Anthony Sinclair | University of Liverpool (original) (raw)

Papers by Anthony Sinclair

Landscapes of Human Evolution

A citation analysis of the discipline of evolutionary anthropology and its subfield Palaeolithic ... more A citation analysis of the discipline of evolutionary anthropology and its subfield Palaeolithic Archaeology, with a final ego-based citation analysis of the published research of John Gowlett

The land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula is one of the major routes proposed for hominin dis... more The land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula is one of the major routes proposed for hominin dispersal out of Africa for both Homo erectus and H. sapiens populations, and its neighbouring regions are, therefore, key to understanding these dispersals. Directly adjacent to the land bridge, the Saudi Arabian northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba coastlines have, until now, been subject to only rapid survey for Palaeolithic archaeology in the 1970s-80s, locating a handful of Palaeolithic artefacts. A twelve-day reconnaissance survey was undertaken by a Saudi-UK team along the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba coast in February 2018 for Palaeolithic artefacts, the results of which are presented in this paper. Thirty-four locations were surveyed, across a range of landscape settings, the majority yielding Acheulean and prepared-core technology lithic artefacts, traditionally ascribed to Homo erectus and H. sapiens populations in Arabia respectively. These observations, while descriptive an...

Hominid Individual in Context, 2005

Sinclair, Anthony and McNabb, John (2005) All in a day's work: Middle Pleistocene individual... more Sinclair, Anthony and McNabb, John (2005) All in a day's work: Middle Pleistocene individuals, materiality and the lifespace at Makapansgat, South Africa. In, Gamble, Clive and Porr, Martin (eds.) The Individual hominid in context : archaeological investigations of ...

Routledge eBooks, Sep 16, 2003

McNabb, John, Sinclair, Anthony and Quinney, Patrick (2003) Recent Investigations into the Later ... more McNabb, John, Sinclair, Anthony and Quinney, Patrick (2003) Recent Investigations into the Later Acheulean of Makapansgat Region, Northern Province, South Africa. In, Moloney, Norah and Shott, Michael J. (eds.) Lithic Analysis at the Millennium. London, UK, Institute of ...

In Palaeolithic research, art is often seen to address meaning and identity whilst craft (usually... more In Palaeolithic research, art is often seen to address meaning and identity whilst craft (usually stone tools) responds to function and planning. We argue, however, that specialists can benefit by dropping this distinction. Using examples from ethnography and experiment we shall show that craft was also rich with meaning in the Pleistocene. There are parallels in the way materials are handled and transformed, the way individuals learn techniques and pass them on, in which expertise is supported at a community level, and in the symbolic and linguistic cultural elements that underpin these activities.

Geoarchaeology, 2019

Surface artefacts dominate the archaeological record of arid landscapes, particularly the Saharo-... more Surface artefacts dominate the archaeological record of arid landscapes, particularly the Saharo-Arabian belt, a pivotal region in dispersals out of Africa. Discarded by hominins, these artefacts are key to understanding past landscape use and dispersals, yet behavioural interpretation of present-day artefact distributions cannot be carried out without understanding how geomorphological processes have controlled, and continue to control, artefact preservation, exposure and visibility at multiple scales. We employ a geoarchaeological approach to unravelling the formation of a surface assemblage of 2,970 Early and Middle Stone Age lithic artefacts at Wadi Dabsa, Saudi Arabia, the richest locality recorded to date in the southwestern Red Sea coastal region. Wadi Dabsa basin, within the volcanic Harrat Al Birk, contains extensive tufa deposits formed during wetter conditions. We employ regional landscape mapping and automatic classification of surface conditions using satellite imagery, field observations, local landform mapping, archaeological survey, excavation, and sedimentological analyses to develop a multi-scalar model of landscape evolution and geomorphological controls acting on artefact distributions in the basin. The main artefact assemblage is identified as a palimpsest of activity, actively forming on a deflating surface, a model with significant implications for future study and interpretation of this, and other, artefact surface assemblages.

Antiquity, 2017

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, ... more The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

Internet Archaeology, 2016

An exponential growth in research outputs, the great diversity of sources used, and the number of... more An exponential growth in research outputs, the great diversity of sources used, and the number of active researchers in archaeology make it impossible for any individual to present an overview of the discipline using reading and narrative alone. It is suggested that archaeologists might instead take a lead from scientometric studies and develop visualisations of their discipline as a research domain using data extracted from the citation indices. Three visualisations of the intellectual base of archaeology are presented, in the form of network maps of sources used, authors and terms. These maps, with their clustering of nodes, reveal the extreme multidisciplinary nature of archaeological research, patterns of overlapping and divergent communication networks among archaeological researchers, and the language and conceptual knowledge of archaeology. They also show marked variation in the gendered structure of academic reputations as created through citation practices across a series of specialisms of archaeology. Finally, these maps also suggest that archaeology as a discipline might be characterised by a process of fractal division into subgroups of practitioners following distinct but repeated forms of engagement in their archaeological enquiry

Antiquity, 1998

Trawling through old, dust-covered folders I found out that I first read ‘Archaeology: the loss o... more Trawling through old, dust-covered folders I found out that I first read ‘Archaeology: the loss of innocence’ as a 2nd-year undergraduate for an essay on whether the New Archaeology was as theoretically sophisticated as it claimed to be. My notes of the time emphasize the beginning and end of the article; suggesting that Clarke’s purpose was just to argue that 1 there had been a sea-change in the nature of archaeology leading to the development of a critically self-conscious entity in the New Archaeology; and 2 to discuss what a general theory of archaeology might look like.

Prehistoire Art Et Societes Bulletin De La Societe Prehistorique De L Ariege, 2010

The Archaeology of Value Essays on Prestige and the Processes of Valuation 1998 Isbn 0860549631 Pags 10 16, 1998

We commonly assume that Palaeolithic individuals were skilled in a range of craft activities to a... more We commonly assume that Palaeolithic individuals were skilled in a range of craft activities to a level at which they were effectively self-sufficient. These skills were acquired through observation of others and perhaps some form of ad-hoc demonstration or tuition. Archaeological evidence from the Upper Palaeolithic, however, indicates the presence of people capable of remarkable levels of expert performance in lithic technology, and perhaps a range of other activities (textile manufacture, ceramics, and sculpture). Such expertise suggests that we might be looking at craft specialists. This is not a threshold change, however; craft specialism appears and disappears. Contemporary research on experts and expert performance emphasises the requirement for the investment of considerable time in deliberate practice, the need for social support from family or local group to facilitate this practice, and the need for other experts as tutors from which to learn and progress. Research on hum...

It is common for most introductory textbooks to begin by defining the nature of Archaeology; usua... more It is common for most introductory textbooks to begin by defining the nature of Archaeology; usually as a study of the human past based on an analysis of those material remains that have survived into the present. These definitions are necessary as a starting point, but if one wants to look at the shape of a discipline more detail is required. We could create sub-definitions of archaeology based on period (Historical Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology) or place (Latin American Archaeology) or method (Field Archaeology, Osteoarchaeology). Another approach, however, would be to start from recent archaeological publications themselves and see what is included. The development of the citation indices of publications with information on authors, titles, abstracts, sources and the citations they make to other documents has made it possible to map the current focus of study in any one period and to explore the links between areas of work. These maps can also reveal the breadth of approac...