Lawrence H. Keeley
Lawrence H. Keeley | |
---|---|
Born | August 24, 1948 Oxford University (Ph.D., 1977) |
Thesis | An experimental study of Microwear traces on selected British Palaeolithic implements (1977) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Archaeology |
Sub-discipline | Prehistoric archaeology Experimental archaeology Lithics |
Institutions | University of Illinois Chicago |
Lawrence H. Keeley (August 24, 1948 – October 11, 2017) was an American archaeologist best known for pioneering the field of microwear analysis of lithics.[3][4] He is also known for his 1996 book, War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Keeley worked as a professor of archaeology at the University of Illinois Chicago.[1][5]
Early life
Keeley was born and raised in
Career
Keeley had a short postdoctoral appointment at
Microwear Analysis
With the use of high magnification ... one can almost always isolate the used portion of the tool and reconstruct its movement during use, as well as, in the majority of cases, determine exactly which material was being worked.
— Lawrence H. Keeley, Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses: A Microwear Analysis (1980), p.78.
Keeley's most noted contribution to the fields of Paleolithic archaeology and experimental archaeology was his development and defense of microwear analysis in the study of stone tools and hominid behavioral reconstruction.[6] Microwear analysis is one of two primary methods (the other being use-wear analysis) for identifying the functions of artifact tools. Both methods rely on examination of the smoothed down sections of blades, called "polishes," formed on the working edges of lithics. Microwear differs from use-wear because of the scale at which the analysis happens; microwear analysis is the use of microscopy to evaluate and understand these polishes.[7] Keeley is considered to be a pioneer of microwear analysis, and microwear analysis has become a vital method of archaeological research.[8][3]
The primary way that Keeley demonstrated the efficacy of microwear analysis was through the Keeley–Newcomer blind test.[5] The methodology of this test was similar to other early microwear experiments, and it consisted of attempting to correctly determine tool function from analysis of lithics made and used by a researcher. The Keeley-Newcomer test differed from prior tests though because the tools were made and used by a researcher, Mark Newcomer, independent of the archaeologist, Lawrence Keeley. Keeley took up this test as a challenge from Mark Newcomer, a lecturer at London University's Institute of Archaeology and a skeptic of microwear analysis, to demonstrate the reliability of the method.[9] Running a blind test granted their results objectivity and turned the experiment into an argument for the general use of microwear analysis in archaeological research. As a result of these original results and similar tests, microwear has enjoyed consistent use and development across the field of Paleolithic archaeology since 1977.[3][10]
Despite Keeley's successful identification of the majority of the lithics provided by Newcomer and subsequent similar blind tests by other archaeologists, Newcomer wrote critically of microwear analysis in 1986. He wrote of a series of blind tests run by London University, "there has been no convincing demonstration that anyone can consistently identify worked materials by polish type alone."[11] However, other archaeologists have defended Keeley's contribution and even criticized Newcomer's skepticism.[12][13]
Koobi Fora study
Keeley worked with
Toth later hypothesized that these flake tools were likely to have initially been created accidentally from the creation of cores but later became the desired result instead of cores. He also stated that the development of flake tools was crucial in the evolution of human intelligence, a theory that has found support even outside of archaeology.[7][18][19]
War Before Civilization
Keeley's best known work is War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage, published by the
The findings of this book have been the subject of some criticism, including a short 2014 article reprinted by Indian Country Today.[23] Keith F. Otterbein, an anthropology professor, criticized Keeley's book in American Anthropologist, explaining that Keeley was right to identify two competing theories on human nature, but that he did not capture the full scope of historical developments by disregarding the idea of peaceful prehistoric hominids. Neil L. Whitehead, another notable anthropologist and someone identified by Keeley[citation needed] as a proponent of the myth of the peaceful savage, sympathized with Otterbein but saw other ways to challenge Keeley's "peculiar view" of anthropology.[24][25]
Books
- Experimental Determination of Stone Tool Uses: A Microwear Analysis (University of Chicago Press, 1980); ISBN 978-0226428895
- War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (Oxford University Press, 1996); ISBN 978-0195091120
References
- ^ a b c "Deaths: Lawrence Keeley". November 28, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
- ^ "Lawrence H. Keeley, PhD". Retrieved May 16, 2022.
- ^ .
- ^ ISBN 9780500292105.
- ^ S2CID 199933153. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
- JSTOR 124041. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
- ^ ISSN 0036-8733.
- S2CID 84924296.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ^ Herrygers, Christa (2002). "A Comparative Analysis of Wood Residues on Experimental Stone Tools and Early Stone Age Artifacts: A Koobi Fora Case Study". McNair Scholars Journal. 6 (1).
- S2CID 4233302. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
- JSTOR 20210075.
- PMID 15605391.
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- S2CID 145519137.
- PMID 22605751.
- S2CID 146797279.
- S2CID 54030253.
- ^ Jacobs, Don / Four Arrows (2014). "The Heart of Everything That Isn't: the Untold Story of Anti-Indianism in Drury and Clavin's Book on Red Cloud". Ict News. Retrieved May 17, 2022.
- JSTOR 684206.
- JSTOR 684054.