Bifaces in plain sight: testing elliptical Fourier analysis in identifying reduction effects on Late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools

Kamil Serwatka*

* Institute of Archaeology, Wroclaw University, 48 Szewska Street, PO BOX 50-139 Wroclaw, Poland, Email: kamserw@gmail.com


Cite as Serwatka, K. (2015). Bifaces in plain sight: testing elliptical Fourier analysis in identifying reduction effects on Late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools. Litikum – Journal of the Lithic Research Roundtable, 3, pp. 13–25. https://doi.org/10.23898/litikuma0009

Abstract. Nowadays, geometric morphometrics are being widely implemented in lithic studies. Their application is driven by the powerful methods of data analysis offered by morphometric computer software. Additionally, computer programs for digital shape analysis are freeware and easy to handle, even for a non-morphometrician. The results achieved with this software yield interesting conclusions and they offer a new perspective on lithic tools. This presents morphometrics as a potentially useful methodological tool in the field of lithic analysis, which often has to deal with artifacts morphology. The aim of this study is to test the utility of basic shape analyses included in the PAST (Palaeontological Statistics) computer program, and especially elliptical Fourier analysis, in identifying reduction effects on Late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools. For this purpose, an assemblage of 147 bifacial tools from Southern Poland was analyzed. The sample comprised of Keilmessergruppen handaxes, Keilmesser and Late Middle Palaeolithic leaf points. The results reveal patterned changes in artifacts proportions, which may have been caused by continuous resharpening/reduction as well as by gradual alteration of tools design, due to their changing function.

This study was presented at the 11th SKAM Lithic Workshop: the multifaceted biface – Bifacial technology in Prehistory. 20th-22nd of October, 2014, Miskolc, Hungary. The conference papers are published in the Litikum Journal volumes as special contributions. Informations about the conference as well as the abstract book are available on the SKAM 2014 website: http://skam.pannontenger.hu

Keywords: Late Middle Palaeolithic, geometric morphometrics, Keilmesser, handaxes, leaf points

Data availability statement: The author[s] confirm[s] that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article [and/or] its supplementary materials.

Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding statement: The author received no financial support for the research and/or the publication of this article.

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International Public License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). cbna You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and transform the material, under the following terms: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

Creative Commons License


List of references

Azavedo S., Charlin J., González-José R. 2014. Identifying design and reduction effects on lithic projectile point shapes. Journal of Archaeological Science 41: 297–307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.08.013

Boëda E. 2001. Détermination des Unités Techno-Fonctionelles de pièces bifaciales provenant de la couche Acheuléenne C´3 Base du site de Barbas I. In: Cliquet D. (dir.), Les industries à outils bifaciaux du Paléolithique moyen d’Europe occidentale – Actes de la table-ronde internationale organisée à Caen (Basse-Normandie – France) 14 et 15 octobre 1999. E.R.A.U.L. 98, Liège: Université de Liège, 51–75.

Boroń T. 2006. Typology and classification of bifaces from Wylotne site in Ojców. In: Kozłowski S. K. (ed.), Wylotne and Zwierzyniec. Paleolithic Sites in Southern Poland. Kraków: The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences – Warsaw University, 225–245.

Bosinski G. 1967. Die mittelpaläolithischen Funde im westlichen Mitteleuropa. Fundamenta A/4, Köln–Graz: Böhlau-Verlag.

Buchanan B., Johnson E., Strauss R. E., Lewis P. J. 2007. A Morphometric Approach to Assessing Late Paleoindian Projectile Point Variability on the Southern High Plains. Plains Anthropologist 52(203): 279–299. https://doi.org/10.1179/pan.2007.019

Buchannan B., Collard M. 2010. A geometric morphometrics-based assessment of blade shape differences among Paleoindian projectile point types from western North America. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 350–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.09.047

Charlin J., González-José R. 2012. Size and shape variation in late Holocene projectile points of Southern Patagonia: a geometric morphometric study. American Antiquity 77(2): 221–242. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.77.2.221

Chmielewski W. 1961. Civilisation de Jerzmanowice. Wrocław–Warsaw–Kraków: Zaklad Narodowy Imienia Ossolińskich Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk.

Chmielewski W. 1969. Ensembles micoquo-prondikiens en Europe Centrale. Geographie polonica 17: 371–386.

