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Ivanovaite_et_al_2019 (European Journal of Archaeology: data)
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Description: Data for: "Research history and regionalisation in the Late Palaeolithic tanged point cultures of Eastern Europe" (Authors: Livija Ivanovaite, Kamil Swertka, Christian Steven Hoggard, Florian Sauer and Felix Riede) Abstract: The Late Glacial – the period from the first pronounced warming after the Last Glacial maximum to the beginning of the Holocene (ca. 16,000-11,700 cal BP) – is traditionally viewed as a time when northern Europe was being recolonised and contemporaneous Late Palaeolithic cultures diversified. These cultures are seen to be characterised by particular artefact types, and the co-occurrence or specific relative frequencies of these. In north-eastern Europe specifically, numerous cultures based on supposedly different tanged points have been proposed. This practice of naming new cultural units on the basis of these perceived differences has been repeatedly been critiqued but robust alternatives have rarely been offered. We here review the cultural landscape of Late Palaeolithic large tanged point cultures in Eastern Europe as currently envisaged, which leads us to be cautious with regard to the epistemological validity of many of the constituent cultures. This, in turn, motivates us to investigate the key artefact class, the large tanged points, using geometric morphometric methods. Using these methods, we show that distinct groups are difficult to recognise, with major implications for how we understand patterns and processes of culture change in this period in north-eastern Europe – and perhaps elsewhere.