Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic Lithic Artefacts from Northern Africa and Arabia

Northern African and Arabian Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic lithic artefacts are analyzed using latent class modelling. The dataset includes supplementary files for a study comparing LCM with traditional typology and hierarchical clustering. It was created by Lucy Timbrell and last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Classifying stone artefacts based on morphological and technological attributes using latent class modelling.
• Quantifying technological diversity across assemblages using latent class proportions.
• Comparing unsupervised classification techniques like LCM and hierarchical clustering against traditional typologies.
• Evaluating model performance for grouping lithics using permutation tests.

Strengths

• Dataset is 5.0 MB in size, indicating a manageable download.
• Includes code in R for reproducibility of the latent class modelling analysis.
• Published under a CC-BY-4.0 license, allowing for open sharing and adaptation.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Lucy Timbrell, Human Palaeosystems Group, Max Planck Society.

Collection Method

Likely contains morphological and technological attribute data from stone artefacts analyzed in the cited study.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-28 15:37:47; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Africa and Arabia.