- Center for the Study of Human Origins (CSHO)
Department of Anthropology, New York University
25 Waverly Place
New York, NY 10003
USA - +1(212) 992-7475
radu iovita
New York University, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Human Evolution, Palaeoenvironment, Palaeolithic Archaeology, Prehistory of Central Asia (Prehistoric Archaeology), Archaeology of Central Asia, Neanderthals (Palaeolithic Archaeology), and 35 moreProjectile technology, Survey (Archaeological Method & Theory), Landscape Archaeology, Quaternary Geology, Traceology, Quantitative methods (Archaeology), Use Wear Analysis, Systematics and Cladistics in Lithic Technology, Lithics, Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition, Lower and Middle Paleolithic, Lower Palaeolithic, Experimental Archaeology, Middle Palaeolithic, Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, North African prehistory (Archaeology), Prehistory in the Balkans and eastern mediterranean, Central Eastern European Paleolithic, Lithic Technology, Prehistoric weapons, Paleolithic Europe, Paleoanthropology, Residue and Use-Wear Analysis, Migration (Anthropology), Agent-based modeling, Upper Palaeolithic, Paleolithic Archaeology, Geometric Morphometrics, Archaeology of Hunting, Evolutionary Anthropology, Acheulian (Archaeology), History of Archaeology, Lithic Analysis, and Central Asiaedit
- I am currently Assistant Professor of Anthropology at NYU, ERC Group Leader at the University of Tübingen, and Associ... moreI am currently Assistant Professor of Anthropology at NYU, ERC Group Leader at the University of Tübingen, and Associated Scientist of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. I'm coordinating two major projects: RoboCut, focused on building the first robot to carry out use-wear experiments (in cooperation with J. Buchli, ETH-Zürich), and the PALAEOSILKROAD field project (with Z. Taimagambetov, National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan). Previous projects include the Lower Danube Survey (SE Romania, https://lodans.wordpress.com/) and NeProTec (the Neandertal Projectile Technology (a ballistic experimental study of point breakage, in cooperation with the German Metrology Institute (PTB)).edit
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In the last few decades, zooarchaeological studies have demonstrated beyond doubt that the hunting abilities of hominins were quite formidable from quite early on. Unfortunately, direct evidence for the use of weapons in hunting is quite... more
In the last few decades, zooarchaeological studies have demonstrated beyond doubt that the hunting abilities of hominins were quite formidable from quite early on. Unfortunately, direct evidence for the use of weapons in hunting is quite rare and depends heavily on the preservation of organic elements. In particular, in the absence of such evidence, it is notoriously difficult to pinpoint the first appearance of complex, mechanically-assisted projectiles (such as darts and arrows) in the archaeological record. In this chapter, we present data from a controlled ballistic experiment with the aim of establishing patterns in the formation of impact fractures that would allow for the discrimination of thrusting spears, (hand-thrown) javelins, and spearthrower darts and arrows. By controlling for the weapon tip shape, weight, and raw material, impact angle (IA), as well as target composition, we are able to focus on the key elements that separate the different launching systems: velocity and kinetic energy output. The results show that fracture scar length is proportional to kinetic energy at impact, but only if the impact is perpendicular, as acute IAs reduce the energy requirements for the production of large, typical impact fractures. We also confirm previous results of Hutchings (JAS 38:1737–1746, 2011) regarding the relationship between precursory loading rate and fracture propagation speed, documenting a weak linear relationship between the two in our sample. We conclude by discussing the implications of this study for identifying different weapon armatures in the archaeological record.
