relative importance of modularity and other morphological attributes on different types of lithic point weapons assessing functional variations模块化和其他形态属性的相对重要性在不同类型的岩屑点武器评估功能的变化.pdfVIP

Relative Importance of Modularity and Other Morphological Attributes on Different Types of Lithic Point Weapons: Assessing Functional Variations ´ ´ 1 2 Rolando Gonzalez-Jose *, Judith Charlin ´ ´ ´ ´ 1 Unidad de Investigacion en Diversidad, Sistematica y Evolucion. Centro Nacional Patagonico-CONICET, Puerto Madryn. Argentina, 2 Instituto Multidisciplinario de ´ Historia y Ciencias Humanas-CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina Abstract The specific using of different prehistoric weapons is mainly determined by its physical properties, which provide a relative advantage or disadvantage to perform a given, particular function. Since these physical properties are integrated to accomplish that function, examining design variables and their pattern of integration or modularity is of interest to estimate the past function of a point. Here we analyze a composite sample of lithic points from southern Patagonia likely formed by arrows, thrown spears and hand-held points to test if they can be viewed as a two-module system formed by the blade and the stem, and to evaluate the degree in which shape, size, asymmetry, blade: stem length ratio, and tip angle explain the observed variance and differentiation among points supposedly aimed to accomplish different functions. To do so we performed a geometric morphometric analysis on 118 lithic points, departing from 24 two-dimensional landmark and semi landmarks placed on the point’s contour. Klingenberg’s covariational modularity tests were used to evaluate different modularity hypotheses, and a composite PCA including shape, size,