TY - JOUR
T1 - Backed point experiments for identifying mechanically-delivered armatures
AU - Sano, Katsuhiro
AU - Oba, Masayoshi
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Kaoru Akoshima, Yoshitaka Kanomata, Tadashi Midoshima, and Gen Suwa for constant support and advice. We thank all participants in the experiments, especially Yoshitaka Denda and Hyewon Hong for the assistance in photographing and drawing experimental samples. Special thanks are due to Walter Mehlem for making the calibrated crossbow. We also thank Annemieke Milks for proofreading the manuscript. This project was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Kakenhi grant numbers 22820005 , 24720350 , and 15H05384 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/11/1
Y1 - 2015/11/1
N2 - The emergence of mechanically-delivered armatures was a crucial event in human evolution, indicating technological and cognitive advances. Morphometric analysis has been the most commonly employed method to explore this subject. While a morphometric analysis can demonstrate a potential capability as a projectile, it is inevitable that the analyzed sample includes artifacts that were not used as hunting weapons. Furthermore, proxies derived from ethnographic references might be dependent on spatio-temporal contexts. Thus, a reliable identification of spearthrower darts and arrowheads in archaeological assemblages requires new indicators. Here we present results of controlled experiments, using backed point replicas, designed to test a correlation between impact velocities and impact trace patterns. Macroscopic and microscopic analyses of experimental replicas indicated that complex fracture formation, including large numbers and dimensions of spin-offs as well as distinctive microscopic linear impact traces (MLITs), provide useful markers for determining mechanically-delivered backed points.
AB - The emergence of mechanically-delivered armatures was a crucial event in human evolution, indicating technological and cognitive advances. Morphometric analysis has been the most commonly employed method to explore this subject. While a morphometric analysis can demonstrate a potential capability as a projectile, it is inevitable that the analyzed sample includes artifacts that were not used as hunting weapons. Furthermore, proxies derived from ethnographic references might be dependent on spatio-temporal contexts. Thus, a reliable identification of spearthrower darts and arrowheads in archaeological assemblages requires new indicators. Here we present results of controlled experiments, using backed point replicas, designed to test a correlation between impact velocities and impact trace patterns. Macroscopic and microscopic analyses of experimental replicas indicated that complex fracture formation, including large numbers and dimensions of spin-offs as well as distinctive microscopic linear impact traces (MLITs), provide useful markers for determining mechanically-delivered backed points.
KW - Backed points
KW - Japanese upper palaeolithic
KW - Mechanically-delivered armatures
KW - Projectile experiments
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jas.2015.08.005
DO - 10.1016/j.jas.2015.08.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84939782249
VL - 63
SP - 13
EP - 23
JO - Journal of Archaeological Science
JF - Journal of Archaeological Science
SN - 0305-4403
ER -