@misc{10481/79917,
year = {2022},
month = {12},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/79917},
abstract = {We experimentally created a particle size dataset that is based on reduction sequences and
raw materials typical of the Middle and Later Stone Age in southern Africa. The reason for
creating this new dataset is that current particle size frameworks are based, almost exclusively,
on flint and western European knapping methods. We produced the dataset using
knapping methods and raw materials frequently encountered in the southern African
archaeological record because we wanted to test whether it has the same distribution as
particle size datasets experimentally created in Europe, and to initialise the production of a
database for use in the analysis of lithic assemblages from southern African Late Pleistocene
deposits. We reduced 117 cores of quartz, quartzite, jasper, chalcedony, hornfels, and
rhyolite. The knapping methods selected were unidirectional, discoidal, Levallois recurrent
and bipolar flaking. In this article we compare this new particle size distribution dataset with
the results obtained from previous experiments. We found that the southern African dataset
shows a wider size range distribution, which seems to be explained by differences in knapping
methods and raw materials. Our results show that there is overlap between the distribution
of the southern African experimental knapping dataset and the sorting experiment
conducted by Lenoble on flint artefacts in a runoff context. This article shows that a particle
size analysis is not sufficient on its own to assess the perturbation of an archaeological
assemblage and must be coupled with other analytical tools.},
organization = {Center of Excellence in Paleosciences –National Research Foundation of South Africa},
organization = {University of Cambridge},
organization = {Ramón y Cajal Research contract (RYC2020-029506-I) at the Universidad
de Granada (Spain) funded by European social fund and the Agencia Estatal de Investigación
(Spain).},
publisher = {Public Library of Science},
title = {Particle size distribution: An experimental study using southern African reduction methods and raw materials},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0278867},
author = {De la Peña Alonso, Paloma and Thomas, Marc and Molefyane, Tumelo R.},
}