Cyrek K. (ed.) 2002. Jaskinia Biśnik. Rekonstrukcja zasiedlenia jaskini na tle zmian środowiska przyrodniczego. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika.

Costa A. G. 2010. A Geometric Morphometric Assessment of Plan Shape in Bone and Stone Acheulean Bifaces from the Middle Pleistocene Site of Castel di Guido, Latium, Italy. In: Lycett S. J., Chauhan P. R. (eds.), New Perspectives on Old Stones: Analytical Approaches to Paleolithic Technologies. New York: Springer, 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6861-6_2

de Amorim R. C. 2015. Feature Relevance in Ward’s Hierarchical Clustering Using the Lp Norm. Journal of Classification 32(1): 46–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00357-015-9167-1

Dibble H. 1984. Interpreting typological variation of Middle Palaeolithic scrapers: Function, style or sequences of reduction? Journal of Field Archaeology 11: 431–436. https://doi.org/10.2307/529322

Dibble H. 1987. The interpretation of Middle Palaeolithic scraper morphology. American Antiquity 52: 109–117. https://doi.org/10.2307/281062

Dibble H. 1995. Middle Palaeolithic Scraper reduction: background, clarification and overview of evidence to date. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 2: 299–368. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02229003

Dibble H., Rolland N. 1990. A New Synthesis of Middle Palaeolithic Variability. American Antiquity 55(3): 480–499. https://doi.org/10.2307/281279

Dryden I. L., Mardia K. V. 1998. Statistical Shape Analysis. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Eren M. I., Lycett S. J. 2012. Why Levallois? A Morphometric Comparison of Experimental ‘Preferential’ Levallois Flakes versus Debitage Flakes. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29273 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029273

Fajer M., Foltyn E., Kozłowski J. K. 2001. Uwagi o kulturze mikockiej na Górnym Śląsku. Przyczynek do genezy kultury mikockiej w Europie Środkowej. Archeologia Polski 46: 31–66.

Feliks J. 2008. Phi in the Acheulian: Lower Palaeolithic intuition and the natural origins of analogy. In: Bednarik R. G., Hodgson D. (eds.), Pleistocene palaeoart of the world. BAR International Series 1804, Oxford: Archaeopress, 11–31.

Ferson S., Rohlf F. J., Koehn R. K. 1985. Measuring shape variation of two-dimensional outlines. Systemnatic Zoology 34: 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/34.1.59

Gowlett J. A. J. 2006. The elements of design form in Acheulian bifaces: modes, modalities, rules and language. In: Goren-Inbar N., Sharon G. (eds.), Axe Age: Acheulian Tool-making from Quarry to Discard. London: Equinox, 203–221.

Hahn J. 1991. Erkennen und Bestimmen von Stein- und Knochenartefakten. Einführung in die Artefaktmorphologie. Archaeologica Venatoria 10, Tübingen: Verlag Archaeologica Venatoria.

Hammer Ø., Harper D. A. T., Ryan P. D. 2001. PAST: Paleontological statistics package for education and data analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica 4(1): 9 (http://palaeo-electronica.org/2001_1/past/issue1_01.htm)

Hauser O. 1916. La Micoque. Die Kultur einer neuen Diluvialrasse. Leipzig: Veit.

Iovita R. 2009. Ontogenetic scaling and lithic systematics: method and application. Journal of Archaeological Sciece 36: 1447–1457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.02.008

Iovita R. P. 2010. Quantifying and comparing stone tool resharpening trajectories with the aid of elliptical Fourier analysis. In: Lycett S., Chauhan P. (eds.), New Perspectives on Old Stones: Analytical Approaches to Palaeolithic Technologies. New York: Springer, 235–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6861-6_10

Iovita R. 2011. Shape Variation in Aterian Tanged Tools and the Origins of Projectile Technology: A Morphometric Perspective on Stone Tool Function. PLoS ONE 6(12): e29029. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029029

Iovita R., McPherron S. P. 2011. The handaxe reloaded: A morphometric reassessment of Acheulian and Middle Paleolithic handaxes. Journal of Human Evolution 61: 61–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.02.007

Jöris O. 1994. Neue Untersuchungen zum Mittelpaläolithikum von Buhlen, Hessen. Technologische Studien zur Pradniktechnik in Horizont IIIb des Oberen Fundplatzes. Ethnographisch Archäologische Zeitschrift 35: 88–97.

