Laboratory for the Study of Ancient Technology

Check out East Falls Glassworks producing the glass cores for our experiments. Thanks guys!

Many among you have heard of the sudden death of Harold Dibble. To honor Harold’s life and career, we are asking (in lieu of flowers) that family, friends, and ...colleagues donate to the Harold L. Dibble Mini-Me Fund at the Paleoanthropology Society and to The University of Pennsylvania- Anthropology Department. The funds will be used to assist students and colleagues with limited access to monies to support attendance at the Paleoanthropology Society meetings and for student archaeological fieldwork and research at the University of Pennsylvania While Harold’s legacy is tied to innovative methods, archaeological excavation, laboratory analysis, and scientific publications, he truly believed that the most effective form of scientific dissemination was through hands-on apprenticeship. Harold was more than just a teacher to his students, he was a friend and mentor who supported them with unwavering conviction and respected their choices. Harold’s unique ability to water his relationships with his numerous students has led to a proliferation of mini-me’s, as he affectionately referred to himself in relation to his own mentors. We hope that these funds will continue to support mini-me’s in the future. With respects to Harold’s final wishes there will be no funeral. We are planning to hold a celebration of his life at the Penn Museum sometime in the fall with more details to be announced as we know more. We wish to thank all of Harold’s family, friends, colleagues, and students who have contacted us or posted their thoughts and memories of Harold on social media. We have been deeply touched by the sheer number of people who have expressed such amazing warmth and heart-felt support in this difficult time. Thank you, Lee Dibble Flint Dibble and Jonida Martini Chip Dibble and Lauren Shandelman (Charles Dibble) Christine Burke Donations to the Harold L. Dibble Mini-Me Fund at the Paleoanthropology Society can be made at http://www.paleoanthro.org/home/donate/ Donations for Penn archaeology students can be made in honor of Harold at https://giving.apps.upenn.edu/fund?program=SAS&fund=630074 or checks may be made out to the Trustees of the University Of Pennsylvania, and sent to Laura Weber, Penn Arts and Sciences Advancement, 3600 Market St., Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104, with Harold's name in the memo line. (the mini-me slides come from a lecture Harold gave in honor of his own PhD supervisor, Art Jelinek) And please share!

Flintknapping with newly designed glass cores at Penn Museum

George and Alex are working on the Supper Igor

The start of great experiments!

Check out East Falls Glassworks producing the glass cores for our experiments. Thanks guys!

What does East Falls Glassworks in Philadelphia have to do with archaeology experiments in our lab? They make the best custom glass cores to be knapped in our machine (Igor). The newest delivery of cores just arrived! Igor and Super Igor are excited

Summer Project in (Les Eyzies), France

The Laboratory for the Study of Ancient Technology is excited about our new machine! "Super Igor" will increase the capabilities of the experiments and we will expand to different raw materials and core morphologies!! Here are a couple photos of the preparations before the BIG move! Moving a 2,000 pound machine to our lab is going to be a tricky job but we are ready!!!

Aylar works on lithic and the team enjoys dinner in the Carsac dig house in France.

Iranian researchers, Elham Ghasidian and Saman Heydari, are studying on the Warwasi collection in Lab. It is so great to have them here.

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com//new-molecular-fingerprintin

Really interesting research on the correlation of brain growth and body growth throughout our evolution! http://popular-archaeology.com//bigger-brains-led-to-bigge

Here we are using the microscribe to analyze surface area and bulb volume. Bulb volume may be an important factor in predicting flakes mass but it's extremely difficult to measure accurately.