Benjamin J Schoville
Biographic Data
| ID | 635277 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin J Schoville |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin J |
| FAMILY NAME | Schoville |
| SIGNATURE | SCHOVILLE B J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cape Town |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0124-7959 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 187 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
The Marine Isotope Stage 5 (∼105 ka) lithic assemblage from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter and insights into social transmission across the Kalahari Basin and its environs
The social transmission of cultural information is widely acknowledged as a key factor in the survival of our species. This paper explores lithic technological systems to assess the presence and extent of cultural information transmission between early human groups in the Kalahari Basin and its environs during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 (∼130-74 ka). This period is crucial for understanding the development and expansion of complex behaviors in …
Did climate change make Homo sapiens innovative, and if yes, how? Debated perspectives on the African Pleistocene record
Our enhanced capacity to innovate is a key feature that sets Homo sapiens apart as a species. The Middle Stone Age archaeological record of Pleistocene Africa documents the emergence and elaboration of this capacity, and its relationship to changes in past climate and environments. However, the models and interpretations developed to understand the relationship between early Homo sapiens’ innovativeness and climate change are varied and often con…
Function, Style, and Standardization: Is the Proximal or Distal End of a Middle Stone Age Point More Variable
Middle Stone Age (MSA) point styles may reflect the development of regional identities of human social groups. MSA people likely used these points for various functions including as weapon tips. Recent work in cultural evolution suggests that functional aspects of technology tend to be more standardized and subject to negative selective pressures, while stylistic aspects are highly visible and tend to be more variable. This study examines the pat…
Holding your shape: Controlled tip fracture experiments on cast porcelain points
The Drone, the Snake, and the Crystal: Manifesting Potency in 3D Digital Replicas of Living Heritage and Archaeological Places
Creating and sharing 3D digital replicas of archaeological sites online has become increasingly common. They are being integrated in excavation workflows, used to foster public engagement with the site, and provide communication and outreach of research, which now happen on digital media platforms. However, there has been little introspection by the community involved in the 3D documentation field, which has resulted in problematic practices. We …
A Lithic Provisioning Model as a Proxy for Landscape Mobility in the Southern and Middle Kalahari
Exploring variability in lithic armature discard in the archaeological record
Fabric Analysis and Chronology at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, Southern Kalahari Basin: Evidence for In Situ, Stratified Middle and Later Stone Age Deposits
A quantitative analysis of wear distributions on Middle Stone Age marine shell beads from Blombos Cave, South Africa
Experimental lithic tool displacement due to long-term animal disturbance
The performance of heat-treated silcrete backed pieces in actualistic and controlled complex projectile experiments
Edge Damage on 500-Thousand-Year-Old Spear Tips from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: The Combined Effects of Spear Use and Taphonomic Processes
Landscape variability in tool-use and edge damage formation in South African Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages
This study explores how early modern humans used stone tool technology to adapt to changing climates and coastlines in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. The MSA is associated with the earliest fossil evidence for modern humans and complex cultural behaviors during a time period of dramatic climate change. Human culture allows for the creation, use, and transmission of technological knowledge that can evolve with changing environmental conditi…
A Middle Stone Age Paleoscape near the Pinnacle Point caves, Vleesbaai, South Africa
Kathu Pan 1 points and the assemblage-scale, probabilistic approach: A response to Rots and Plisson, “Projectiles and the abuse of the use-wear method in a search for impact”
A model of hunter-gatherer skeletal element transport: The effect of prey body size, carriers, and distance
Zooarchaeologists frequently use the relative abundance of skeletal elements in faunal assemblages in conjunction with foraging theory models to infer subsistence decisions made by prehistoric hunter-gatherers. However, foraging models applied to ethnoarchaeological cases have had variable success linking skeletal transport decisions with foraging predictions. Here, we approach this issue with the well-known Hadza data to statistically model the …
Testing a taphonomic predictive model of edge damage formation with Middle Stone Age points from Pinnacle Point Cave 13B and Die Kelders Cave 1, South Africa
An early and enduring advanced technology originating 71,000 years ago in South Africa
Frequency and distribution of edge damage on Middle Stone Age lithic points, Pinnacle Point 13B, South Africa
Frequency and distribution of edge damage on Middle Stone Age lithic points, Pinnacle Point 13B, South Africa
A model of hunter-gatherer skeletal element transport: The effect of prey body size, carriers, and distance
Zooarchaeologists frequently use the relative abundance of skeletal elements in faunal assemblages in conjunction with foraging theory models to infer subsistence decisions made by prehistoric hunter-gatherers. However, foraging models applied to ethnoarchaeological cases have had variable success linking skeletal transport decisions with foraging predictions. Here, we approach this issue with the well-known Hadza data to statistically model the …
The performance of heat-treated silcrete backed pieces in actualistic and controlled complex projectile experiments
A Lithic Provisioning Model as a Proxy for Landscape Mobility in the Southern and Middle Kalahari
Testing a taphonomic predictive model of edge damage formation with Middle Stone Age points from Pinnacle Point Cave 13B and Die Kelders Cave 1, South Africa
Exploring variability in lithic armature discard in the archaeological record
Fabric Analysis and Chronology at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, Southern Kalahari Basin: Evidence for In Situ, Stratified Middle and Later Stone Age Deposits
Kathu Pan 1 points and the assemblage-scale, probabilistic approach: A response to Rots and Plisson, “Projectiles and the abuse of the use-wear method in a search for impact”
Experimental lithic tool displacement due to long-term animal disturbance
A quantitative analysis of wear distributions on Middle Stone Age marine shell beads from Blombos Cave, South Africa
