Re-inventing Malta's neolithic temples: Contemporary interpretations and agendas

This article suggests that in spite of numerous excellent contributions and promising new developments, the work of European and American students of politics on the southern and eastern areas of the Mediterranean (in particular, the Arab World) continues to exhibit various worrying weaknesses. The shortcomings in question do not necessarily represent a distinctive characteristic of existing scholarship on this part of the world. The aim of this contribution is not to claim or demonstrate that research and writings on the Middle East and North Africa are more inadequate than work done on other parts of the world, but simply to illustrate where and in what respect such work is inadequate. I will attempt to highlight the shortcomings by emphasizing possible improvements, referring to positive rather than to negative examples. Several dimensions of the literature concerned appear particularly relevant to this exercise: perpetual essentialist temptations; the subdivision of the world into “regions” or “areas”, frequently defined in cultural terms, and their reification; the lack of balance between empirical and theoretical ambitions; the degree of methodological and conceptual rigour; and theoretical, empirical and methodological selectivity.     

Recent developments in the analysis of lithic artifacts

A review of recent research on lithic technology and functional analysis is presented. Our perception of the state of the art is based on a review of the literature published during the past three years and on the topics that were covered at conferences and workshops on lithic analysis. While the goals have essentially remained the same since the turn of the century, concerns with chronology and the classification of lithic artifacts have given way to studies that treat stone implements as products of a dynamic system of human behavior. In order to understand stone artifacts and the people that made and used them, archaeologists must understand theprocesses involved in the acquisition, production, exchange, and consumption of lithic artifacts. In the past ten years, experimental studies involving the manufacturing and use of stone tools have been integrated with studies of refitted or conjoined lithic artifacts and microwear analysis. The result is a much more dynamic view of the variability in assemblages of lithic artifacts. In this review, we focus on replication and technological analysis of chipped stone artifacts and microwear analysis, and consider the implications of this research.     

Teaching geographical data analysis: problems and possible solutions

Abstract

Conventional courses in geographical data analysis have major problems of student background, statistical validity, geographical relevance and intellectual inertia. An alternative approach, based upon the methods of data analysis advocated by Tukey, is proposed.     

Vein quartz in lithic traditions: an analysis based on experimental archaeology

Worldwide, vein quartz was a commonly used raw material for stone tools but this material has proved difficult for archaeologists to analyse because many quartz assemblages appear to be comprised of amorphous pieces, not easily recognised as humanly modified or forming ‘tools’. This paper discusses the analysis of the debitage – focusing on the debitage fragmentation rate, the debitage, break, and fragment types, and the quantitative analysis of the complete flakes – resulting from experimental knapping of quartz, which formed part of a project which investigated the use of quartz in Irish prehistoric lithic traditions. The results have highlighted the complexity involved in analysing quartz assemblages, and the significant differences between the debitage products of quartz and chert knapping assemblages. While bipolar knapping is generally easy to differentiate from direct percussion, it is harder to differentiate between soft and hard hammer percussion.     

Experimental analysis of the practical limits of lithic refitting

We report on the results of an experiment aimed at determining the effects of experience/aptitude, lithic reduction type (biface v. core), and flake size cut-offs on different rates of success in refitting studies. We found that experience matters, but that there can be large differences in aptitude for refitting; that cores are easier to refit than bifaces; and that the effort of refitting increases considerably for flakes smaller than 5–6 g. We propose the use of an asymptotic equation fit to a cumulative curve as a way to determine when a study has reached the point of diminishing returns for a given flake size cut-off, and to help determine differences in aptitude for refitting.     

The application and misapplication of mass analysis in lithic debitage studies

The technique of debitage mass analysis based upon size grades of debitage populations is shown to be prone to errors when making interpretations about the kind of tool produced or the kind of lithic reduction technology used. Significant sources of error may originate from differences in individual flintknapping styles and techniques, raw material size and shape variants, and mixing of debitage from more than one reduction episode. These sources of error render debitage Mass Analysis ineffective for determining the kind of stone tool reduction activities practiced at excavated sites. Mass Analysis may be effective for determining artifact reduction sequences if it is used on debitage from a single reduction episode or part of a reduction episode. However, it is shown that Mass Analysis when used for assessing reduction sequence information, must also control for the effects of raw material variability, assemblage mixing, and flintknapping styles.     

The formation process of a paleoindian open-air site in Central Brazil: integrating lithic analysis,radiocarbon and luminescence dating

Lithic analysis, radiocarbon dating and luminescence dating are applied to a stratified open-air Paleoindian site in Central Brazil, lending some balance to a published record dominated by rock shelter sites. Most lithics are found in two discrete occupation layers. Lithics found outside these layers are attributed to post-depositional movement of small flakes mainly upwards. Single-grain luminescence dating on quartz grains also suggest post-depositional movement. Both wind and bioturbation are suspected mechanisms. The luminescence analysis does not provide precise depositional dates in this situation but does support such dates suggested by radiocarbon.     

