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Edge Damage on 500-Thousand-Year-Old Spear Tips from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: The Combined Effects of Spear Use and Taphonomic Processes

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Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Stone Age Weaponry

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Abstract

This paper explores the effect of taphonomic processes on 500-thousand-year-old stone points from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa by statistically comparing archaeological edge damage distributions on the points to competing models of edge damage formation. We found that both taphonomic and behavioral processes influenced edge damage formation on the KP1 points, and the KP1 edge damage distribution is best explained by a combination of taphonomic effects and use as spear tips. The edge damage distribution method employed here advances studies of Stone Age weaponry because it can be used to quantitatively assess the effect of taphonomic and behavioral processes on stone tips without relying on subjective evaluations that attribute causation to individual wear features.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Kyle S. Brown and Michael Chazan. This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and funding from the University of Toronto to J.W. The McGregor Museum and the South African Heritage Resources Agency permitted temporary export of the points for study. Fieldwork at KP1 was supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to Michael Chazan. B.J.S. was funded by grants from NSF (BCS-0524087 and BCS-1138073) to Curtis Marean, the Hyde Family Foundations, and from the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. We also thank D. Morris, N. Porat, L.K. Horwitz, C. Marean, and P. Beaumont. Any errors or inconsistencies are the sole responsibility of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Jayne Wilkins & Benjamin J. Schoville

  2. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, 872402, Tempe, AZ, 85287-2402, USA

    Jayne Wilkins & Benjamin J. Schoville

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  1. Jayne Wilkins
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  2. Benjamin J. Schoville
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Correspondence to Jayne Wilkins .

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  1. Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution,, MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre, Neuwied, Germany

    Radu Iovita

  2. University Museum, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Katsuhiro Sano

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Wilkins, J., Schoville, B.J. (2016). Edge Damage on 500-Thousand-Year-Old Spear Tips from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: The Combined Effects of Spear Use and Taphonomic Processes. In: Iovita, R., Sano, K. (eds) Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Stone Age Weaponry. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7602-8_7

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