Research Interests:
The Late Middle Paleolithic of Europe contains a multitude of assemblages that can be characterized by the presence of bifacially-shaped tools. The cultural meaning of these tools, especially with respect to their geographic and... more
The Late Middle Paleolithic of Europe contains a multitude of assemblages that can be characterized by the presence of bifacially-shaped tools. The cultural meaning of these tools, especially with respect to their geographic and chronological patterning has been debated for a long time, with unifacial and bifacial tools treated as fundamentally different technical systems. This paper builds upon previous work that showed that unifacial and bifacial blanks often follow similar reduction trajectories, and compares the management of edge angles in both of these tool classes using a large sample representing the Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA), the Quina Mousterian, the Keilmessergruppen, and the Crimean Micoquian technocomplexes. The results show that a) unifacial reduction results in the unequivocal increase in edge angles and b) that plano-convex bifacial reduction in the Central and Eastern European Micoquian, as well as similar techniques in the Quina Mousterian serve the same purpose of reducing and maintaining edge angles within certain limits; finally, c) MTA biconvex reduction results in a slow increase in edge angles. The process of edge angle reduction can be used to explain morphology and technology of the different pieces. Given that all these reduction techniques were part of the Neandertal technical repertoire for long periods of time, disappearing and reappearing at various points in history, the implication is that any geographical patterning may be due not to culture-historical developments, but rather to medium-to long-term adaptations to local environments.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Identifying the use of stone-tipped projectile weapons in prehistory is important for understanding hominin strategic behavior and cognitive capacities. Such identifications are based on 'diagnostic impact fractures' (DIFs), assumed to... more
Identifying the use of stone-tipped projectile weapons in prehistory is important for understanding hominin strategic behavior and cognitive capacities. Such identifications are based on 'diagnostic impact fractures' (DIFs), assumed to form as a result of collisions between the tips and organic materials in the prey body. However, demonstrating weapon use requires documenting an impact speed and/or kinetic energy beyond those likely to occur accidentally or as a by-product of other tasks. We present a new experiment aimed at investigating the influence of speed on impact fracture formation in controlled conditions. Using an air-gun, we fired 234 nearly identical spears tipped with copies of a Levallois point cast in soda-lime glass into a composite target made of polyurethane bone-like plates, ballistic gelatin, and leather. The impact speed ranged from ≈7 to ≈30 m/s and the impact angle (IA) varied in increments of 15o, from 90o-45o. We show that realistic DIFs can be produced under these controlled conditions. The frequency of longitudinal tip macrofractures is directly proportional to the impact speed but inversely proportional to the IA. The relationship between the tip fracture type and the type of damage left on the target explains the contact conditions for the formation of different DIFs. No relationship between either initiation or termination type and speed could be established. Therefore, we conclude that 'step-terminating bending fractures' should not be considered diagnostic of weapon use without further supporting evidence. Further, although fracture length increases with speed when IA is held constant, a great deal of overlap exists between trials with different IAs. Given the expected high variance in IA in real hunting situations, large longitudinal macrofractures on the tips of archaeologically recovered lithics should not automatically be interpreted as resulting from the use of high-speed projectiles. We discuss the study's implications for the differentiation of prehistoric weapon-delivery systems, especially regarding recognizing stone- tipped weapon use by Neandertals.
Research Interests:
Eastern Europe holds a geographically important position as a potential crossroads for hominin migration. However, the quality and quantity of data from the Balkans and the eastern European steppe has thus far been insufficient to... more
Eastern Europe holds a geographically important position as a potential crossroads for hominin migration. However, the quality and quantity of data from the Balkans and the eastern European steppe has thus far been insufficient to reliably evaluate dispersal models for the Middle Pleistocene. We present here new data from the site of Dealul Guran in southeastern Romania, discovered in 2010 during a systematic survey of the steppic landscape of the Lower Danube Basin (LoDanS Project). Hominin occupation of the site, preserved at three levels, was dated using luminescence techniques (OSL, IRSL and post-IR IRSL). The lower two archaeological units of the site yield ages most likely corresponding to marine isotope stage (MIS) 11, and therefore establish Dealul Guran as one of the oldest securely-dated Lower Paleolithic sites in Eastern Europe. The upper archaeological layers date to MIS 3 and 2, providing evidence for more recent hominin presence in the region, the earlier part of which corresponds to the time window relevant to the migration of modern humans into Europe. The earliest occupation phase confirms the middle Pleistocene antiquity of hominin settlement of the eastern European loess steppe. The Middle Pleistocene was characterized by increasingly open steppic environments in the region, and experienced relatively milder climates than areas further north and west within Europe. We discuss the role of southeastern Europe in Middle Pleistocene hominin dispersals, and hypothesize that the particularly thick and widespread loess cover throughout this region may have contributed to the relative paucity of known Lower Paleolithic archaeological sites.
