Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory最新文献

{"title":"E-lorgesailie: An Agent-Based Simulation Model of Acheulean Lithic Raw Material Procurement and Handaxe Deposition Patterns","authors":"Grant S. McCall, Muhammad Rehan","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09788-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09788-y","url":null,"abstract":"The striking archaeological patterning associated with Acheulean handaxes has been the subject of investigation for more than two centuries. Since the earliest days of the field, Paleolithic archaeologists have noticed the tendency for some Acheulean sites to take the form of large biface concentrations, while other contemporaneous sites (often in close spatial proximity) have few or none. This paper explores the potential significance of this patterning through agent-based simulation using the Netlogo software platform. In particular, our study looks at a variant of the stone cache model in exploring a potential economy of lithic raw materials based on (1) the direct acquisition of stone at discrete quarry locations, (2) the necessity of handaxes in carrying out spatially dispersed subsistence activities, and (3) the intentional caching of handaxes at strategic landscape locations in order to reduce mobility costs in traveling to quarry sites to acquire lithic raw material. Our model demonstrates that, in following a handful of simple rules and adhering to a limited set of assumptions, hominins could have significantly enhanced their foraging return rates by creating handaxe caches, which in a sense “split the distance” between foraging patches and stone quarries. Our model also shows that handaxe caching behavior may have resulted in the creation of sites with vast handaxe assemblages, such as Olorgesailie and the many others belonging to the Acheulean Industry.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147743948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pixelated Transformations: Tracing Changing Irrigation Management Through Deep-Learning-Based Object Detection on HEXAGON and SkySat Satellite Images","authors":"Casey Haoran Shi, Cayleigh Elizabeth Haag","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09787-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09787-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147733595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Paleolithic Dietary Flexibility? Methodological Considerations in Analogy-Based Reconstructions of Paleolithic Energetic Returns","authors":"Miki Ben-Dor, Ran Barkai","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09780-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09780-6","url":null,"abstract":"Trophic level, which serves as a basic determinant of the evolutionary pathway of animals, including humans, emerges as, primarily, a product of relative energetic returns and food items availability. The concept of trophic level flexibility during the Paleolithic period for the highly adaptable human species represents a prevailing paradigm in the field of paleoanthropology. This paradigm largely relies on the observed variability of trophic levels among recent hunter-gatherer societies. We examine various methodological aspects involved in using ethnographic quantitative data as an analogical source for reconstructing the energetic returns of humans during the Paleolithic period and, consequently, their trophic level. By analyzing datasets from several studies, we highlight potential limitations that may arise when applying such analogies. In the past we argued that Paleolithic humans preferred to acquire the largest available prey. This assertion met with objection, based on ethnographic analogies. In addition to pointing out the limitations to the validity of such analogies, we propose that archaeofaunal records provide detectable reflection of prey ranking and thus their relative energetic returns without the need for detailed numerical reconstruction of energetic returns based on the ethnographic record. We introduce the Kakwani Concentration Index, originally developed in Economics to measure directionality and strength of inequality, as a measure of directionality and strength in the size ranking of prey in Archaeological assemblages to test preference for large prey. We propose that the paradigm of flexibility is based on adaptations that occurred following the Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinctions during and after which prey size availability patterns have markedly changed. In contrast, as evidenced by the technological persistence of simple hunting tools and assemblages with large herbivores throughout the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, subsistence strategies likely centered on large prey, which can be deduced by the lack of composite projectile hunting tools for a substantial portion of human evolution. The paper re-emphasizes that ethnoarchaeological analogies should be treated as testable hypotheses, and they may hold potential validity for behaviors that exhibit cross-cultural correlates. Ultimately, it suggests that no such correlates are present in some influential hunting energetic returns and human trophic level reconstructions. We argue that the technological, ecological and cognitive non-analog features of ethnographic energetic returns datasets are too great to be predictive of the Paleolithic nutritional pattern.