David Thulman, PI
Geometric Morphometric Analysis: Geometric Morphometric Analysis (GMA) is a relatively recently developed method for analyzing shape that is becoming increasingly common in archaeological analyses. Traditionally, archaeologists used linear measurements (length, width, thickness) and ratios (maximum width/maximum length) to describe artifacts, but for anyone who’s tried it, this traditional approach is limiting and frustrating because it does not adequately describe shape or capture the variation among specimens.
GMA is a sophisticated advance that allows the analyst to compare mathematically derived shapes, avoiding the limitations of traditional analysis.
Dave Thulman, partially funded by ARCOOP donations, has been involved in pioneering efforts to gather scaled images of artifacts (mainly projectile points) from throughout North America with the ultimate goal of analyzing shapes through time and space. The first article from this effort was recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Thulman, David K (2019) The Predicate Form: Using Artifact Shapes to Reconstruct Social Interaction during the Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic Periods in the Southeast. In New Directions in the Search fo the First Floridians, edited by D. K. Thulman and E. G. Garrison. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Thulman, David K. (2018) Discerning Early Archaic Bolen Territories Using Geometric Morphometrics. In Early Human Life on the Southeastern Coastal Plain. , edited by A. C. Goodyear and C. R. Moore, pp. 257-273. University Press of Florida
Thulman, David K. (2012). Discriminating Paleoindian Point Types from Florida Using Landmark Geometric Morphometrics. Jr. of Arch. Sci. 39:1599-1607. IMAGES OF THE POINTS USED FOR THIS PUBLICATION