Multidisciplinary Approaches To The Study Of Stone Age Weaponry

The objective of this volume is to showcase the contemporary state of research on recognizing and evaluating the performance of stone age weapons from a variety of viewpoints, including investigating their cognitive and evolutionary significance. New archaeological finds and experimental studies have helped to bring this subject back to the forefront of human origins research. In the last few years, investigations have expanded beyond examining the tools themselves to include studies of damage caused by projectile weapons on animal and hominin bones and skeletal asymmetries in ancient hominin populations. Only recently has there been a growing interest in controlled and replicative experiments. Through this book readers will be updated in the state of knowledge through a multidisciplinary scientific reconstruction of prehistoric weapon use and its implications. Contributions from expert authors are organized into three themed parts: recognizing weapon use (experimental and archaeological studies of impact traces), performance of weapon systems (factors influencing penetration depth etc.), and behavioral and evolutionary ramifications (cognitive and ecological effects of using different weapons).

This volume focuses on the role and means of archaeological experimentation in understanding the processes involved in the manufacture and use of past artifacts. When asking for contributions, we suggested the five stages of an experimental approach as main-themes: 1. Selection and acquisition of raw material, identical to those present in the archaeological assemblages. 2. Production of replicas following the technological transformation schemes identified by the direct study of archaeological items. 3. Experimental use as indicated by the publications/ethnographic comparisons or as suggested by the morphology/use-wear evolution of the archaeological items. 4. Microscopical analysis of use-wear patterns. 5. Comparison of experimental data with archaeological data in order to validate the existing hypotheses on the way they were manufactured and used by the human communities. A second aim was that the invited authors to have various archaeological backgrounds and cover a broad spatial and temporal interval. As a result, this volume comprises 17 studies organized in three sections, dictated by the various aspects of experimental archaeology they represent: from the more traditional experimental replication, understanding and interpretation of artefact functionality, and relatively recent (and less trodden) directions in experimental archaeology. It also comes to show that experimental archaeology is as well suited for Palaeolithic studies, as it is for the Neo-Eneolithic and the Bronze Age. Although most papers refer geographically to Europe, interesting contributions take us to Argentina and Australia. *** Acest volum se concentrează pe rolul și mijloacele experimentelor arheologice în înțelegerea proceselor implicate în fabricarea și utilizarea artefactelor din trecut. Am invitat o serie de specialiștii să contribuie cu studii care să testeze ipotezele teoretice existente, dar și altele care să aducă abordări inovatoare. Când am solicitat contribuții, am sugerat ca teme principale cele cinci etape ale demersului experimental: 1. Selectarea și achiziționarea de materii prime, identice cu cele prezente în ansamblurile arheologice. 2. Realizarea de replici urmând schemele de transformare tehnologică identificate prin studiul direct al ansamblurilor arheologice. 3. Utilizarea experimentală după cum este indicată de publicații/comparații etnografice sau sugerată de evoluția uzurii pe artefactele arheologice. 4. Analiza microscopică a modelelor de de uzură. 5. Compararea datelor experimentale cu datele arheologice în vederea validării ipotezelor existente privind fabricarea și utilizarea lor de către comunitățile umane. Un al doilea scop al volumului a fost ca autorii invitați să provină din diferite medii arheologice și să acopere un interval spațial și temporal larg. A rezultat un volum cuprinzând 17 studii organizate în trei secțiuni, dictate de diversele aspecte ale arheologiei experimentale: replicarea experimentală la nivel tehnologic, înțelegerea și interpretarea funcționalității artefactelor și direcțiile relativ recente (interdisciplinare) în cadrul experimentului arheologie. De asemenea, volumul ne-a arătat că arheologia experimentală este la fel de potrivită pentru studiile paleolitice, ca și pentru neo-eneolitic și epoca bronzului. Deși majoritatea lucrărilor se referă geografic la Europa, contribuții interesante vin din Argentina sau Australia.

Meticulously examining ethnographic sources, Christophe Darmangeat argues that warfare among Australian Aborigines was mostly an extension of their judicial systems. He demonstrates how violent conflict occurred when circumstances prohibited regulated proceedings.

