ABSTRACT
Flaked stone reduced via a Levallois, or Levallois-like, sequence potentially provided benefits to hominins in terms of flake morphology and economy relative to other sequences. But such benefits did not come without costs. Here, we contribute to ongoing debates regarding Levallois technology by assessing the gross-edge curvature of experimentally produced Levallois debitage and Preferential Levallois Flake (PLF) edges. Previous experiments have shown that as gross-edge curvature increases, cutting efficiency decreases. As such, our results allow us to evaluate standardized gross-edge curvature throughout multiple Preferential Levallois Core reduction stages. Also, among several results, we show that as Levallois debitage size decreases, so too does gross-edge curvature, suggesting that knappers pursuing a Levallois core to exhaustion will not be penalized in terms of this feature.
Acknowledgements
We are appreciative to editors Huw Groucutt, Justin Pargeter, and Ceri Shipton. M.I.E. is supported by the Kent State University College of Arts and Sciences. The authors also thank Matt Edling, Managing Director of the Anthropology Laboratories at the University of Minnesota, for this help with this project.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data Available Statement
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.
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Notes on contributors
Somaye Khaksar
Somaye Khaksar (Ph.D.) is a postdoctoral associate in the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology at George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Briggs Buchanan
Briggs Buchanan (Ph.D.) is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Tulsa.
Metin I. Eren
Metin I. Eren (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Kent State University and Research Associate at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He is co-director of the Kent State University Experimental Archaeology Laboratory.
Gilbert Tostevin
Gilbert Tostevin (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.