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Scientific Archaeology and the Origins of Symbolism: a reply to Bednarik

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Phillip G. Chase  and
Harold L. Dibble
Phillip G. Chase
Affiliation:
University Museum of Archaeology and AnthropologyUniversity of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania19104, U.S.A.
Harold L. Dibble
Affiliation:
Department of AnthropologyUniversity of PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, U.S.A.
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Extract

In 1987, we published a review of archaeological data that had been interpreted by others as evidence for the making and use of symbols before the Upper Palaeolithic (Chase & Dibble 1987). It has become clear to us since then that our study raises a number of issues we did not address directly. The foregoing critique by Bednarik touches on a few of them, but there are more fundamental issues he does not confront. Also, some of his criticisms seem to stem primarily from a misunderstanding or misreading of our article. What we will do here, then, is to respond briefly to his criticisms (we will not discuss his comments on the work of other authors), and then go on to address some of the important issues that he has not considered.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , April 1992 , pp. 43 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1992

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