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On measuring the mean edge angle of lithic tools based on 3-D models – a case study from the southern Levantine Epipalaeolithic

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Abstract

The edge angle of lithic tools is an important source of information on the intended function and the manufacturing technology of these artifacts. Yet, previously proposed procedures, both traditional and computer-based, can be flawed by ambiguity in the artifact positioning and in the choice of the points or surfaces defining the angle. A novel method, based on digital 3-D models of the artifact, calculates the measure of the edge angle based on its complete shape, providing an accurate and repeatable measurement of this feature. The procedure includes the automatic, univocal determination of the area that best represents the angle between the two surfaces, further increasing the objectivity of the result. To test its power in providing novel archaeological insight, the method is tested on a series of assemblages of Epipalaeolithic microliths. The combination of the obtained quantitative data with the typology-based cultural attribution of the assemblages highlights possible connections between different areas in the Southern Levant.

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Acknowledgements

We are most thankful to the team of the Computational Archeology Laboratory at the Institute of Archeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for scanning and processing the material. Figures 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12 were produced by Artifact3-D (Grosman et al. 2014), Fig. 9 with Q-GIS, Fig. 13 with MATLAB. We are grateful to the Robert W. Wilson charitable trust and Yad Hanadiv Foundation for their significant contributions, without which these scientific developments would not have been possible. Finally, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their thorough checking of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, 9190501, Jerusalem, Israel

    Francesco Valletta, Uzy Smilansky, A. Nigel Goring-Morris & Leore Grosman

  2. Department of Physics of Complex Systems, The Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Uzy Smilansky

  3. The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel-Scholion School for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Mount Scopus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 9190501, Jerusalem, Israel

    Leore Grosman

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  1. Francesco Valletta
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Correspondence to Francesco Valletta.

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Valletta, F., Smilansky, U., Goring-Morris, A.N. et al. On measuring the mean edge angle of lithic tools based on 3-D models – a case study from the southern Levantine Epipalaeolithic. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 49 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00954-w

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