10.5061/DRYAD.CFXPNVX51
Macchi, Robin
0000-0003-1400-1621
Aix-Marseille University
Daver, Guillaume
Palevoprim
Brenet, Michel
Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives
Prat, Sandrine
National Museum of Natural History
Hugueville, Laurent
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière
Harmand, Sonia
Stony Brook University
Lewis, Jason
Stony Brook University
Domalain, Mathieu
Institut Pprime
Raw data for: Biomechanical demands of percussive techniques in the
context of early stone toolmaking
Dryad
dataset
2021
2021-05-06T00:00:00Z
2021-05-06T00:00:00Z
en
223842686 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Recent discoveries in archaeology and palaeoanthropology highlight that
stone stool knapping could have emerged first within the genera
Australopithecus or Kenyanthropus rather than Homo. To explore the
implications of this hypothesis determining the physical demands and
motor control needed for performing the percussive movements during the
oldest stone toolmaking technology (i.e. Lomekwian) would help. We
analysed the joint-angle patterns and muscle activity of a knapping expert
using three stone tool replication techniques: unipolar flaking on passive
hammer (PH), bipolar flaking on anvil (BP), multidirectional and
multifacial flaking with free hand (FH). PH presents high levels of
activity for Biceps brachii and the wrist extensors and flexors. By
contrast, BP and FH are characterised by high solicitation of forearm
pronation. The synergy analyses depict a high muscular and kinematic
coordination. Whereas the muscle pattern is very close between the
techniques, kinematic pattern is more variable, especially for PH. FH
displays better muscle coordination and conversely lesser joint-angle
coordination. These observations suggest that the transition from anvil
and hammer to freehand knapping techniques in early hominins have been
made possible by the acquisition of a behavioural repertoire producing an
evolutionary advantage that gradually would have been beneficial for stone
tool production.
The dataset was collected at the University of Poitiers (PPrime Institute)
and has been accepted for publication in the Journal of the Royal Society
Interface.
Please find attached the raw EMG and kinematic data for each trial of each
technique. In addtion, there are the 5th metacarpal bone marker (R_MC1)
files to detect each strike cycle. The readme file contains an explanation
of each dataset and how to process them with the matlab codes avaible from
this link : https://github.com/mdomalai/BiomechStoneToolmaking_RSI.