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Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa

The Middle to Later Stone Age transition marks a major change in how Late Pleistocene African populations produced and used stone tool kits, but is manifest in various ways, places and times across the continent. Alongside changing patterns of raw material use and decreasing artefact sizes, changes...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Grove, Matt, Blinkhorn, James
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7449415/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32845899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237528
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author Grove, Matt
Blinkhorn, James
author_facet Grove, Matt
Blinkhorn, James
author_sort Grove, Matt
collection PubMed
description The Middle to Later Stone Age transition marks a major change in how Late Pleistocene African populations produced and used stone tool kits, but is manifest in various ways, places and times across the continent. Alongside changing patterns of raw material use and decreasing artefact sizes, changes in artefact types are commonly employed to differentiate Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) assemblages. The current paper employs a quantitative analytical framework based upon the use of neural networks to examine changing constellations of technologies between MSA and LSA assemblages from eastern Africa. Network ensembles were trained to differentiate LSA assemblages from Marine Isotope Stage 3&4 MSA and Marine Isotope Stage 5 MSA assemblages based upon the presence or absence of 16 technologies. Simulations were used to extract significant indicator and contra-indicator technologies for each assemblage class. The trained network ensembles classified over 94% of assemblages correctly, and identified 7 key technologies that significantly distinguish between assemblage classes. These results clarify both temporal changes within the MSA and differences between MSA and LSA assemblages in eastern Africa.
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spelling pubmed-74494152020-09-02 Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa Grove, Matt Blinkhorn, James PLoS One Research Article The Middle to Later Stone Age transition marks a major change in how Late Pleistocene African populations produced and used stone tool kits, but is manifest in various ways, places and times across the continent. Alongside changing patterns of raw material use and decreasing artefact sizes, changes in artefact types are commonly employed to differentiate Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) assemblages. The current paper employs a quantitative analytical framework based upon the use of neural networks to examine changing constellations of technologies between MSA and LSA assemblages from eastern Africa. Network ensembles were trained to differentiate LSA assemblages from Marine Isotope Stage 3&4 MSA and Marine Isotope Stage 5 MSA assemblages based upon the presence or absence of 16 technologies. Simulations were used to extract significant indicator and contra-indicator technologies for each assemblage class. The trained network ensembles classified over 94% of assemblages correctly, and identified 7 key technologies that significantly distinguish between assemblage classes. These results clarify both temporal changes within the MSA and differences between MSA and LSA assemblages in eastern Africa. Public Library of Science 2020-08-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7449415/ /pubmed/32845899 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237528 Text en © 2020 Grove, Blinkhorn http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Grove, Matt
Blinkhorn, James
Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa
title Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa
title_full Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa
title_fullStr Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa
title_full_unstemmed Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa
title_short Neural networks differentiate between Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages in eastern Africa
title_sort neural networks differentiate between middle and later stone age lithic assemblages in eastern africa
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7449415/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32845899
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237528
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