Jöris O. 2001. Der spätmittelpaläolithische Fundplatz Buhlen (Grabungen 1966–69). Stratigraphie, Steinartefakte und Fauna des Oberen Fundplatzes. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 73, Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH.

Jöris O. 2006. Bifacially backed knives (Keilmesser) in the Central European Middle Palaeolithic. In: Goren-Inbar N., Sharon G. (eds.), Axe Age: Acheulian Tool-making from Quarry to Discard. London: Equinox, 287–310.

Jungers W. L., Falsetti A. B., Wall C. E. 1995. Shape, relative size, and size-adjustments in morphometrics. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 38: 137–161. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330380608

Kaufman L., Rousseeuw P. J. 1990. Finding Groups in Data: An Introduction to Cluster Analysis. New York: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470316801

Kelly R. L. 1988. The Three Sides of a Biface. American Antiquity 53(4): 717–734. https://doi.org/10.2307/281115

Kohn M., Mithen S. 1999. Handaxes: Products of sexual selection? Antiquity 73: 518–526. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00065078

Kot M. A. 2013. The Earliest Middle Palaeolithic Bifacial Leafpoints in Central and Southern Europe. Technological Approach. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Warsaw University Faculty of History, Warsaw.

Kozłowski J. K. 2004. Świat przed „rewolucją” neolityczną. Wielka Historia Świata 1, Kraków–Warszawa: Fogra–Świat Książki.

Kozłowski S. K. (eds.) 2006. Wylotne and Zwierzyniec. Paleolithic Sites in Southern Poland. Kraków: The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences – Warsaw University.

Krukowski S. 1939–1948. Paleolit. Prehistoria ziem polskich. In: Krukowski S., Kostrzewski J., Jakimowicz R. (red.), Encyklopedia Polska, t. 4, cz. 1, dział 5, Kraków: PAU, 1–117.

Kuhl F. P., Giardina C. R. 1982. Elliptic Fourier features of a closed contour. Computer Graphics and Image Processing 18: 236–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/0146-664X(82)90034-X

Lycett S. J., Von Cramon-Taubadel N., Gowlett J. A. J. 2010. A comparative 3D geometric morphometric analysis of Victoria West cores: implications for the origins of Levallois technology. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 1110–1117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.12.011

Marks A. E., Brugal J.-Ph., Chabai V. P., Monigal K., Goldberg P., Hockett B., Peman E., Elorza M., Mallol C., 2002. Le gisement pléistocène moyen de Galeria Pesada (Estrémadure, Portugal): premiers résultats. Paléo 14: 77–100.

McPherron S. P. 1995. A re-examination of the British biface data. Lithics 16: 47–63.

McPherron S. P. 1999. Ovale and pointed handaxe assemblages: two points make a line. Préhistoire Européenne 14: 9–32.

McPherron S. P. 2000. Handaxes as a measure of the mental capabilities of early hominids. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 655–663. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0467

McPherron S. P. 2003. Technological and typological variability in the bifaces from Tabun Cave, Israel. In: Soressi M., Dibble H. L. (eds.), Multiple approaches to the study of bifacial technologies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 55–76.

McPherron S. P., Dibble H. L. 1999. Stone tool analysis using digitized images: examples from the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Lithic Technology 24(1): 38–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/01977261.1999.11720944

Migal W., Urbanowski M. 2006. Pradnik knives reused. Experimental approach. In: Wiśniewski A., Płonka T., Burdukiewicz J. M. (eds.), The Stone: Technique and Technology. Wrocław: Uniwersytet Wrocławksi, Instytut Archeologii – SKAM Stowarzyszenie Krzemieniarskie, 73–89.

Pastoors A. 2001. Die mittelpaläolithische Freilandstation von Salzgitter-Lebenstedt. Genese der Fundstelle und Systematik der Steinbearbeitung. Salzgitter-Forschungen 3, Salzgitter: Archiv der Stadt Salzgitter.

Pastoors A., Schäfer J., 1999. Analyse des états techniques de transformation, d’utilisation et états post dépositionelles illustrée par un outil bifacial de Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (FRG). Préhistoire Européenne 14: 33–47.

Porr M. 2005. The making of biface and the making of the individual. In: Gamble C., Porr M. (eds.), The Hominid Individual in Context: Archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artifacts. New York: Routledge, 68–81.

