Papers by Michael J . Shott
Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, May 7, 2024
Harold Dibble demonstrated the systematic effects of reduction by retouch upon the size and shape... more Harold Dibble demonstrated the systematic effects of reduction by retouch upon the size and shape of Middle Paleolithic tools. The result was the reduction thesis, with its far-reaching implications for the understanding of Middle Paleolithic assemblage variation that even now are incompletely assimilated. But Dibble's influence extended beyond the European Paleolithic. Others identified additional reduction methods and measures that complement Dibble's reduction thesis, and applied analytical concepts and methods consistent with it to industries and assemblages around the world. These developments facilitated comprehensive reduction analysis of archaeological tools and assemblages and their comparison in the abstract despite the great diversity of their time-space contexts. Dibble argued that many assemblages are time-averaged accumulations. In cases from New Zealand to North America, methods he pioneered and that others extended reveal the complex processes by which behavior, tool use, curation, and time interacted to yield those accumulations. We are coming to understand that the record is no mere collection of ethnographic vignettes, instead a body of data that requires macroarchaeological approaches. Archaeology's pending conceptual revolution in part is a legacy of Dibble's thought.
Research Square (Research Square), Dec 7, 2023
In southernmost continental Patagonia (52º S) the introduction of the bow-and-arrow is traditiona... more In southernmost continental Patagonia (52º S) the introduction of the bow-and-arrow is traditionally associated with the appearance of the small Fell V or "Ona" points around 700 years ago. Earlier and larger Fell IV or "Patagonian" points were considered spear points. Our study focuses on a ring experiment with replicas of the Fell IV points hafted onto arrows that were repeatedly red and resharpened until the end of their use-life. After each ring, surface impact (bone or meat), macrofractures, and the need for resharpening were recorded. Additionally, size measurements and plan-view photographs of each point at the beginning and end of the experiment, as well as after each resharpening, were documented to further analysis of size and shape variations. Survival-curve models were used to estimate the probability of point survival based on the number of shots and resharpenings endured. By employing landmark-based geometric morphometrics, blade-shape variations throughout replicas' use-life were compared to Fell IV and V archaeological points morphology. The experimental results exhibited the functional e ciency of Fell IV replicas used as arrowheads, with a variable but extended use-life averaging 21 shots and two resharpenings. Shape similarity is observed in the comparison of both experimental and archaeological point datasets. Therefore, an earlier adoption of bow-and-arrow technology in southernmost continental Patagonia is suggested according to experimental data and shape analysis. This technological innovation might be associated with the macroregional climate variations that affected in different ways the subsistence and settlement patterns of Patagonian human populations during the last ca. 2000 years BP.
American Antiquity
Feathers addresses the dual challenges of inferring original vessel counts from sherds and infere... more Feathers addresses the dual challenges of inferring original vessel counts from sherds and inference to use life from reconstructed vessels. His solution assumes the validity of sherd assemblages as units of observation that considerable research invalidates and overlooks methods that estimate original vessels from sherds. Feathers also doubts that use life can be inferred for reconstructed vessels. Although not a focus of my article, the larger study from which it derived addresses this matter in detail that strongly warrants vessel size as use-life measure. Of course we must be pragmatic in quantifying pottery assemblages, but first we must identify valid units of observation, and only then attend to pragmatics.
Lithic technology, Mar 1, 1996
AbstractOrdinarily we regard the litic reduction sequence as a series of stages, but it may inste... more AbstractOrdinarily we regard the litic reduction sequence as a series of stages, but it may instead be a continuum. Using the debris assemblage generated in producing a fluted biface broadly of Gainey affinity, in which each flake was numbered in order of removal, this study evaluates stage and continuous approaches as models of reduction. Stages are not evident, despite the use of several methods to identify them. Instead, a multiple regression model identifies dorsal scar count, flake weight, and plat-form width as significant predictors of removal order in the reduction continuum.
... or phases are ordered in time based on radiocarbon dates, ceramic seri-ation, and context ...... more ... or phases are ordered in time based on radiocarbon dates, ceramic seri-ation, and context ... constructed from radiocarbon dat-ing, typological cross-dating with seriated pottery assemblages, and ... Rim-height seriation also suggests earlier placement for Larson [Fishel 1995: 76 ...