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147733597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Bones of Relation: Materialising Personhood Through Secondary Burial in Papua New Guinea","authors":"Simon Coxe, Ben Shaw","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09778-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09778-0","url":null,"abstract":"The concept of relational personhood is well-developed in Melanesian ethnography and often cited by archaeologists globally, yet it has rarely been applied archaeologically in this region. Drawing on anthropological theory, local oral traditions, and recent archaeological fieldwork on two islands in the southern Massim region of Papua New Guinea, this paper examines secondary cave burials and the objects they were interred with as material expressions of relational personhood. Human skeletal remains were deliberately fragmented, selected, modified, and arranged alongside culturally significant objects such as pottery, which were also often intentionally fragmented. Secondary burials containing individuals of different ages, combined with emphasis on anatomical elements, particularly the skull, indicate that relational personhood was materially enacted through the intentional commingling of bones and artefacts. Objects such as complete pots and pot sherds, shell ornaments, and stone axes acted as synecdochic and metonymic agents of identity, provision, and ancestral continuity. Rather than being merely symbolic, these secondary burial assemblages instantiate enduring networks of kinship and exchange, integrating the dead into ongoing social processes of the living. This study offers a contextual model for Melanesian mortuary practices and contributes to broader debates on the material patterning of personhood and ethnographic analogy in archaeological interpretation in the Pacific region and globally.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147702324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Tool Systems Approach: Measuring Complexity in the Primatological, Archaeological, and Ethnographic Records","authors":"James Clark, Lucy Timbrell, Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Laura van Holstein, Jonathan Paige, Antoine Muller, Chris Clarkson, Kathelijne Koops, Eleanor M. L. Scerri, Manuel Will","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09779-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09779-z","url":null,"abstract":"Measuring technological complexity across species, as well as across temporal and spatial scales, is an ongoing challenge among authors who work on primatological, archaeological, and/or ethnographic questions. Researchers in these individual fields have developed a number of innovative ways of approaching this issue that reflect the specific affordances of their data with a known set of limitations. However, comparability between these approaches is often difficult. One such field-specific approach is the techno-unit method of Oswalt <italic>et al.</italic> (1976), which has had a massive impact on our interpretation of ethnographic technology over the fifty years since its publication. Nevertheless, this method has issues with its compression of variability and the different pathways to “complexity”. Here, we review a number of different ways technological complexity has been measured in non-human primates, the archaeological record, and modern human foragers, in order to identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. We suggest that the approach deployed in any given study should continue to follow the data and research questions under consideration, but that we lack an easily-applicable method that allows explicit comparisons between fields of study. In this context, we introduce the Tool Systems Approach as one possible way of doing so, which decomposes tool manufacture into its constituent steps (<italic>i.e.</italic>, Tool Systems Total) and discrete forms of action (<italic>i.e.</italic>, Total Discrete Actions). We apply the approach to a number of different technologies across the three fields, to explore the practicalities of its application, as well as its limitations. Plotting these different technologies with regards to their maximum complexity through time reveals trends that may map onto important changes in cognitive evolution, which are also reflected in ever-growing variability in the complexity of individual artefacts. The ramifications for the study of technological complexity as a whole are discussed.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147702321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Morphometric Analysis of Roman Ceramic Vessels Embedded in Taberna Counters at Pompeii Using 3D Modelling","authors":"Xinyan Zhao, Yoshiki Hori","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09774-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09774-4","url":null,"abstract":"Recent expansion of scientific analytical methods within archaeology has prompted a re-evaluation of traditional approaches to data acquisition and interpretation. This study examines large ceramic vessels embedded in the counters of Pompeian tabernae—contexts in which conventional recording cannot directly measure the interiors and therefore cannot capture complete interior geometries. Applying a handheld structured-light scanner, we recorded the vessels’ interior surfaces with high precision and produced complete 3D models of these counter-embedded vessels, providing a foundation for diverse morphometric and geometric analyses. In particular, a central axis estimated from the centroids of serial cross-sections served as the principal parameter for morphological analysis, from which we infer aspects of forming techniques and the use-related behaviors they may encode. The results demonstrate the feasibility and analytical value of 3D modelling and quantitative geometry for addressing complex archaeological problems. More broadly, the axis-based framework presented here offers a reproducible method for investigating vessel manufacture and makes analytically tractable domains that previously could not be examined, thereby offering new perspectives on vessel formation and artisanal practices.