Scholars from a variety of disciplines consider cases of convergence in lithic technology, when functional or developmental constraints result in similar forms in independent lineages. Hominins began using stone tools at least 2.6 million years ago, perhaps even 3.4 million years ago. Given the nearly ubiquitous use of stone tools by humans and their ancestors, the study of lithic technology offers an important line of inquiry into questions of evolution and behavior. This book examines convergence in stone tool-making, cases in which functional or developmental constraints result in similar forms in independent lineages. Identifying examples of convergence, and distinguishing convergence from divergence, refutes hypotheses that suggest physical or cultural connection between far-flung prehistoric toolmakers. Employing phylogenetic analysis and stone-tool replication, the contributors show that similarity of tools can be caused by such common constraints as the fracture properties of stone or adaptive challenges rather than such unlikely phenomena as migration of toolmakers over an Arctic ice shelf. Contributors R. Alexander Bentley, Briggs Buchanan, Marcelo Cardillo, Mathieu Charbonneau, Judith Charlin, Chris Clarkson, Loren G. Davis, Metin I. Eren, Peter Hiscock, Thomas A. Jennings, Steven L. Kuhn, Daniel E. Lieberman, George R. McGhee, Alex Mackay, Michael J. O'Brien, Charlotte D. Pevny, Ceri Shipton, Ashley M. Smallwood, Heather Smith, Jayne Wilkins, Samuel C. Willis, Nicolas Zayns

This book sets out some of the latest scientific findings around the evolutionary development of religion and faith and then explores their theological implications. This unique combination of perspectives raises fascinating questions about the characteristics that are considered integral for a flourishing social and religious life and allows us to start to ask where in the evolutionary record they first show up in a distinctly human manner. The book builds a case for connecting theology and evolutionary anthropology using both historical and contemporary sources of knowledge to try and understand the origins of wisdom, humility, and grace in ‘deep time’. In the section on wisdom, the book examines the origins of complex decision-making in humans through the archaeological record, recent discoveries in evolutionary anthropology, and the philosophical richness of semiotics. The book then moves to an exploration of the origin of characteristics integral to the social life of small-scale communities, which then points in an indirect way to the disposition of humility. Finally, it investigates the theological dimensions of grace and considers how artefacts left behind in the material record by our human ancestors, and the perspective they reflect, might inform contemporary concepts of grace. This is a cutting-edge volume that refuses to commit the errors of either too easy a synthesis or too facile a separation between science and religion. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of religious studies and theology – especially those who interact with scientific fields – as well as academics working in anthropology of religion.

The Evolution of Paleolithic Technologies provides a novel perspective on long-term trajectories of evolutionary change in Paleolithic tools and tool-makers. Members of the human lineage have been producing stone tools for more than 3 million years. These artefacts provide key evidence for important evolutionary developments in hominin behaviour and cognition. Avoiding conventional approaches based on progressive stages of development, this book instead examines global trends in six separate dimensions of technological behaviour between 2.6 million and 10,000 years ago. Combining these independent trends results in both a broader and a more finely punctuated perspective on key intervals of change in hominin behaviour. To draw this picture together, the concluding section explores behavioural, cognitive, and demographic implications of developments in material culture and technological procedures at seven key intervals during the Pleistocene. Researchers interested in Paleolithic archaeology will find this book invaluable. It will also be of interest to archaeologists researching stone tool technology and to students of human evolution and behavioural change in prehistory.

Cognitive archaeology is a relatively new interdisciplinary science that uses cognitive and psychological models to explain archeological artifacts like stone tools, figurines, and art. Squeezing Minds From Stones is a collection of essays from early pioneers in the field, like archaeologists Thomas Wynn and Iain Davidson, and evolutionary primatologist William McGrew, to 'up and coming' newcomers like Shelby Putt, Ceri Shipton, Mark Moore, James Cole, Natalie Uomini, and Lana Ruck. Their essays address a wide variety of cognitive archaeology topics, including the value of experimental archaeology, primate archaeology, the intent of ancient tool makers, and how they may have lived and thought.

Updating Neanderthals: Understanding Behavioral Complexity in the Late Middle Paleolithic provides comprehensive knowledge on Neanderthals who lived throughout the European and Asian continents. The book synthesizes historical information about the study of Middle Paleolithic populations and presents current debates about their genetics, subsistence, technology, social and cognitive behaviors. It focuses on the last phase of Neanderthal settlements and presents the main patterns of modern humans across Europe. Written by international experts on the Middle Paleolithic who have conducted innovative studies in the last three decades, this book explores the implications of interactions between different human species, including Neanderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens. In addition, the book discusses the diversity and variability of human adaptations and behaviors in the changing climate and environment of the Late Pleistocene, and the relationship between these behaviors, demography and cognitive capabilities. Offers a comprehensive update on the variability and diversity of Neanderthal behaviors during the Late Pleistocene Presents an interdisciplinary reconstruction of Neanderthals by assessing archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology, anthropology, genetics and cognition Reviews the reliability of archaeological data and the theoretical and methodological advances of the last 30 years Discusses the most debated Neanderthal themes, such as demography, diet, socio-economy and art