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Uniformity and Diversity in Handaxe Shape at the End of the Acheulean in Southwest Asia

Shipton, Ceri; Groucutt, Huw S; Scerri, Eleanor; Petraglia, Michael D; (2023) Uniformity and Diversity in Handaxe Shape at the End of the Acheulean in Southwest Asia. Lithic Technology 10.1080/01977261.2023.2225982. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

This study examines parameters, causes, and spatio-temporal patterns of handaxe shape variation from Tabun cave in the Levant, and Khall Amayshan 4B and Khabb Musayyib in northern Arabia. These assemblages span the range of most pointy to most rounded handaxes found anywhere during the Acheulean. The AGMT3D program is used to conduct high resolution geometric morphometric analysis of handaxe form from 3D models. Shape variation is tested against blank type, allometry, and reduction intensity. None of these factors appears to be a strong influence, but there are significant assemblage-wise differences in form, suggesting the different shapes were intentionally produced. The analysis quantifies a pattern of high diversity in the assemblages from Tabun versus low diversity in the shorter occupations at the Arabian sites. We suggest possible explanations of emerging specificity in utilitarian functions, as well as the manifestation of social identities in artefacts at the end of the Acheulean.

Type: Article
Title: Uniformity and Diversity in Handaxe Shape at the End of the Acheulean in Southwest Asia
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/01977261.2023.2225982
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/01977261.2023.2225982
Language: English
Additional information: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Keywords: Bifaces; geometric morphometrics; Tabun; Khall Amayshan; AcheuloYabrudian; normativity
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10173539
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