Photogrammetrical Assessment of Procedural Patterns and Sequential Structure in “Handaxe” Manufacture: A Case Study along the Doring River of South Africa

ABSTRACT

When initially discovered in 2014, 21 Early Stone Age (ESA) pointed stone bifaces from the Uitspankraal 1 (UPK1) in western South Africa were left in the field but recorded for photogrammetry analysis. Digital models developed with these data made it possible to recognize that UPK1 handaxes were routinely produced with a process that emphasized outline rather than volumetric adjustment and usually involved only a single flip. The procedural uniformity of the assemblage is clear and rather easily accessible with the field-based photogrammetic technique.

KEYWORDS:

• Field photogrammetry
• digital lithic analysis
• handaxe production
• Early Stone Age
• South Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Peter Bleed is emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He studied lithic technology with Don Crabtree, has done lithic analyses in Japan and the Great Plains, and used experimental, theoretical, and analytical methods to investigate the design and operation of technological systems. [email protected] [phone]

Matthew Douglass is on the faculty at the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition to teaching he uses 3D models and other digital techniques to investigate landscapes and public heritage in the Plains, Australia, and Africa. [email protected]

Alexandra Sumner completed her PhD at the University of Toronto and is currently teaching at DePaul University in Chicago. In addition to teaching at universities in Israel, South Africa, and Canada, she has active research programs in China and South Africa. [email protected]

Maia Behrendt is an honors undergraduate at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, majoring in anthropology. [email protected]

Alex Mackay is on the faculty in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Wollongong, and is currently using archaeological resources to trace occupational and technological variation of the Western Cape of South Africa. [email protected]

ORCID

Maia Behrendt http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5832-1059

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Anthropology University of Nebraska-Lincoln. MD was supported by the Maude Hammond Fling Faculty Research Fellowship, and the Graduate Research Council Grant in Aid of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. AM's funding was supported by Australian Research Council DECRA grant DE130100068.