Geology and lithic procurement in Upper Palaeolithic Europe: a weights-of-evidence based GIS model of lithic resource potential

In this paper we examine ways to predict the distribution of siliceous rock in Europe, using a Bayesian technique known as ‘Weights-of-Evidence’. We use the technique to classify bedrock geological formations in terms of their likelihood of yielding tool-quality lithic raw materials, and we use the results to re-examine possible causes of a west–east cline in maximum lithic raw material transfer distances observed when comparing sites in both Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Europe. It is evident from our results that there is a decline in abundance of geological formations highly predictive of tool-quality rock along a west–east cline, predominantly reflecting a decrease in abundance of Jurassic and Cretaceous chert-bearing sedimentaries. Our results are consistent with an interpretation of the Upper Palaeolithic record of transfer distances as indicating special-purpose procurement.     

A crossbeam co-ordinate caliper for the morphometric analysis of lithic nuclei: a description,test and empirical examples of application

Over the last four decades, there has been surprisingly little advance in the quantitative morphometric analysis of Palaeolithic stone tools, especially compared to that which has taken place in biological morphometrics over a comparable time frame. In Palaeolithic archaeology's sister discipline of palaeoanthropology, detailed quantitative morphometric, geometric morphometric, and even 3D geometric morphometric analyses are now seen almost as routine. This period of relative methodological stasis may have been influenced by the lack of homologous landmarks on many lithic tools (essential for any comparative analysis), especially core-based technologies of the Lower Palaeolithic. Archaeological field conditions may also prohibit the use of expensive and delicate precision instruments in certain cases. Here we present a crossbeam co-ordinate caliper that – crucially – both geometrically locates and measures distances between morphologically homologous landmarks upon lithic nuclei via a single protocol. Intra- and inter-observer error tests provide evidence that error levels associated with the instrument fall within acceptable ranges. In addition, we present empirical examples of application in the form of a multivariate analysis of 55 discrete morphometric variables, and a 3D geometric morphometric analysis of co-ordinate landmark configurations derived from Pleistocene lithic nuclei (i.e. ‘cores’ sensu lato). We also introduce to lithic studies some techniques for the study of shape variation that have previously been used with success in biological morphometric analyses. We conclude that use of an instrument such as the crossbeam co-ordinate caliper may provide a useful adjunct to traditional techniques of lithic analysis, particularly in developing a quantitative morphometric approach.     

Raspadita: a new lithic tool from the Isthmus of Rivas,Nicaragua

A new lithic tool type was discovered at the Pacific Nicaraguan archaeological site of Santa Isabel (AD 800–1350) and named raspadita (small scraper). Thousands of these small tools (1–2 cm in length) were found. They have a rounded proximal edge and a pointed distal end. In this study, the raspaditas are proved to be a coherent tool class with minimal variation in size, shape, material type and usewear. They were manufactured from white chert bladelet cores using soft hammer percussion and pressure flaking unifacial retouch. Usewear points to a composite tool form and a scraping function for the raspaditas. Scanning electron microscopy determined a ventral leading, dorsal following, unidirectional scraping motion for the raspadita proximal end. The material that was scraped has still to be definitely determined but phytoliths visible in the SEM images suggest that the composite tool was used for plant processing.     

The Hogeye Clovis cache,Texas: quantifying lithic reduction signatures

The Hogeye Clovis cache is comprised of 52 late-stage bifaces, finished points, and knife/cores cached in central Texas. Because these artifacts were all likely made and cached approximately 13,000 years ago by one or a handful of knappers belonging to a single band with a shared Clovis cultural template, Hogeye provides a rare opportunity to investigate Clovis lithic reduction signatures. This paper builds on previous analyses and presents new methods for quantifying Clovis biface production signatures, including serial flaking and the timing of last overshot flaking. The results show that the Hogeye cache bifaces technologically and morphologically differ from other regional Clovis biface reduction signatures. Additional data is needed to determine whether these differences reflect individual knapping preferences or regional cultural signatures. The methods used and developed here are not Clovis-specific and could be modified and combined with other analytical techniques to identify reduction signatures in biface assemblages from other times and places.     