Research Interests: Prehistoric Archaeology, Palaeolithic Archaeology, Luminescence Dating, Prehistoric Europe (Archaeology), Paleolithic Europe, and 7 moreLower Paleolithic, Lower and Middle Paleolithic, Luminescence (OSL), Quaternary geochronology, Lower Palaeolithic, Archaeology of the Eurasian steppe belt, and Lower Danube Archaeology
"Background Recent findings suggest that the North African Middle Stone Age technocomplex known as the Aterian is both much older than previously assumed, and certainly associated with fossils exhibiting anatomically modern human... more
"Background
Recent findings suggest that the North African Middle Stone Age technocomplex known as the Aterian is both much older than previously assumed, and certainly associated with fossils exhibiting anatomically modern human morphology and behavior. The Aterian is defined by the presence of ‘tanged’ or ‘stemmed’ tools, which have been widely assumed to be among the earliest projectile weapon tips. The present study systematically investigates morphological variation in a large sample of Aterian tools to test the hypothesis that these tools were hafted and/or used as projectile weapons.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Both classical morphometrics and Elliptical Fourier Analysis of tool outlines are used to show that the shape variation in the sample exhibits size-dependent patterns consistent with a reduction of the tools from the tip down, with the tang remaining intact. Additionally, the process of reduction led to increasing side-to-side asymmetries as the tools got smaller. Finally, a comparison of shape-change trajectories between Aterian tools and Late Paleolithic arrowheads from the North German site of Stellmoor reveal significant differences in terms of the amount and location of the variation.
Conclusions/Significance
The patterns of size-dependent shape variation strongly support the functional hypothesis of Aterian tools as hafted knives or scrapers with alternating active edges, rather than as weapon tips. Nevertheless, the same morphological patterns are interpreted as one of the earliest evidences for a hafting modification, and for the successful combination of different raw materials (haft and stone tip) into one implement, in itself an important achievement in the evolution of hominin technologies.
"
Recent findings suggest that the North African Middle Stone Age technocomplex known as the Aterian is both much older than previously assumed, and certainly associated with fossils exhibiting anatomically modern human morphology and behavior. The Aterian is defined by the presence of ‘tanged’ or ‘stemmed’ tools, which have been widely assumed to be among the earliest projectile weapon tips. The present study systematically investigates morphological variation in a large sample of Aterian tools to test the hypothesis that these tools were hafted and/or used as projectile weapons.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Both classical morphometrics and Elliptical Fourier Analysis of tool outlines are used to show that the shape variation in the sample exhibits size-dependent patterns consistent with a reduction of the tools from the tip down, with the tang remaining intact. Additionally, the process of reduction led to increasing side-to-side asymmetries as the tools got smaller. Finally, a comparison of shape-change trajectories between Aterian tools and Late Paleolithic arrowheads from the North German site of Stellmoor reveal significant differences in terms of the amount and location of the variation.
Conclusions/Significance
The patterns of size-dependent shape variation strongly support the functional hypothesis of Aterian tools as hafted knives or scrapers with alternating active edges, rather than as weapon tips. Nevertheless, the same morphological patterns are interpreted as one of the earliest evidences for a hafting modification, and for the successful combination of different raw materials (haft and stone tip) into one implement, in itself an important achievement in the evolution of hominin technologies.
