IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0048009.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relative Importance of Modularity and Other Morphological Attributes on Different Types of Lithic Point Weapons: Assessing Functional Variations

Author

Listed:
  • Rolando González-José
  • Judith Charlin

Abstract

The specific using of different prehistoric weapons is mainly determined by its physical properties, which provide a relative advantage or disadvantage to perform a given, particular function. Since these physical properties are integrated to accomplish that function, examining design variables and their pattern of integration or modularity is of interest to estimate the past function of a point. Here we analyze a composite sample of lithic points from southern Patagonia likely formed by arrows, thrown spears and hand-held points to test if they can be viewed as a two-module system formed by the blade and the stem, and to evaluate the degree in which shape, size, asymmetry, blade: stem length ratio, and tip angle explain the observed variance and differentiation among points supposedly aimed to accomplish different functions. To do so we performed a geometric morphometric analysis on 118 lithic points, departing from 24 two-dimensional landmark and semi landmarks placed on the point's contour. Klingenberg's covariational modularity tests were used to evaluate different modularity hypotheses, and a composite PCA including shape, size, asymmetry, blade: stem length ratio, and tip angle was used to estimate the importance of each attribute to explaining variation patterns. Results show that the blade and the stem can be seen as “near decomposable units” in the points integrating the studied sample. However, this modular pattern changes after removing the effects of reduction. Indeed, a resharpened point tends to show a tip/rest of the point modular pattern. The composite PCA analyses evidenced three different patterns of morphometric attributes compatible with arrows, thrown spears, and hand-held tools. Interestingly, when analyzed independently, these groups show differences in their modular organization. Our results indicate that stone tools can be approached as flexible designs, characterized by a composite set of interacting morphometric attributes, and evolving on a modular way.

Suggested Citation

  • Rolando González-José & Judith Charlin, 2012. "Relative Importance of Modularity and Other Morphological Attributes on Different Types of Lithic Point Weapons: Assessing Functional Variations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(10), pages 1-9, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0048009
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048009
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048009&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0048009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. David Baldwin & Ronald L. Oaxaca, 2003. "Editors' Introduction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 7-7, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Will Archer & Philipp Gunz & Karen L van Niekerk & Christopher S Henshilwood & Shannon P McPherron, 2015. "Diachronic Change within the Still Bay at Blombos Cave, South Africa," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-25, July.
    2. M Gema Chacón & Florent Détroit & Aude Coudenneau & Marie-Hélène Moncel, 2016. "Morphometric Assessment of Convergent Tool Technology and Function during the Early Middle Palaeolithic: The Case of Payre, France," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-20, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonio Ciccone & Marek Jarociński, 2010. "Determinants of Economic Growth: Will Data Tell?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 222-246, October.
    2. David F. Hendry & Hans-Martin Krolzig, 2005. "The Properties of Automatic "GETS" Modelling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(502), pages 32-61, March.
    3. Jeffery McMullen & Lawrence Plummer & Zoltan Acs, 2007. "What is an Entrepreneurial Opportunity?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 273-283, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0048009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.