Harold L. Dibble


Harold Lewis Dibble was an American anthropologist and Paleolithic archaeologist who specialized in stone tool analysis. He taught Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and served as Curator-in-Charge of the European Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, leading field research on lithic reduction in France, Egypt, and Morocco.

Education

Dibble received his B.A. in 1971 and Ph.D. in 1981, both from the University of Arizona. He completed his dissertation under the direction of Arthur J. Jelinek, an American archaeologist trained in North American prehistoric archaeology by Leslie A. White who worked on the Paleolithic of Western Eurasia and the Mimbres culture in New Mexico. During the late 1970s Dibble excavated with the French prehistorian François Bordes at Pech de l'Azé IV in Carsac-Aillac, France, developing a long-standing mentoring relationship.

Archaeological work

Most of Dibble's archaeological research examined Neanderthals and early modern humans in Western Eurasia, with an emphasis on the stone tools central to their material culture. He wrote his dissertation on the stone tool technology of Tabun Cave in Israel. He then concentrated on assemblages in France and the Zagros industries before launching projects in Egypt in 2001 and Morocco in 2006. He published skeptical assessments of Middle Paleolithic symbolism and promoted quantitative approaches to archaeology. He pioneered the use of GIS and total stations in excavations and pursued experimental replication to clarify stone tool manufacture. As a graduate student, Dibble produced the stone tools used in the film The Clan of the Cave Bear.

Scraper reduction

Dibble's most-cited contribution to archaeological thought is known as scraper reduction, which drew on ideas first developed by Jelinek and George Carr Frison. He argued that Middle Paleolithic scrapers change form in predictable ways as they are retouched and that the numerous scraper types in the Bordian typology mark successive stages from fresh blanks to exhausted transverse scrapers. He linked the intensity of reduction, measured through the proportion of heavily resharpened tools, to the availability of raw material.
He often compared the process to sharpening a pencil. The pencil begins long with a full eraser and becomes short with a worn eraser, which is how it would appear if recovered from discarded refuse. Ample supplies encourage earlier discard, whereas scarcity leads to repeated sharpening and much smaller remnants. Dibble used that analogy to explain the forms archaeologists recover from Middle Paleolithic sites.
When he introduced the argument it challenged prevailing assumptions that typological categories represented discrete desired forms. The model reframed the earlier Bordes-Binford Debate, in which Bordes attributed Mousterian facies to distinct cultures and Lewis R. Binford emphasized function. By describing excavated tools as artifacts at varied points in long use lives, Dibble encouraged archaeologists to reconsider that debate.

Fieldwork

Dibble directed or co-directed three major projects. He led excavations at the cave of, Campagne, Dordogne, France from 2004 to 2010. He co-directed excavations at the Grotte des Contrabandiers in Témara, Morocco in 2006. He also oversaw the Abydos Survey for Paleolithic Sites in the high desert surrounding Abydos, Egypt from 2000 to 2007. In 2011 he began directing excavations at La Ferassie in the Dordogne region, where six Neandertal skeletons were found in 1913 and one in 1972.
He directed or co-directed projects in France continuously from 1987 onward, beginning at Combe-Capelle Bas in the Valley, Dordogne, from 1987 to 1990. He and his former Ph.D. student Shannon J.P. McPherron then worked at Cagny-l'Epinette in the Somme from 1991 to 1994 and at Fontéchevade in Charente-Maritime from 1994 to 1998. Before returning to Roc de Marsal, Dibble and McPherron reexcavated Pech de l'Azé IV, where Dibble had worked with Bordes in the 1970s, between 1999 and 2002.
A major focus of Dibble's research program was to reexcavate known sites using modern methodology. He paired that fieldwork with reanalysis of earlier lithic collections so that the old and new assemblages could be compared. The comparison highlighted what previous excavators had kept or discarded, adding new interpretive value to legacy collections.

Computer applications in archaeology

Dibble and McPherron developed several freeware computer applications for Windows to support archaeological fieldwork. Their suite included NewPlot, an archaeology-specific GIS program, EDM-CE and EDM Windows for total station data collection on Windows Mobile and Windows 95/98, and E4 for artifact analysis. Their system was adopted by excavators across North America, Europe, and Africa, and they published extensively on these methods.

Personal life and death

Dibble and his wife Lee had two sons, Chip and Flint. He died on June 10, 2018, of complications of cancer. Flint Dibble is also an archaeologist, specialising in the zooarchaeology of Ancient Greece.

