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Forager Mobility and Lithic Discard Probability Similarly Affect the Distance of Raw Material Discard from Source

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2021

Sam C. Lin Open the ORCID record for Sam C. Lin [Opens in a new window]  and
L. S. Premo Open the ORCID record for L. S. Premo [Opens in a new window]
Sam C. Lin*
Affiliation:
School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
L. S. Premo
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
*
(samlin@uow.edu.au, corresponding author)
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Abstract

The neutral model of stone procurement developed by Brantingham (2003, 2006) provides a formal means to investigate the formation of lithic discard patterning under changing forager mobility conditions. This study modifies Brantingham's (2006) Lévy walk model to examine the influence of discard probability on the spatial distribution of raw material abundance. The model outcome shows that forager movement and tool discard probability have similar effects on the simulated patterns of raw material transport, so it is difficult—if not impossible—to differentiate the respective influence of the two factors from distance to source distributions alone. This finding of equifinality complicates the task of interpretating hominin mobility from archaeological distance to source data, particularly in settings such as the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition, which is marked by an important reorganization in hominin lithic technology that may have affected stone tool discard probability.

El modelo neutral de obtención de piedra desarrollado por Brantingham (2003, 2006) proporciona un medio formal para investigar el surgimiento de patrones en desechos líticos cuando existen condiciones cambiantes de movilidad entre los forrajeadores. Este estudio modifica el modelo de caminata de Lévy, Brantingham (2006), para examinar la influencia de la probabilidad de desecho de piedra en la distribución espacial de materia prima. El resultado del modelo muestra que el movimiento de los forrajeadores y la probabilidad de desechar herramientas tienen efectos similares en los patrones simulados de transporte de materia prima, de modo que es difícil, sino imposible, diferenciar la influencia de cada uno de estos dos factores en la distribución de piedra solamente desde cierta distancia hasta la fuente. Este hallazgo de equifinalidad complica la tarea de interpretar la movilidad de los homínidos desde la distancia arqueológica hasta los datos de origen, particularmente en escenarios como la transición del Paleolítico Medio-Superior, la cual está marcada por una importante reorganización en la tecnología lítica de homínidos que puede haber afectado la probabilidad de desecho de herramientas de piedra.

Keywords

mobilitylithic raw materialdiscardagent-based modelingMiddle-Upper Paleolithic transitionmovilidadmateria prima líticadesechomodelado basado en agentesla transición del Paleolítico Medio-Superior
Type
Report
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 4 , October 2021 , pp. 845 - 863
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology

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