and use. Often, these analyses have been qualitative, describing the surface two-dimensionally, and have led to inconsistencies between researchers. Studies have focused on interpreting final traces and lack a foundation in understanding how the traces...
Recent studies have brought focus to a category of bone tools previously thought to be restricted to modern humans. Excavations of layers dating to approximately 50 kya from two different sites in southwest France, Pech-de-l'AzéIAzéI and Abri Peyrony, have produced four nearly identical fragments of bone tools identified as lissoirs (a French term...
Research Objectives Beginning in 2009, the late Middle Paleolithic site of Abri Peyrony (also Haut de Combe-Capelle, as part of the Combe-Capelle sites, Dordogne, France) was reopened. Three seasons of eldwork yielded rich lithic and faunal assemblages, as well as pieces of manganese dioxide, bone tools, and much needed information about the site's...
Modern humans replaced Neandertals ∼40,000 y ago. Close to the time of replacement, Neandertals show behaviors similar to those of the modern humans arriving into Europe, including the use of specialized bone tools, body ornaments, and small blades. It is highly debated whether these modern behaviors developed before or as a result of contact with...
