Conference Presentations by Jessica McNeil
Poster presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology
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Papers by Jessica McNeil
PaleoAnthropology, 2019
The open-air archaeology of southern Africa is extremely rich, yet has been only modestly influen... more The open-air archaeology of southern Africa is extremely rich, yet has been only modestly influential in constructions of Late Pleistocene human behavior. Here we report on two seasons of work conducted as part of the Doring River Archaeology Project, which aims to reveal patterns of human land use and technological decision-making from the Earlier Stone Age through to the appearance of herders in southern Africa’s semi-arid interior. Across those two seasons we have mapped and analyzed more than 20,000 cores and tools across six open-air localities, with the small sample of available ages suggesting the accumulation of archaeologically-rich sediment bodies along the Doring River extends back to at least 200,000 years. Our results suggest clustering of artifacts at multiple temporal and spatial scales, from individual knapping events to aggregates of hundreds of bifacial tools. All known phases of the archaeological record appear to be represented in these assemblages, and previously documented contrasts between occupational patterns in the region’s open-air and rock shelter localities is reinforced. These data confirm the critical importance of incorporating open-air data into depictions of the human past in studies of the African Paleolithic.
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by Christopher Clarkson, Ben Marwick, Richard L K Fullagar, Elspeth (Ebbe) Hayes, Kelsey Lowe, S. Anna Florin, Jessica McNeil, Tiina Manne, Kate Connell, Kasih Norman, Colin Pardoe, and Andrew Fairbairn The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates a... more The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans
first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans
and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we
report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary
depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated
by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000
years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and
ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal
of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
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Non-refereed publications / book reviews by Jessica McNeil
Evolutionary Anthropology, 2019
The workshop "Comparative Analysis of Middle Stone Age Artefacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica)" aimed to... more The workshop "Comparative Analysis of Middle Stone Age Artefacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica)" aimed to reflect upon a common and replicable analytical framework, as well as proposing concrete solutions for its implementation. It builds on previous efforts to standardize pan-African comparisons which focused on higher taxonomic entities, specific categories of stone artifacts, or individual regions. Organized by C. Tryon and M. Will, the workshop brought together 12 international scholars (see author list) working in different periods and regions of Africa, with varied methodological backgrounds.
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Evolutionary Anthropology, 2019
The workshop “Comparative Analysis of Middle Stone Age Artefacts
in Africa (CoMSAfrica)” aimed to... more The workshop “Comparative Analysis of Middle Stone Age Artefacts
in Africa (CoMSAfrica)” aimed to reflect upon a common and replicable analytical framework, as well as proposing concrete solutions for
its implementation. It builds on previous efforts to standardize panAfrican comparisons which focused on higher taxonomic entities specific categories of stone artifacts, or individual regions. Organized
by C. Tryon and M. Will, the workshop brought together 12 international
scholars (see author list) working in different periods and regions of
Africa, with varied methodological backgrounds. The workshop was held
between November 5th and 6th 2018 at Harvard University (USA),
and funded through the Accelerator Workshop Program of the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (https://projects.iq.harvard.
edu/comsafrica). The meeting included short introductory presentations
by all participants followed by a series of more focused roundtable discussions to define the main problems and issues confronting comparative lithic analyses of African MSA assemblages. The final goal was the development of a unified analytical approach. As a two-day workshop was obviously insufficient to solve problems of such magnitude, the final discussion focused on outlining a working model and roadmap for future meetings and collaborations through the CoMSAfrica network.