"
Research Interests:
This paper examines shape and size variability in Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA) handaxes and compares the observed patterns to those in the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian both to better understand variability in MTA handaxes and to... more
This paper examines shape and size variability in Mousterian of Acheulian Tradition (MTA) handaxes and compares the observed patterns to those in the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian both to better understand variability in MTA handaxes and to test whether this variability, particularly as it relates to resharpening and reduction, is struc- tured similarly to that in the Acheulian. The Acheulian data set is based on previously published data with the addition here of a study of the handaxes from the site of Boxgrove, England. The MTA data set is based on four classic sites from southwest France with large handaxe collections. Both standard caliper based morphometrics and Elliptical Fourier Analysis applied to coordinate data taken from digitized images of handaxes are used to assess shape. The result is that, contrary to expectations based on assumptions of evolving technological skill, handaxes in the MTA are as or more variable in shape than Acheulian ones. This variation is allometric in Acheulian handaxes, and is linked to resharpening from the tip down to the base, but is not related to size in the MTA samples. These results suggest that the goals and constraints of handaxe manufacture but particularly handaxe reduction as a result of reworking during use were quite different in the MTA and Acheulian, implying that conclusions about hominin cognition to be drawn from patterns in shape variability in handaxes must be understood in the context of artifact life histories.
Research Interests:
It has long been thought that many flake attributes, including both size and shape, are largely due to the morphology of a core’s flaking surface, yet this has never been tested under strictly controlled conditions. Using molded glass... more
It has long been thought that many flake attributes, including both size and shape, are largely due to the morphology of a core’s flaking surface, yet this has never been tested under strictly controlled conditions. Using molded glass cores with surface morphologies that highly resemble prehistoric ones, this experiment demonstrates that while core surface morphology does exhibit some influence on flake size and shape, a high degree of variation in flakes produced with the same core surface morphology shows that the effects of other independent variables, such as exterior platform angle and platform depth, have an even stronger effect. A major implication of these results is that current approaches to reconstruct prehistoric knapping strategies are overlooking significant sources of variation.
Research Interests:
Stone tools tend to be classified according to a mix of functional, morphological, and technological attributes. This practice results in confusions when large-scale assemblage comparisons are made with the aim of investigating... more
Stone tools tend to be classified according to a mix of functional, morphological, and technological attributes. This practice results in confusions when large-scale assemblage comparisons are made with the aim of investigating phylogenetic relationships, as functional and cultural information is aggregated. It is argued here that functional criteria must be assessed separately, and that resharpening, as a uniform, repeated, conscious behavioral process of tool maintenance that indexes use and function, can provide a solution to this problem. The subject of this article is a quantitative method for extracting and comparing resharpening trajectories. The method is an adaptation of ontogenetic scaling methods from biology, and is based on obtaining a mathematical representation of shape and size, and finding a rela- tionship between the two. Elliptical Fourier analysis is applied to stone tool contours in order to extract shape information, and then a series of regressions of shape on size provide trajectory vectors. The angles between these are then calculated and subjected to a variety of multivariate statistical tests. A case study involving several European Middle Paleolithic bifacial and unifacial tool assemblages is presented. The results show that resharpening and maintenance can be independent of morphology and technology, suggesting that there are strong grounds for focusing on functional systematics separately.
Research Interests:
Resharpening has long played a confusing rote in the history ofresearch on lithic variability. In this chapter, I argue that, far from confounding issues of variability, resharpening can be used as a classiflcatory principle because it... more
Resharpening has long played a confusing rote in the history ofresearch
on lithic variability. In this chapter, I argue that, far from confounding issues of variability, resharpening can be used as a classiflcatory principle because it reflects human technical choices related to repeated uses of a tool. The advantage that resharpening offers is that of a mathematically suitable study object, through the investigation of shape change along the continuum of size reduction. Building upon a rich history of research in both biology and prehistoric archaeology, I present a variant of a new method for comparing resharpening trajectories, using elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA) and principal components analysis to compare the slopes of allometric regressions. The theoretical presentation is followed by a worked example using bifacial tools from two European Middle Paleolithic sites: Pech de l‘Azé 1 (France) and Buhlen III (Germany).
