White, M. J. (1998). On the significance of Acheulean biface variability in southern Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64. Vol 64, pp. 15-44.
 Title The title of the publication or report |
On the significance of Acheulean biface variability in southern Britain | |||||||||
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Issue The name of the volume or issue |
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64 | |||||||||
Series The series the publication or report is included in |
The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society | |||||||||
Volume Volume number and part |
64 | |||||||||
Page Start/End The start and end page numbers. |
15 - 44 | |||||||||
Biblio Note This is a Bibliographic record only. |
Please note that this is a bibliographic record only, as originally entered into the BIAB database. The ADS have no files for download, and unfortunately cannot advise further on where to access hard copy or digital versions. | |||||||||
Publication Type The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book |
Journal | |||||||||
Abstract The abstract describing the content of the publication or report |
The significance of morphological variation in Acheulean bifaces has been a central issue in Palaeolithic research for well over a century. For much of that period interpretation has been dominated by culture-historical models and it is only in the past twenty years that other explanatory factors have received adequate attention. This paper examines the combined role of several of these factors -- namely raw materials, reduction intensity, and function -- on biface variability in the British Isles, with special reference to the two major shaped-based `tradition' devised by Roe (1967; 1968). First-hand examination of bifaces from nineteen assemblages suggests that final biface shape depends largely on the dimensions of the original raw materials and the techno-functional strategies designed to deal with them. Through these observations a new model is generated and tested. This suggests that the patterning in the British Acheulean simply reflects the nature of the resources available at a site and the hominid procurement and technological strategies used to exploit them. According to this model, well-worked ovates with all-round edges were preferentially produced wherever raw materials were large and robust enough to frequently support intensive reduction procedures, usually when obtained from primary flint sources. Assemblages characterised by partially-edged, moderately-reduced pointed forms were only manufactured when smaller, narrower blanks, that imposed restrictions on human technological actions regarding the location and extent of working, were exploited. such blanks were usually obtained from a secondary flint source, such as river gravel. Thus, Roe's pointed and ovate `traditions' are seen not as the products of different biface making populations, but as the same broad populations coping with the exigencies of a heterogeneous environment, using different resources in an adaptive, flexible manner | |||||||||
Year of Publication The year the book, article or report was published |
1998 | |||||||||
Locations Any locations covered by the publication or report. This is not the place the book or report was published. |
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Source Where the record has come from or which dataset it was orginally included in. |
BIAB
(The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
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Created Date The date the record of the pubication was first entered |
06 Mar 2001 |
