Edge damage on 500-thousand-year-old spear tips from kathu pan 1, South Africa: The combined effects of spear use and taphonomic processes

Abstract

This paper explores the effect of taphonomic processes on 500-thousand-year-old stone points from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa by statistically comparing archaeological edge damage distributions on the points to competing models of edge damage formation. We found that both taphonomic and behavioral processes influenced edge damage formation on the KP1 points, and the KP1 edge damage distribution is best explained by a combination of taphonomic effects and use as spear tips. The edge damage distribution method employed here advances studies of Stone Age weaponry because it can be used to quantitatively assess the effect of taphonomic and behavioral processes on stone tips without relying on subjective evaluations that attribute causation to individual wear features.