Research compendium for "Unravelling technological behaviors through core reduction intensity. The case of the early Protoaurignacian assemblage from Fumane Cave."

Research compendium for 'Unravelling technological behaviors through core reduction intensity. The case of the early Protoaurignacian assemblage from Fumane Cave' Abstract: This paper investigates core reduction intensity in the early Protoaurignacian lithic assemblage from Fumane Cave in northeastern Italy. Here, reduction intensity was used as a means to characterize blank selection strategies and raw material management, explore the variability of knapping strategies throughout the reduction sequence by reconstructing the operatory field of core assemblages, and finally address the relationship between blades and bladelets. The latter aspect was particularly important to gain insights into the behavioral and chrono-cultural significance of laminar productions in the framework of the Aurignacian technocomplex. In order to meet these goals, experimental work was conducted thanks to 3D scanning technology to compare different methods and variables for measuring reduction intensity, including the percentage of non-cortical surface, the Scar Density Index (SDI), and a novel adaptation of the Volumetric Reconstruction Method (VRM). Results demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of adapting VRM for studying reduction intensity in Upper Paleolithic laminar cores, and the provided R scripts and datasets will enable this method to be applied to other contexts with little or no modification of the workflow. The reduction intensity measures applied to the Protoaurignacian assemblage from Fumane Cave reveal slight variations depending on the abundance and proximity of available raw materials selected for blank production. Not surprisingly, the most abundant raw material variety – the Maiolica – has the largest number of less reduced cores, although reduction is fairly high across all cores discarded at the site. The observed variability in the operatory field and the interrelation between blade and bladelet productions underscore the complexity and flexibility of Protoaurignacian human behavior, which also complicate a definitive separation between the operatory fields of blade and bladelet productions. These findings are particularly important to emphasize the importance of considering reduction intensity when examining technological variability and human behavior in Aurignacian studies. We hope that the proposed adaptation of the VRM and the effective combination with other measures of reduction will allow future studies to rightfully incorporate reduction intensity as a temporal component in studies on stone tool production to enhance our understanding of the adaptive behaviors of Homo sapiens in diverse ecological settings and better frame the development of the Upper Paleolithic. Keywords: Protoaurignacian; Lithic Technology; Reduction Intensity; Cores; VRM; Experimental Archaeology; Fumane Cave Overview of contents and how to reproduce: This repository contains the codes and datasets for reproducing the results of the experimental (`1_Experimental_Results`) and archaeological (`2_Archaeological_Results`) analyses. Readers can start their own analyses by using the R Markdown files and the datasets. Please, download the complete repository and reproduce the results using `Reduction_Intensity_Protoaurignacian.Rproj` and opening the two folders.This repository also contains the 3D models of the cores "3D Experimental cores" and the supplementary tables (Supplementary Material.pdf") used in this research.《基于石核剥片强度解析技术行为：以意大利东北部富马内洞穴早期普托奥里尼亚克文化（Protoaurignacian）石制品组合为例》配套研究数据集 摘要：本研究聚焦意大利东北部富马内洞穴出土的早期普托奥里尼亚克文化石制品组合中的石核剥片强度。本次研究以剥片强度为切入点，用以刻画坯料选择策略与原材料管理模式，通过重建石核组合的作业场域，探究剥片序列中打制策略的变异性，并最终分析石片与细石叶之间的关联。后者对于理解奥瑞纳技术复合体（Aurignacian technocomplex）框架下片状石制品生产的行为与年代文化意义尤为关键。为达成上述研究目标，本研究借助3D扫描技术开展实验，对比了多种用于测算剥片强度的方法与变量，包括非皮质面占比、疤痕密度指数（Scar Density Index, SDI）以及经全新改良的体积重建法（Volumetric Reconstruction Method, VRM）。研究结果证实了改良后的VRM用于旧石器时代晚期（Upper Paleolithic）片状石核剥片强度研究的有效性与应用潜力；本研究提供的R脚本与数据集可使该方法无需或仅需少量调整工作流程，即可应用于其他考古场景。针对富马内洞穴普托奥里尼亚克文化石制品组合的剥片强度测算结果显示，其变异性细微，取决于用于坯料生产的可获取原材料的丰度与就近程度。不出所料，占比最高的原材料品类——马约利卡陶（Maiolica）——对应的未充分剥片石核数量最多，尽管遗址中废弃的所有石核的剥片程度整体偏高。作业场域中观测到的变异性以及石片与细石叶生产的关联性，凸显了普托奥里尼亚克文化人类行为的复杂性与灵活性，这也使得石片与细石叶生产的作业场域难以明确区分。上述研究结果尤为重要，它强调了在奥瑞纳文化研究中考察技术变异性与人类行为时，纳入剥片强度考量的必要性。我们期望本次提出的VRM改良方案，以及其与其他剥片强度测算方法的有效结合，能够让未来的石器生产研究顺理成章地将剥片强度作为时间维度要素纳入考量，从而加深我们对智人（Homo sapiens）在多样生态环境中的适应行为的理解，并更清晰地阐释旧石器时代晚期的发展脉络。 关键词：普托奥里尼亚克文化（Protoaurignacian）；石制技术；剥片强度；石核；体积重建法（VRM）；实验考古学；富马内洞穴 内容概览与结果复现方法：本仓库包含用于复现实验分析（`1_Experimental_Results`）与考古学分析（`2_Archaeological_Results`）结果的代码与数据集。研究者可通过R Markdown文件与本数据集开展自主分析。请下载完整仓库，使用`Reduction_Intensity_Protoaurignacian.Rproj`并打开两个文件夹以复现研究结果。本仓库同时包含本次研究所用的石核3D模型（文件夹“3D Experimental cores”）以及本次研究的补充表格（Supplementary Material.pdf）。