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<p>Examining technical skill in the production of large cutting tools (i.e., handaxes and cleavers) has provided valuable insight into the sources of technological and morphological variation observed in Acheulian lithic assemblages. Yet differentiating artefacts according to levels of skilled performance remains challenging and hinders our ability to study the representation of knapping competencies in the archaeological record. Here, we employ multinomial logistic regression with elastic net regularization to identify expert-made handaxes from Amanzi Springs, where these tools are largely characterized by production mishaps and amorphous forms. We use replica handaxes produced by a modern, master knapper as a reference for craft expertise, by which the classification probabilities of archaeological handaxes are compared. Our results find five handaxes from Amanzi Springs that were likely produced by expert knappers during the Middle Pleistocene, which supports the use of this statistical method towards investigating questions of classification in archaeological research.</p>

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Identifying Expert-Made Handaxes from the Amanzi Springs Acheulian Site (South Africa) Using Elastic Net Multinomial Logistic Regression

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月14日

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  • Matthew V. Caruana,
  • Coen G. Wilson

摘要

Examining technical skill in the production of large cutting tools (i.e., handaxes and cleavers) has provided valuable insight into the sources of technological and morphological variation observed in Acheulian lithic assemblages. Yet differentiating artefacts according to levels of skilled performance remains challenging and hinders our ability to study the representation of knapping competencies in the archaeological record. Here, we employ multinomial logistic regression with elastic net regularization to identify expert-made handaxes from Amanzi Springs, where these tools are largely characterized by production mishaps and amorphous forms. We use replica handaxes produced by a modern, master knapper as a reference for craft expertise, by which the classification probabilities of archaeological handaxes are compared. Our results find five handaxes from Amanzi Springs that were likely produced by expert knappers during the Middle Pleistocene, which supports the use of this statistical method towards investigating questions of classification in archaeological research.