Process or planning: depicting and understanding the variability in Australian core reduction (original) (raw)

2006

Abstract

Normative depictions of reduction created by unquantified studies of core classifi cations often lead analysts to infer rigid, linear sequences. Normative depictions of core reduction enable, perhaps even encourage, some researchers to believe that they are observing design. This proposition is evaluated using quantitative measurements of refi tted sequences of core reduction from the Gulf of Carpentaria. The results demonstrate that cores were discarded at similar sizes and shapes even though they began the reduction process in radically different states, and conversely, cobbles of similar sizes and shapes produced distinctly different discarded cores. The inability to predict outcomes in any simple way is a product of the contingency of the complex process of knapping. The existence of situationally-determined (or evoked) shifts in knapping behaviour and artefact morphology may confound inferences about all phases of the manufacturing process based on a simple analysis of end products. This conclusion emphasises the importance of not only studying process rather than static discard products, but also the need to examine the nature and magnitude of variation in reduction rather than developing normative depictions of knapping processes with the presumption that core morphologies reflect predetermined plans in some simple way.

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