3D Cut Marks and the Evolution of Human Hunting and Butchery Clarence E. Dammon Dean Academic Year 2022 Accepted Anthropology, Archaeology, Human Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Statistics, Computer Science. Studies of bone-surface marks resulting from sharp-force trauma are crucial to inquiries regarding human evolutionary biology and ecology, the colonization of the Americas and modern forensics. Investigation efforts largely rely on surface morphology in order to securely identify cutmarks and their patterning, differentiating these from non-human-behavioral processes, and identify the objects responsible for making the marks. Currently a variety of criteria, proxies and technologies are employed to accomplish these goals. These range from subjective characterization of cutmark morphology by the naked eye to the use of high-powered microscopy such as Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM). By and large, however, these approaches suffer from two major weaknesses: 1) subjective identification of cutmarks via naked eye or microscopy can be questionable, and are difficult to replicate, quantify, and statistically describe, and 2) the more quantitative approaches do not use the complete three-dimensional surface to make statistical comparisons and inference. As a result, cutmark identification has remained at the fringes of quantitative science over several decades (c.f. Daubert standards). This project focuses on statistical identification of 3D stone-tool generated cutmarks and other non-butchery related marks on bone. Our purpose is to discriminate morphologies of the different types of marks with statistical confidence. Erik Otarola-Castillo : Under instructor supervision, interns will analyze the morphology of available marks in 3D. Moreover we will search for ambiguous cases in the archaeological/paleoanthropological literature that warrant further investigation. Interns will learn the basics of 3D-scanning of objects, various data manipulation techniques and use the R-programming language including coding functions, routines, and documentation. Interns will also aid in preparation of Powerpoint presentations and data entry, management and analysis. Following initial work, interns will also have the opportunity to contribute to writing of manuscripts for publication and presentation at international professional conferences. http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~eotarola/ Candidates should possess a demonstrated interest and skill in two or more of the following: Anthropology, Archaeology, Human Evolutionary Biology/Ecology, Statistics, Computer Science. Interested student must have knowledge of library research procedures (e.g., and inter library loans) and good computer skills. Desired software knowledge includes ArcGIS, Excel, and Access. Optional and highly recommended Computing language skills include R and/or Matlab. 3 10 (estimated)

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