Querino R. B., de Moraes R. C. B., Zucchi R. A. 2002. Relative Warp Analysis to Study Morphological Variations in the Genital Capsule of Trichogramma pretiosum Riley (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae). Neotropical Entomology 31(2): 217–224. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1519-566X2002000200007

Richter J. 1997. Der G-Schichten-Komplex der Sesselfelsgrotte. Zum Verständnis des Micoquien. Sesselfelsgrotte III. Quartär-Bibliothek 7, Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag.

Richter J. 2000. Social memory among late Neanderthals. In: Orschiedt J., Weniger G.-C. (eds.), Neanderthals and Modern Humans – Discussing the Transition. Central and Eastern Europe from 50.000 – 30.000 B.P. Mettmann: Neanderthal Museum, 30–41.

Richter J. 2002. Die 14C-Daten aus der Sesselfelsgrotte und die Zeitstellung des Micoquien/M.M.O. Germania 80: 1–22.

Richter J. 2008–2009. The role of leaf points in the Late Middle Palaeolithic Germany. Praehistoria 9–10: 99–113.

Richtsmeier J. T., Deleon V. B., Lele S. R. 2002. The Promise of Geometric Morphometrics. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 45: 63–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.10174

Rohlf F. J. 2004. tpsDig. Version 1.40. Stony Brook: SUNY.

Rohlf F. J. 2006. tps Utility Program. Version 1.38. Stony Brook: SUNY.

Rohlf F. J., Slice D. E. 1990. Extensions of the Procrustes method for the optimal superimposition of landmarks. Systematic Zoology 39: 40–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/2992207

Rolland N. 1988. The interpretation of Middle Palaeolithic variability. Man 16: 15–42. https://doi.org/10.2307/2801973

Ruebens K. 2006. A typological dilemma: Micoquian elements in continental Northwestern Europe during the Last Glacial Cycle (MIS 5d–3). Lithics: The Journal of the Lithic Studies Society 27: 58–73.

Schild R., Wendorf F. 1977. The Prehistory of Dakhla Oasis and Adjacent Desert. Wrocław–Warszawa: Ossolineum.

Shott M. J. 1995. How much is a scraper? Curation, use rates, and the formation of scraper assemblages. Lithic Technology 20: 53–72.

Shott M., Weedman K. L. 2007. Measuring reduction in stone tools: an ethnoarchaeological study of Gamo hidescrapers from Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1016–1035. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.009

Sobczyk K. 1975. Problem prądnika w świetle taksonomii numerycznej. Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 27: 255–269.

Solecki R. L., Solecki R. S. 2004. Bifaces and the Acheulian industries of Yabroud Shelter I, Syria. In: Toussaint M., Draily C., Cordy J.-M. (eds.), General Sessions and Posters. Section 4: Human Origins and the Lower Palaeolithic. Acts of the XIVth UISPP Congress, Liège 2001. BAR International Series 1272, Oxford: Archaeopress, 37–39.

Targosz M. 2006. Analysis of the flint material of Micoquian-Pradnikian culture from layer 6 at Wylotne Rockshelter in Ojców. In: Kozłowski S. K. (ed.), Wylotne and Zwierzyniec. Paleolithic Sites in Southern Poland. Kraków: The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences – Warsaw University, 107–160.

Thulman D. K. 2012. Discriminating Paleoindian point types from Florida using landmark geometric morphometrics. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 1599–1607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.01.004

Tracey N. D., Young J. C., Mason R. L. 1992. Multivariate control charts for individual observations. Journal of Quality Technology 2: 88–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224065.1992.12015232

Urbanowski M. 2009. Middle Palaeolithic Handaxes: The Case of Wylotne Rockshelter. In: Burdukiewicz J. M., Cyrek K., Dyczek P., Szymczak K. (eds.), Understanding the Past. Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 365–375.

Ward J. H. Jr. 1963. Hierarchical Grouping to Optimize an Objective Function. Journal of the American Statistical Association 58: 236–244. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1963.10500845

Wenban-Smith F. F. 2004. Handaxe typology and Lower Palaeolithic cultural development: ficrons, cleavers and two giant handaxes from Cuxton. Lithics 25: 11–21.

Wynn T. 1996. The evolution of tools and symbolic behaviour. In: Lock A., Peters C. R. (eds.), Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 263–287.

Zelditch M. L., Swiderski D. L., Sheets D. H., Fink W. L. 2004. Geometric morphometrics for biologists: a primer. London: Elsevier Academic Press.