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147702320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond the Layer: A 3D-Driven Generalized Methodology for the Quantitative Dissection of Archaeological Palimpsests","authors":"Filippo Zangrossi, Diego Lombao, Alessio Veneziano, Manuel Vaquero","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09776-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09776-2","url":null,"abstract":"Accurately defining the temporal relationships between archaeological events is essential to avoid misleading interpretations of human behavior. The dissection of archaeological palimpsests seeks to achieve the highest possible resolution in reconstructing the sequence of human activities recorded within a single stratigraphic layer, overcoming the sedimentological uniformity that masks distinct depositional events. While numerous methodologies have been developed and applied over recent decades, the potential of virtual and three-dimensional technologies in this field remains underexplored. In this contribution, we propose ArchStrat: a novel method that employs 3D technology to discriminate the diachronic deposition of refitting groups, fragments originally part of the same object, by quantifying their vertical displacement relative to the minimum spatial volume they occupy. This approach enables a more precise identification of the temporal sequence of events within a stratigraphic context. We define the applicability domain to determine which pairs of refits are suitable for this analysis, then we conduct a sensitivity analysis to assess the efficiency of the method, and finally, we test the protocol through a virtual excavation simulation. Our results demonstrate the significant potential of 3D virtual techniques in dissecting archaeological palimpsests, offering new insights into site formation processes and allowing a more refined understanding of human activities over time.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"125 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147702322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Emergence of Leadership, Power, and Prestige: The New Guinea Case","authors":"Paul Roscoe, Nils Müller-Scheeßel","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09772-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09772-6","url":null,"abstract":"Leadership, power, and prestige fundamentally structure human social worlds, and their emergence and developmental trajectories have attracted considerable archaeological discussion. To understand their antecedents and emergence, we develop and test a Social-Signaling Hypothesis that was originally advanced to explain conflict management in the small-scale societies that routinely attract archaeological attention. The hypothesis proposes that leadership, power, and prestige emerge from, and are acquired through, honest displays of individual and collective fighting strength. This proposition sidesteps critical flaws in current hypotheses concerning these developments, and it generates several novel predictions they are ill-equipped to explain. We begin by summarising and identifying the problems in current theorising. We then develop the Social-Signaling Hypothesis, before testing its predictions about leadership against an ethnographic database drawn from 151 of New Guinea’s small-scale societies. We find that the hypothesis accounts more parsimoniously for a wider range of data on leadership, power, and prestige than do prevailing hypotheses.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147702323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction to: Theoretical Origins and Biocultural Approaches to Taphonomy in Bioarchaeology","authors":"Trent M. Trombley, Sabrina C. Agarwal","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09782-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09782-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147586581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-Term Population Dynamics Following Innovations in Food Production","authors":"Jacob Freeman, Erick Robinson","doi":"10.1007/s10816-026-09770-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-026-09770-8","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers often posit that innovations in the production of food impact the long-term carrying capacity of human populations. Yet, this proposition has rarely been evaluated by a systematic comparison of different innovations in food production and population dynamics over deep-time. To fill this knowledge gap, we use an Ideal Specialization Model (ISM) to explain how innovations in networks of technology may drive different patterns of population expansion. A comparison of 33 deep-time archaeological records from across the world suggests that internal innovations in the production of food lead to more incremental demographic transitions and more frequent Malthusian periods. In contrast, external innovations in food production lead to larger demographic transitions and fewer Malthusian periods. These results document a similarity between human population dynamics during the spread of industrialization and the evolution of food production. Our work contributes to understanding the feedback between population growth and innovation processes that humans faced in the past and will face in the future.","PeriodicalId":47725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory","volume":"63 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147536277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}