Ontogenetic scaling and lithic systematics: method and application

Stone tools tend to be classified according to a mix of functional, morphological, and technological attributes. This practice results in confusions when large-scale assemblage comparisons are made with the aim of investigating phylogenetic relationships, as functional and cultural information is aggregated. It is argued here that functional criteria must be assessed separately, and that resharpening, as a uniform, repeated, conscious behavioral process of tool maintenance that indexes use and function, can provide a solution to this problem. The subject of this article is a quantitative method for extracting and comparing resharpening trajectories. The method is an adaptation of ontogenetic scaling methods from biology, and is based on obtaining a mathematical representation of shape and size, and finding a relationship between the two. Elliptical Fourier analysis is applied to stone tool contours in order to extract shape information, and then a series of regressions of shape on size provide trajectory vectors. The angles between these are then calculated and subjected to a variety of multivariate statistical tests. A case study involving several European Middle Paleolithic bifacial and unifacial tool assemblages is presented. The results show that resharpening and maintenance can be independent of morphology and technology, suggesting that there are strong grounds for focusing on functional systematics separately.     

The origins of lithic projectile point technology: evidence from Africa,the Levant,and Europe

Projectile weaponry is a human cultural universal, but its origins and antiquity remain poorly understood. Stone- and bone-tipped projectile weapons have long been treated as emergent features of the "Upper Paleolithic" behavioral revolution. Recently it has been proposed that projectile technology was in widespread use among Homo sapiens populations in Africa during Middle Stone Age (MSA) times. One obstacle to researching the origins of projectile point technology is that the criteria archaeologists employ for recognizing plausible and implausible stone projectile points are largely subjective (overall tool shape, microwear traces). Tip cross-sectional area (TCSA) is a ballistically significant dimension that works well at discriminating North American stone projectile points (spearthrower dart tips and arrowheads) from spear points. This paper compares the TCSA values of ethnographic North American stone projectile points to hypothetical Middle and Upper Paleolithic stone projectile points from Africa, the Levant, and Europe. The results of this comparison do not support the hypothesis of widespread use of stone-tipped projectiles in Africa, the Levant, or Europe prior to 40 Ka. In the New World and in Australia, where we have the richest ethnographic record of stone projectile point use, these implements are largely employed in big-game hunting and in warfare. One or both of these factors may have played a role in the widespread adoption of stone projectile point technology after 40 Ka.     

James Connolly on stage: history,imagination, and interpretations

James Connolly (1868–1916) has been an underrepresented figure in Irish history, despite the fact that he was one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The controversy surrounding Connolly centres mostly on his questionable role in this radical nationalist siege, even though he had been one of the most prolific Marxist theorists of his day. Interestingly, Connolly’s political ambivalence has yielded plenty of scope for the imagination of playwrights in envisaging his final few days before he was executed by the British government. Their theatrical conjectures – backed by archival research to varying degrees – allow audiences different alternatives for learning about, interpreting, assessing, or even celebrating, the legacy of this controversial Marxist. Most importantly, they are able to look beyond the selectiveness of historians in re-creating Connolly as a material figure. The three plays under discussion are Margaretta D’Arcy and John Arden’s The Non-stop Connolly Show (1975), Larry Kirwan’s Blood (1993), and Terry Eagleton’s The White, the Gold and the Gangrene (1993).     

Understanding China's regional rise: interpretations, identities and implications

The literature on China's regional rise reveals divergent understandings of why China changed its regional strategy and when such a transformation occurred. There are also different understandings of the extent of China's power in the region—or more often, the extent to which US power in East Asia is already challenged by China's regional rise. Nevertheless, there is a consensus of sorts over how Chinese policy has changed with an emphasis on a combination of proactive diplomatic initiatives and ever increasing economic interactions. After providing a brief overview of the existing literature, the main part of this article considers the role of China's 'soft power' in reconfiguring power relationships in East Asia. It suggests that while the US might have lost some of its ideational appeal, it is through working within existing frameworks and 'norms' (rather than establishing new revisionist alternatives) that China has had most success in assuaging fears of the consequences of its rise. However, the way in which others conceive of China's rise and Chinese power (and subsequently act) does provide a form of 'non-hard' power that might help China's leaders attain their regional objectives particularly in light of the continuing global economic crisis.     

Identifying handedness at knapping; an analysis of the scatter pattern of lithic remains

Determining hand laterality during human evolution is important in order to identify brain hemispheric lateralization for motor tasks and, indirectly, to gain information on the complex cognitive functions of the human brain. In this paper, we present a new method for inferring handedness from lithic evidence. The study is based on an analysis of the scatter patterns of lithic remains from stone-knapping episodes. An experimental programme was carried out by 14 knappers (eight right-handed and six left-handed), ranging from individuals that had never even struck two pebbles together to individuals who were quite familiar with prehistoric tools and had some degree of practice. The results of the experiment show that the material scatter patterns of right- and left-handed knappers at group level are different, but they do overlap at certain intervals. At the individual level, the probability of falsely ascribing left- and right-handedness has also been estimated. In addition, we have adapted this method to be applied to the archaeological record. In this case, only well-preserved knapping events with no post-depositional alterations can be used to assign left- or right-handed knappers, with the former being more reliably detected than the latter.