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Peer-reviewed publications by Jessica McNeil
American Antiquity, 2023
The ubiquity and durability of lithic artifacts inform archaeologists about important dimensions ... more The ubiquity and durability of lithic artifacts inform archaeologists about important dimensions of human behavioral variability. Despite their importance, lithic artifacts can be problematic to study because lithic analysts differ widely in their theoretical approaches and the data they collect. The extent to which differences in lithic data relate to prehistoric behavioral variability or differences between archaeologists today remains
incompletely known. We address this issue with the most extensive lithic replicability study yet, involving 11 analysts, 100 unmodified flakes, and 38 ratio, discrete, and nominal attributes. We use mixture models
to show strong inter-analyst replicability scores on several attributes, making them well suited to comparative lithic analyses. Based on our results, we highlight 17 attributes that we consider reliable for compiling datasets collected by different individuals for comparative studies. Demonstrating this replicability is a crucial first step in tackling more general problems of data comparability in lithic analysis and lithic analyst’s ability to conduct large-scale meta-analyses.
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Conference Presentations by Jessica McNeil
Papers by Jessica McNeil
first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans
and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we
report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary
depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated
by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000
years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and
ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal
of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Non-refereed publications / book reviews by Jessica McNeil
in Africa (CoMSAfrica)” aimed to reflect upon a common and replicable analytical framework, as well as proposing concrete solutions for
its implementation. It builds on previous efforts to standardize panAfrican comparisons which focused on higher taxonomic entities specific categories of stone artifacts, or individual regions. Organized
by C. Tryon and M. Will, the workshop brought together 12 international
scholars (see author list) working in different periods and regions of
Africa, with varied methodological backgrounds. The workshop was held
between November 5th and 6th 2018 at Harvard University (USA),
and funded through the Accelerator Workshop Program of the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (https://projects.iq.harvard.
edu/comsafrica). The meeting included short introductory presentations
by all participants followed by a series of more focused roundtable discussions to define the main problems and issues confronting comparative lithic analyses of African MSA assemblages. The final goal was the development of a unified analytical approach. As a two-day workshop was obviously insufficient to solve problems of such magnitude, the final discussion focused on outlining a working model and roadmap for future meetings and collaborations through the CoMSAfrica network.
Peer-reviewed publications by Jessica McNeil
incompletely known. We address this issue with the most extensive lithic replicability study yet, involving 11 analysts, 100 unmodified flakes, and 38 ratio, discrete, and nominal attributes. We use mixture models
to show strong inter-analyst replicability scores on several attributes, making them well suited to comparative lithic analyses. Based on our results, we highlight 17 attributes that we consider reliable for compiling datasets collected by different individuals for comparative studies. Demonstrating this replicability is a crucial first step in tackling more general problems of data comparability in lithic analysis and lithic analyst’s ability to conduct large-scale meta-analyses.
first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans
and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we
report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary
depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated
by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000
years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and
ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal
of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
in Africa (CoMSAfrica)” aimed to reflect upon a common and replicable analytical framework, as well as proposing concrete solutions for
its implementation. It builds on previous efforts to standardize panAfrican comparisons which focused on higher taxonomic entities specific categories of stone artifacts, or individual regions. Organized
by C. Tryon and M. Will, the workshop brought together 12 international
scholars (see author list) working in different periods and regions of
Africa, with varied methodological backgrounds. The workshop was held
between November 5th and 6th 2018 at Harvard University (USA),
and funded through the Accelerator Workshop Program of the
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (https://projects.iq.harvard.
edu/comsafrica). The meeting included short introductory presentations
by all participants followed by a series of more focused roundtable discussions to define the main problems and issues confronting comparative lithic analyses of African MSA assemblages. The final goal was the development of a unified analytical approach. As a two-day workshop was obviously insufficient to solve problems of such magnitude, the final discussion focused on outlining a working model and roadmap for future meetings and collaborations through the CoMSAfrica network.
incompletely known. We address this issue with the most extensive lithic replicability study yet, involving 11 analysts, 100 unmodified flakes, and 38 ratio, discrete, and nominal attributes. We use mixture models
to show strong inter-analyst replicability scores on several attributes, making them well suited to comparative lithic analyses. Based on our results, we highlight 17 attributes that we consider reliable for compiling datasets collected by different individuals for comparative studies. Demonstrating this replicability is a crucial first step in tackling more general problems of data comparability in lithic analysis and lithic analyst’s ability to conduct large-scale meta-analyses.