on lithic variability. In this chapter, I argue that, far from confounding issues of variability, resharpening can be used as a classiflcatory principle because it reflects human technical choices related to repeated uses of a tool. The advantage that resharpening offers is that of a mathematically suitable study object, through the investigation of shape change along the continuum of size reduction. Building upon a rich history of research in both biology and prehistoric archaeology, I present a variant of a new method for comparing resharpening trajectories, using elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA) and principal components analysis to compare the slopes of allometric regressions. The theoretical presentation is followed by a worked example using bifacial tools from two European Middle Paleolithic sites: Pech de l‘Azé 1 (France) and Buhlen III (Germany).
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Cortex is often used as an indicator of core reduction and transport, but current measures to evaluate the observed amount of cortex in a lithic assemblage with what might be expected under particular conditions are still ambiguous. The... more
Cortex is often used as an indicator of core reduction and transport, but current measures to evaluate the observed amount of cortex in a lithic assemblage with what might be expected under particular conditions are still ambiguous. The purpose of the present study is to develop and evaluate an alternative method based on solid geometry. This method is evaluated with an experimentally produced assemblage, and implications of its application to archaeological assemblages are presented and discussed.
La corteza se utiliza a menudo como indicador de la reducción del núcleo y el transporte de lítica. Sin embargo, las medidas actuales para evaluar la cantidad de corteza en un conjunto lítico contra lo que se pudiera esperar bajo ciertas condiciones siguen siendo ambiguas. El propósito del presente estudio es desarrollar y evaluar un método alternativo basado en geometría sólida. Este método se evalúa con un ensamble producido experimentalmente. Las implicaciones de su uso en conjuntos arqueológicos se presentan y se discuten.
La corteza se utiliza a menudo como indicador de la reducción del núcleo y el transporte de lítica. Sin embargo, las medidas actuales para evaluar la cantidad de corteza en un conjunto lítico contra lo que se pudiera esperar bajo ciertas condiciones siguen siendo ambiguas. El propósito del presente estudio es desarrollar y evaluar un método alternativo basado en geometría sólida. Este método se evalúa con un ensamble producido experimentalmente. Las implicaciones de su uso en conjuntos arqueológicos se presentan y se discuten.
Research Interests:
The sociohistorical study of Gypsies/Sinti/Roma has been dominated by the “Gypsy-lorist” paradigm. According to this paradigm, these itinerant people belong to a unitary ethnic group of South Asian origin whose cultural practices have... more
The sociohistorical study of Gypsies/Sinti/Roma has been dominated by the “Gypsy-lorist” paradigm. According to this paradigm, these itinerant people belong to a unitary ethnic group of South Asian origin whose cultural practices have been preserved over the centuries. Recently, this perspective has come under criticism for perpetuating the image of Gypsies as an isolate within the wider context of the development of European societies, and, in particular, for placing too much importance on the external origin of Gypsy cultural and linguistic practices. This article attempts to place the available biological anthropological data for Roma origins and population history (from molecular genetic and clinical studies) in the wider ethnohistorical and linguistic context, and assesses their potential impact for an integrationist approach to Gypsy studies. These data suggest that, while the “Gypsy-lorist” paradigm is problematic, Gypsy populations share a common biological origin, a reality that should not be ignored.
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Abstract This dissertation has two goals. The first is to provide a theoretical framework for a dynamic, morphology-independent approach to stone tool assemblage systematics and to introduce a quantitative method for evaluating... more
Abstract This dissertation has two goals. The first is to provide a theoretical framework for a dynamic, morphology-independent approach to stone tool assemblage systematics and to introduce a quantitative method for evaluating relationships between assemblages based on comparisons of reduction trajectories.