Costs and benefits in technological decision making under variable conditions: examples from the late Pleistocene in southern Africa

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dc.contributor.authorMackay, Alexander
dc.contributor.authorMarwick, Benjamin
dc.contributor.editorBen Marwick amd Alex Mackay
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-10T22:28:47Z
dc.date.issued2011
dc.date.updated2020-12-27T07:42:26Z
dc.description.abstractThe issue of technological time costs as applied to the manufacture of flaked stone artefacts is considered. Assuming a positive correlation exists between technological cost and improvements in resource capture, it is shown that the viability of costly technologies is constrained by the abundance of resources in a landscape such that more costly technologies would be likely to be pursued in resource-poor landscapes. This outcome mirrors the results of past assessments of ethnographic data concerning the relationship between subsistence risk and technological complexity. These hypothetical and ethnographic models are then compared to archaeological changes in technological costs at three sites occupied through the late Pleistocene in southern Africa. It is shown that while there is agreement in some respects, there are also times where archaeological outcomes differ dramatically from expectations. The results are taken to suggest that while costly technologies are generally pursued under conditions of increasing global cold, peak cold conditions at the height of Marine Isotope Stages 4 and 2 encouraged a reversion to least-cost technological systems. This may reflect a switch in the focus of optimisation from resource return rates to maximisation of early resource acquisition and/or maximisation of number of subsistence encounters.
dc.identifier.isbn9781407308470
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/54605
dc.publisherArchaeopress
dc.relation.ispartofKeeping your Edge: Recent Approaches to the Organisation of Stone Artefact Technology
dc.relation.isversionof1st Edition
dc.titleCosts and benefits in technological decision making under variable conditions: examples from the late Pleistocene in southern Africa
dc.typeBook chapter
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage134
local.bibliographicCitation.placeofpublicationOxford
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage119
local.contributor.affiliationMackay, Alexander, College of Arts and Social Sciences, ANU
local.contributor.affiliationMarwick, Benjamin, University of Washington
local.contributor.authoremailrepository.admin@anu.edu.au
local.contributor.authoruidMackay, Alexander, u4035705
local.description.embargo2037-12-31
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.identifier.absfor210102 - Archaeological Science
local.identifier.absseo970121 - Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology
local.identifier.ariespublicationu8304786xPUB305
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByu8304786
local.type.statusPublished Version

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