Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Lithic projectile armatures represent a significant innovation over thrusted spears in the subsistence strategies of hominins. Previous researchers have disagreed over the timing of the appearance of projectile weapons in the archaeological record (Brooks 2006; Shea 2006). To discover when projectile technology first appears in the Levant, I have compared tip cross-sectional areas, weights, and tip penetrating angles (three variables useful for discriminating between projectile and thrusting weapons) of pointed Blades, Levallois points, and Mousterian points with analogs from known and suspected chipped stone projectile points. Results indicate that pointed Blades from Tabun and Skhul caves are statistically indistinguishable from other suspected projectile point types. Levallois and Mousterian points from Tabun and Skhul are also statistically indistinguishable from suspected projectile types when the lower halves of the populations are compared. Consequently, I conclude that points from Tabun and Skhul caves fall within the known and suspected range of variation of projectile point morphology.

Extent

xi, 114 p. : ill.

Comments

by David E. Leslie.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.|Includes bibliography.|Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.|by David E. Leslie.

Identifier

FADT172670

Format

pdf

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