Selected publications

Books

  • Debenath, A. and Dibble, H.L. 1994. Handbook of Paleolithic Typology: Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe. Philadelphia: University Museum Press.
  • Dibble, H., S. McPherron, and B. Roth. 1999. Virtual Dig: A Simulated Archaeological Excavation of a Middle Paleolithic Site in France. Mayfield Press, Mountain View, Calif.
  • McPherron, S. and H.L. Dibble. 2002. Using Computers in Archaeology: A Practical Guide. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing.
  • Dibble, H.L., D. Williamson, and B.M. Evans. 2003. The Human Evolution Cookbook. Philadelphia: University Museum Press.
  • Chase, P., A. Debénath, H. Dibble, and S. McPherron. 2009. The Cave of Fontéchevade: Recent Excavations and Their Paleoanthropological Implications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • Dibble, H. L., Shannon J. P. McPherron, Paul Goldberg, Dennis M. Sandgathe. 2018. . Springer.

    Articles

  • Dibble, H. L. 1983. "Variability and Change in the Middle Paleolithic of Western Europe and the Near East," in The Mousterian Legacy: Human Biocultural Change in the Upper Pleistocene, BAR International Series 164. Edited by E. Trinkaus, pp. 53–71. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
  • Dibble, H. L. 1987. Measurement of Artifact Provenience with an Electronic Theodolite. Journal of Field Archaeology 14:249-254.
  • Dibble, H. L. 1988. Typological Aspects of Reduction and Intensity of Utilization of Lithic Resources in the French Mousterian. In Upper Pleistocene Prehistory of Western Eurasia, edited by H. L. Dibble and A. Montet-White, pp. 181–187. University Museum Monograph 54. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Dibble, H. L. 1988. The Interpretation of Middle Paleolithic Scraper Reduction Patterns. In La Technique, edited by L. R. Binford and J.-P. Rigaud, pp. 49–58. L'Homme de Néandertal. vol. 4, M. Otte, general editor. Etudes et Recherches Archéologiques de l'Université de Liège No. 31, Liège.
  • Dibble, H. L. and N. Rolland. 1992. On Assemblage Variability in the Middle Paleolithic of Western Europe: History, Perspectives, and a New Synthesis. In , edited by H. L. Dibble and P. Mellars, pp. 2–28. University Museum Monograph 78. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Bar-Yosef, O. and H. L. Dibble. 1995. Preface. In The Definition and Interpretation of Levallois Technology, edited by H. L. Dibble and O. Bar-Yosef, pp. ix-xiii. Monographs in World Archaeology No. 23. Prehistory Press, Madison, WI.
  • Dibble, H. L. 1995. An Assessment of the Integrity of the Archaeological Assemblages. In The Middle Paleolithic Site of Combe-Capelle Bas , edited by H. L. Dibble and M. Lenoir, pp. 245–258. University Museum Monograph 91. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Dibble, H. L. 1995. Biache-Saint-Vaast, Level IIA: A Comparison of Analytical Approaches. In The Definition and Interpretation of Levallois Technology, edited by H. L. Dibble and O. Bar-Yosef, pp. 93–116. Monographs in World Archaeology No. 23. Prehistory Press, Madison, WI.
  • Dibble, H. L. 1995. Raw Material Availability, Intensity of Utilization, and Middle Paleolithic Assemblage Variability. In The Middle Paleolithic Site of Combe-Capelle Bas , edited by H. L. Dibble and M. Lenoir, pp. 289–315. University Museum Monograph 91. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
  • McPherron, S. P. and H. L. Dibble. 1999. Stone Tool Analysis Using Digitized Images: Examples From the Lower and Middle Paleolithic. Lithic Technology 24:38-52.
  • McPherron, S. P. and H. L. Dibble. 2000. The Lithic Assemblages of Pech de l'Aze IV. Préhistoire Européenne 15:9-43.
  • Dibble, H.L., S.J.P. McPherron, P.G. Chase, W.R. Farrand, and A. Debénath. 2006. Taphonomy and the concept of Paleolithic cultures: The case of the Tayacian from Fontéchevade. PaleoAnthropology:1-21.
  • Dibble, H.L., P. Goldberg, S.J.P. McPherron, A. Turq, and D. Sandgathe. 2006. "Humans, climate and fire at the Mousterian site of Roc de Marsal, France," in Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America. Philadelphia, PA: Geological Society of America.
  • Dibble, H.L. 1991. , in Raw Material Economies among Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers, University of Kansas Publications in Anthropology. Edited by A. Montet-White and S. Holen, pp. 33–47. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas.