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Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Stone Age Weaponry

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Editors:
  1. Radu Iovita

    1. Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution,, MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre, Neuwied, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Katsuhiro Sano

    1. University Museum, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Recognizes and characterizes stone age weapons using controlled and replicative experiments
  • Casts new light on the role of weapon technologies in shaping the course of human evolution
  • Maximizes readers insights into archaeological perspectives from a variety of time periods and from all five continents with a large assortment of new analytical and experimental studies
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology (VERT)

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Table of contents (20 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Recognizing Weapons: Experimental Approaches

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. When Is a Point a Projectile? Morphology, Impact Fractures, Scientific Rigor, and the Limits of Inference

      • Wallace Karl Hutchings
      Pages 3-12

    3. Identifying Weapon Delivery Systems Using Macrofracture Analysis and Fracture Propagation Velocity: A Controlled Experiment

      • Radu Iovita, Holger Schönekeß, Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser, Frank Jäger
      Pages 13-27

    4. Experiments in Fracture Patterns and Impact Velocity with Replica Hunting Weapons from Japan

      • Katsuhiro Sano, Yoshitaka Denda, Masayoshi Oba
      Pages 29-46

    5. Thirty Years of Experimental Research on the Breakage Patterns of Stone Age Osseous Points. Overview, Methodological Problems and Current Perspectives

      • Jean-Marc Pétillon, Hugues Plisson, Pierre Cattelain
      Pages 47-63

    6. Levers, Not Springs: How a Spearthrower Works and Why It Matters

      • John C. Whittaker
      Pages 65-74

  3. Recognizing Weapons: Archaeological Applications

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75
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    2. Hunting Lesions in Pleistocene and Early Holocene European Bone Assemblages and Their Implications for Our Knowledge on the Use and Timing of Lithic Projectile Technology

      • Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser
      Pages 77-100

    3. Edge Damage on 500-Thousand-Year-Old Spear Tips from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: The Combined Effects of Spear Use and Taphonomic Processes

      • Jayne Wilkins, Benjamin J. Schoville
      Pages 101-117

    4. Projectile Damage and Point Morphometry at the Early Middle Paleolithic Misliya Cave, Mount Carmel (Israel): Preliminary Results and Interpretations

      • Alla Yaroshevich, Yossi Zaidner, Mina Weinstein-Evron
      Pages 119-134

    5. Morpho-Metric Variability of Early Gravettian Tanged “Font-Robert” Points, and Functional Implications

      • Annemieke Milks, Rob Dinnis, Matthew Pope
      Pages 135-146

    6. Early Gravettian Projectile Technology in Southwestern Iberian Peninsula: The Double Backed and Bipointed Bladelets of Vale Boi (Portugal)

      • João Marreiros, Nuno Bicho, Juan Gibaja, João Cascalheira, Telmo Pereira
      Pages 147-158

    7. Uncertain Evidence for Weapons and Craft Tools: Functional Investigations of Australian Microliths

      • Richard Fullagar
      Pages 159-166

    8. Projectiles and Hafting Technology

      • Veerle Rots
      Pages 167-185

  5. Weapons as Curated Technologies

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 227-227
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Keywords

About this book

The objective of this volume is to showcase the contemporary state of research on recognizing and evaluating the performance of stone age weapons from a variety of viewpoints, including investigating their cognitive and evolutionary significance. 

New archaeological finds and experimental studies  have helped to bring this subject back to the forefront of human origins research. In the last few years, investigations have expanded beyond  examining the tools themselves to include studies of damage caused by projectile weapons on animal and hominin bones and skeletal asymmetries in ancient hominin populations. Only recently has there been a growing interest in controlled and replicative experiments. Through this book readers will be updated in the state of knowledge through a multidisciplinary scientific reconstruction of prehistoric weapon use and its implications.

Contributions from expert authors are organized into three themed parts: recognizing weapon use (experimental and archaeological studies of impact traces), performance of weapon systems (factors influencing penetration depth etc.), and behavioral and evolutionary ramifications (cognitive and ecological effects of using different weapons).

Editors and Affiliations

  • Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution,, MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre, Neuwied, Germany

    Radu Iovita

  • University Museum, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Katsuhiro Sano

About the editors

Dr. Radu Iovita is a paleoanthropologist and paleolithic archaeologist, currently working at the MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum in Neuwied, Germany. His research focuses on experimental approaches to technological evolution and in human migration and adaptation to environmental change in the Eurasian loess steppe. 

Dr. Katsuhiro Sano is an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo. His research interests revolve around temporal advances in technology and function of prehistoric stone tools, especially prehistoric hunting technology. 

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