https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4224-9467
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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.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Heritage Commission, Saudi Ministry of Culture, for supporting our fieldwork in Saudi Arabia. Access to the Tabun specimens was given by the Institute of Archaeology, the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the British Museum. Funding for analysis provided by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, project code: WT661676 RF210349.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ceri Shipton
Ceri Shipton, Ph.D., is lecturer in the Palaeolithic at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
Huw S. Groucutt
Huw S. Groucutt, Ph.D., is lecturer in Mediterranean Prehistory at the University of Malta and independent group leader of the Max Planck Society’s Extreme Events Research Group.
Eleanor Scerri
Eleanor Scerri, Ph.D., is Lise Meitner Professor at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA), leading the Pan African Evolution Research Group (Pan-Ev).
Michael D. Petraglia
Michael D. Petraglia, Ph.D., is Director of the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University.