Identifying Pressure Flaking Modes at Diuktai Cave: A Case Study of the Siberian Upper Paleolithic Microblade Tradition (original) (raw)
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The Role of Raw Material in Microblade Technology at Three Late Palaeolithic Sites, Russian Far East
2007
This paper discusses the relationships among raw material use and the technology of microblade core production during the Late Paleolithic period in Primorsky Krai in Far East Russia. The study is based on a study of the Risovoe 1, Novovarvarovka 1, and Molodezhnaya 1 sites. The presence of particular microcore types links these new sites with others in Primorsky Krai and allies them chronologically to the Late Paleolithic, dated to around 8-13,000 B.P. These sites have yielded numerous stone artifacts made from various raw materials, most of which were obtained from local streams in the form of cobbles of different size.
The Late Pleistocene Microblade Component of Ushki Lake (Kamchatka, Russian Far East
The Late Pleistocene sites from Ushki Lake (Kamchatka) are among the most important sites for the understanding of the early archaeology of Beringia. This article presents a descriptive technological analysis of the stone-tool productions from Ushki-1 and Ushki-5, focusing on the late Pleistocene microblade component (layer VI). Microblade sites from late Pleistocene northeast Asia and North America represent one of the earliest migration waves to colonize the Americas. This particular technology originated in the Far East before spreading towards Alaska. The understanding of this migration process is thus essential, especially since the discovery of the Swan Point CZ4 microblade industry, the oldest human occupation so far in Alaska.
Pressure Microblade Industries in Pleistocene-Holocene Interior Alaska: Current Data and Discussions
2012
Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites in Alaska have obvious ties with the Siberian Late Paleolithic based on the presence of pressure microblade production. The study of these sites and their corresponding lithic assemblages is essential to our understanding of the peopling of the New World, especially when considering the significance of Swan Point and its lower microblade-bearing layer (currently the earliest reliably dated human occupation documented in Alaska). The aim of this chapter is to present the context for the emergence of pressure microblade technique in Late Pleistocene – Early Holocene interior Alaska. I will do so by illustrating some of the technological variability from different assemblages in Alaska using the examples of Dry Creek Component II (in the Nenana River Valley) and Swan Point Cultural Zone 4 (in the Tanana River Valley). Both sites are located in the Alaskan interior, where some of the oldest sites with clear evidence of pressure microblade production have been unearthed. The two main methods of microblade production that have been identified in early sites in interior Alaska, the Yubetsu method and the Campus method, will be detailed.
MESO International Conference, 2020
The remarkable group of tools was detected among the hunter-gatherer-fishers’ archaeological materials of the Russian Plain central part dated 3500–2700 BC. The so-called ‘crooked items’ were initially interpreted as ritual phallic depictions, but now after conducting the more detailed analysis of their morphology, technology and use-wear, there is no doubt that we deal with retouchers, used to perform the pressure flaking of flint. The most astonishing fact is that the straight parallel to these retouchers exists, coming from the opposite side of the globe, namely the Bering Sea region – Kamchatka, Chukotka and Alaska, where the same tools are known quite well both in archaeological and ethnographical collections.
Annales de la Fondation Fyssen, 2024
The history of techniques is punctuated with innovations which transformed human ways of life over the millennia, enabling people to live in a wide variety of environments. The production of tools by pressure knapping is one of those innovations marking a major technical change. After its emergence during the Last Glacial Maximum, it was implemented for over ten millennia to meet the needs of human groups in subarctic and arctic environments in Northeast Asia and North America. This paper analyses the functioning and the economy of the stone tools from the Pirika site (Japan), which yields one of the earliest known pressure microblade component in Northeast Asia.The purpose is to understand how this innovative toolkit participated in the adaptation of human societies to cold environments. The anticipation of future needs had a key role in the techno-economic organisation at Pirika. This is likely to have greatly contributed to the success of pressure microblade technologies in cold environments.
Microblades are one of the stone tools that spread toward the northeast with wide range human migration after the Last Glacial Maximum in Beringia, and are key to understanding the first migrants to the New World. The Yubetsu method was one of the most widely spread techniques in western Beringia. In Eastern Beringia, Swan Point is the only archaeological site bearing microcores from the East Beringian tradition phase I (here after EBt-I) layer which were produced by the Yubetsu method. There are three archaeological complexes in interior Alaska following EBt-I: the Nenana, Chindadn, and Denali. The former two complexes bear distinctive Chindadn points and the latter has Campus type microcores. Cultural continuity of the local complexes has been argued for decades in discussing the peopling of the Americas. However, because the distinctive Yubetsu microcore is only found at the Swan Point site, discussing cultural connection among these complexes based on microcores is difficult. The Chindadn point was also considered to have roots in the Old World, but no candidate yet has been confirmed. In contrast, large numbers of microblades have been found in EBt-I, Chindadn and Denali complexes, and also in the Northern Archaic tradition, although their production methods are different. In this study we use microblades from EBt-I and Northern Archaic tradition components at Swan Point to elucidate co-occurrence of microcore technological and microblade morphological changes. Results from this study show continuous production of microblades for slotted osseous point weaponry was stable through time. Given that cultural change occurred, the results provide a framework to discuss the continuity of hunting weapon technology and its relationship with hunting prey, indirectly, and with zooarchaeological studies.
Open Archaeology, volume 9, 2023
The remarkable group of tools was detected among the hunter-gatherer-fishers' archaeological materials of the East European Plain central part dated around 3500-2700 BC. The so-called "crooked items" were initially interpreted as ritual phallic depictions, but now after conducting a more detailed analysis of their morphology, technology, and use-wear, it became clear that we deal with pressure flakers used to process flint tools. The most astonishing fact is that the straight parallel to these tools exists, coming from the opposite side of the globe, namely, the Bering Strait region-Kamchatka, Chukotka, and Alaska, where the same tools are known quite well both in archaeological and ethnographical collections. In this study, we discuss the results of use-wear analysis of both handles and removable tips from the Central Russian settlements of Moscow, Ivanovo, and Yaroslavl regions dated the second half of the fourth to the beginning of the third millennium BC.