Journal of Archaeological Science, Mar 1, 2019
Flake assemblages often are mixtures from knapping episodes that vary by reduction mode or stage.... more Flake assemblages often are mixtures from knapping episodes that vary by reduction mode or stage. Stahle and Dunn (1982) developed a constrained least-squares regression (CLSR) method to allocate hypothetically mixed chert assemblages to successive biface-reduction stages, a partial solution to the mixing problem. ConReg is a recently developed alternative, validated against Stahle and Dunn's and our own experimental controls from replication of obsidian biface preforms. Using both controls, we apply ConReg to the "unmixing" of flake assemblages from North American Great Basin obsidian quarries. Controls produce different solutions; their separate comparison to independent analytical results of stage composition favor ConReg used with our controls. What appeared to be relatively similar early "stage" assemblages are resolved to finer proportional allocation across wider ranges of the reduction continuum, in the process showing considerable variation between samples that otherwise might escape detection. The mixture problem is a challenge to all approaches to flake analysis, not just mass analysis, but one that ConReg can help us surmount.
Journal of Archaeological Science, Jun 1, 2016
Abstract Their abundance in the archaeological record makes assemblages of lithic debris popular ... more Abstract Their abundance in the archaeological record makes assemblages of lithic debris popular subjects of analysis. Archaeologists study them to identify both kinds and stages of reduction, using approaches that range in scale from attribute analysis to typology and size distributions. Experiments demonstrate meaningful pattern in flake assemblages by both kind and stage. Yet empirical assemblages often are mixtures of flake debris from various reduction kinds and stages. Mixing confounds the patterns often found in controlled experimental data. To address this problem, we use Stahle and Dunn's (1982) data and a similar constrained-regression method, QUADPROG in R, to allocate hypothetical mixed assemblages of biface-reduction stages to their constituent stages. In combining their Stages 2 and 3, a measure that Stahle and Dunn themselves advocated, QUADPROG improves their allocation results. Methods like these deserve further testing on a wider range of flake assemblages to address the challenge that mixing poses.
Hunter gatherer research, 2020
University of Utah Press eBooks, 2014
Nouvelles de l'archéologie, 1987
Shott Michael Joseph. Le rôle de l'université dans la recherche contractuelle aux Etats Unis ... more Shott Michael Joseph. Le rôle de l'université dans la recherche contractuelle aux Etats Unis : une réponse à David Anderson. In: Les Nouvelles de l'archéologie, n°27, printemps 1987. pp. 17-21
Lithic technology, Sep 1, 1997
Vertebrate paleobiology and paleoanthropology series, 2016
How long points last is a performance attribute just as important as how well they fly and how de... more How long points last is a performance attribute just as important as how well they fly and how deeply they penetrate targets. I analyze longevity data in a set of experimental North American Paleoindian Folsom spear-point replicas described by Hunzicker (Plains Anthropologist, 53:291–311, 2008) and previously analyzed for other purposes by Shott et al. (Lithic Technol, 32:203–217, 2007). My goal is to demonstrate the value, descriptively and analytically, of the evidence of longevity encoded in spear points and to consider how they can be estimated in archaeological assemblages. This is possible even though, unlike in experimental data, it cannot be observed or measured directly. At least dimly, results point the way toward the ability to estimate how long tools were used before they failed, how to estimate the distribution of this quantity for populations of points, and how to analyze such distributions.
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
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Papers by Michael J . Shott
Participan en este conversatorio Michael Shott (Phd. University of Michigan. Professor, Department of Anthropology University of Akron). En la actualidad lleva adelante proyectos de "Escaneo tridimensional y análisis morfométrico de artefactos líticos" y "Documentación de las transiciones culturales ocurridas durante el holoceno tardío en el registro arqueológico del Scioto Valley, (southern Ohio)". Hernán Juan Muscio (Dr. en Arqueología. UBA Investigador del CONICET. Jefe de Trabajos prácticos de Sistemas Socioculturales de América (FfyL-UBA). Actualmente dirige el proyecto PIP 11220170101033CO, "Variación estimulada y procesos de cambio en la Puna de Salta, Argentina, durante el bloque temporal ca. 8000-500 años AP. Marcelo Cardillo (Dr. en Arqueología. UBA. Investigador del CONICET. Jefe de Trabajos prácticos de Métodos Cuantitativos en Antropología (FfyL-UBA). Dirige el proyecto PICT 2018- N° 01816 “Análisis de la variabilidad métrica y morfológica en las puntas de proyectil de Fuego-Patagonia a través de estudios experimentales, morfometría geométrica y modelado estadístico”.
coarse comparison to the previous OAI records and our newly recorded sites and materials.