Holding your shape: Controlled tip fracture experiments on cast porcelain points
Function, Style, and Standardization: Is the Proximal or Distal End of a Middle Stone Age Point More Variable
Middle Stone Age (MSA) point styles may reflect the development of regional identities of human social groups. MSA people likely used these points for various functions including as weapon tips. Recent work in cultural evolution suggests that functional aspects of technology tend to be more standardized and subject to negative selective pressures, while stylistic aspects are highly visible and tend to be more variable. This study examines the pat…
The Drone, the Snake, and the Crystal: Manifesting Potency in 3D Digital Replicas of Living Heritage and Archaeological Places
Creating and sharing 3D digital replicas of archaeological sites online has become increasingly common. They are being integrated in excavation workflows, used to foster public engagement with the site, and provide communication and outreach of research, which now happen on digital media platforms. However, there has been little introspection by the community involved in the 3D documentation field, which has resulted in problematic practices. We …
Landscape variability in tool-use and edge damage formation in South African Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages
This study explores how early modern humans used stone tool technology to adapt to changing climates and coastlines in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. The MSA is associated with the earliest fossil evidence for modern humans and complex cultural behaviors during a time period of dramatic climate change. Human culture allows for the creation, use, and transmission of technological knowledge that can evolve with changing environmental conditi…
Frequency and distribution of edge damage on Middle Stone Age lithic points, Pinnacle Point 13B, South Africa
An early and enduring advanced technology originating 71,000 years ago in South Africa
Testing a taphonomic predictive model of edge damage formation with Middle Stone Age points from Pinnacle Point Cave 13B and Die Kelders Cave 1, South Africa
A Middle Stone Age Paleoscape near the Pinnacle Point caves, Vleesbaai, South Africa
Kathu Pan 1 points and the assemblage-scale, probabilistic approach: A response to Rots and Plisson, “Projectiles and the abuse of the use-wear method in a search for impact”
A model of hunter-gatherer skeletal element transport: The effect of prey body size, carriers, and distance
Zooarchaeologists frequently use the relative abundance of skeletal elements in faunal assemblages in conjunction with foraging theory models to infer subsistence decisions made by prehistoric hunter-gatherers. However, foraging models applied to ethnoarchaeological cases have had variable success linking skeletal transport decisions with foraging predictions. Here, we approach this issue with the well-known Hadza data to statistically model the …
Edge Damage on 500-Thousand-Year-Old Spear Tips from Kathu Pan 1, South Africa: The Combined Effects of Spear Use and Taphonomic Processes
Landscape variability in tool-use and edge damage formation in South African Middle Stone Age lithic assemblages
This study explores how early modern humans used stone tool technology to adapt to changing climates and coastlines in the Middle Stone Age of South Africa. The MSA is associated with the earliest fossil evidence for modern humans and complex cultural behaviors during a time period of dramatic climate change. Human culture allows for the creation, use, and transmission of technological knowledge that can evolve with changing environmental conditi…
The performance of heat-treated silcrete backed pieces in actualistic and controlled complex projectile experiments
A quantitative analysis of wear distributions on Middle Stone Age marine shell beads from Blombos Cave, South Africa
Experimental lithic tool displacement due to long-term animal disturbance
Fabric Analysis and Chronology at Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, Southern Kalahari Basin: Evidence for In Situ, Stratified Middle and Later Stone Age Deposits
A Lithic Provisioning Model as a Proxy for Landscape Mobility in the Southern and Middle Kalahari
Exploring variability in lithic armature discard in the archaeological record
Holding your shape: Controlled tip fracture experiments on cast porcelain points
The Drone, the Snake, and the Crystal: Manifesting Potency in 3D Digital Replicas of Living Heritage and Archaeological Places
Creating and sharing 3D digital replicas of archaeological sites online has become increasingly common. They are being integrated in excavation workflows, used to foster public engagement with the site, and provide communication and outreach of research, which now happen on digital media platforms. However, there has been little introspection by the community involved in the 3D documentation field, which has resulted in problematic practices. We …
Function, Style, and Standardization: Is the Proximal or Distal End of a Middle Stone Age Point More Variable
Middle Stone Age (MSA) point styles may reflect the development of regional identities of human social groups. MSA people likely used these points for various functions including as weapon tips. Recent work in cultural evolution suggests that functional aspects of technology tend to be more standardized and subject to negative selective pressures, while stylistic aspects are highly visible and tend to be more variable. This study examines the pat…
Did climate change make Homo sapiens innovative, and if yes, how? Debated perspectives on the African Pleistocene record
Our enhanced capacity to innovate is a key feature that sets Homo sapiens apart as a species. The Middle Stone Age archaeological record of Pleistocene Africa documents the emergence and elaboration of this capacity, and its relationship to changes in past climate and environments. However, the models and interpretations developed to understand the relationship between early Homo sapiens’ innovativeness and climate change are varied and often con…
The Marine Isotope Stage 5 (∼105 ka) lithic assemblage from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter and insights into social transmission across the Kalahari Basin and its environs
The social transmission of cultural information is widely acknowledged as a key factor in the survival of our species. This paper explores lithic technological systems to assess the presence and extent of cultural information transmission between early human groups in the Kalahari Basin and its environs during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 (∼130-74 ka). This period is crucial for understanding the development and expansion of complex behaviors in …
Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (18 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (15 works) · Archaeology (14 works) · Geography (14 works) · Geology (13 works) · Paleontology (13 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (9 works) · Middle Stone Age (7 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works)