P. James, 1984. "The Archers of Hengistbury Head", New Scientist 3 May, 34-36. (original) (raw)
1984
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Abstract
A ‘popular’ report on the work of Nick Barton at the Mesolithic site on Hengistbury Head, Dorset.
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Interpreting and explaining numerical variance in artifact assemblages has not played an important role in lithic analysis. As shown, this measure offers much to better understand prehistoric behavior. Variance in microlith assemblages is examined to test Myers' (1986, 1989b) model of changing hunting strategies across the Early to Later Mesolithic transition. It is shown that Early Mesolithic microliths are highly standardized relative to analogous items from the Later Mesolithic. This finding is related to the weapons design systems and how the production of microliths is embedded within seasonal activities. It is argued that Early Mesolithic microliths were produced in large numbers ahead of time within a reliable weapons system focused on intercept hunting, while Later Mesolithic microliths were produced in smaller batches, as needed, within a maintainable system optimized for encounter-based hunting.
This study takes an experimental and comparative approach in order to evaluate the circumstances driving the deployment of microlithic tool technologies by food-producing mobile herders during the Mid-to-Late Holocene in southern Kenya. The predominately obsidian microliths used by contemporaneous, but culturally distinct, herding communities were replicated and used as arrow tips in archery experiments and within composite knives used in animal processing. This allowed for patterns of damage associated with production, different forms of projectile use, and butchery to be identified on microlithic specimens and evaluated against each other to assess the criteria for diagnostic macrofracture and wear patterns reflective of each activity. Experimentally generated criteria were used to identify the most likely functions for microlithic tools in three archaeological assemblages belonging to early Kenyan pastoralists. The analyses showed that while the same microlithic form is shared by culturally distinct groups across a wide time range, these tools were being used to vary different functions that do not clearly correlate with subsistence economy, culturally affiliation, or time period. Environmental variability and instability throughout the Late Holocene likely contributed to the persistence of highly adaptable microlithic toolkits. These data contribute to ongoing dialogues on the emergence and evolution of microlithic toolkits.
Cache & Carry: Exaptive and Equipotential models of Mesolithic tool use.
Using chipped stone data derived from the analyses of trans-Pennine Mesolithic assemblages and Clark's (1954) Star Carr assemblage, this article will examine the influence of lithic technology within the mobility strategies of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Northern England. In particular it will explore the possible association between persistent places (Barton et al. 1995) as resource locales in the landscape and their influence on raw material consumption and tool manufacture. Key to this study is the introduction (into the Chaîne Opératoire model of lithics analyses) of the notion of 'Equipotentiality' (Preston 1999), which is derived from the biological term Exaption (Gould and Vrba 1982). This new term will be defined and explored in relation to hunter-gatherer mobility strategies, along with other processes such as retooling (e.g. Hoffman 1992) or resharpening. A model for equipotential tool use at both site and landscape levels, together with its influence on hunter-gatherer mobility strategies, is proposed.
Variability in Later Mesolithic Microliths of Northern England
This study focuses on variability in microliths of the Later Mesolithic (8000 - 5500 BP) in Northern England. Archaeologists have long noted that there is a marked increase in the number of microlith shapes and sizes from the Early to the Later Mesolithic. Many theories have been advanced to explain this increase in variability, from a degeneracy of style, to migration or diffusion, to experimentation with new forms , to an increase in the need to demarcate social boundaries. Through an analysis of variance, this paper seeks to come to a better understanding of the source of variability in microliths.
Yegorov. et al. 2015. A New Late Epipalaeolithic Site in the Central Negev Highlands
A recent salvage excavation in Sha'on Hol Site 14 (HG14), situated on the northern plateau of Har Harif in the Central Negev Highlands, revealed an ephemeral hunter-gatherers' campsite with on-surface flint scatters attributed to the Late Epipalaeolithic period. Characteristic tool categories, as well as debitage and tool ratios, allow for its affiliation with the Terminal Ramonian phase. Spatial analysis of the flint assemblage clearly indicates functional variability across the area examined. The goal of this report is to summarize the results of the current project by presenting the site, the techno-typological aspects of its assemblages, and the spatial distribution of different artifact groups. The additional contribution of the present report concerns analysis of projectile damage observed on microlithic tools -the type-fossils of the Epipaleolithic period in the Levant. The analysis provides an explanation of particular technological and typological characteristics of the assemblage in terms of the design of projectile weapons composed of microliths.
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The study comprises an experimentally based investigation of interaction between temporal change in the morphology of microlithic tools and transformations in projectile technology during the Late Pleistocene in the Levant. Archery experiments with differently designed arrows fitted with various types of microliths representing subsequent Epipaleolithic cultures of the Levant allowed analyzing performance abilities of the arrows, identifying projectile damage types characteristic of particular hafting modes, detecting factors influencing the frequency of projectile damage and estimating the frequency of projectile damage expected to be found in archaeological samples. The data obtained through the experiments applied in the analysis of the archaeological microliths from Geometric Kebaran and Natufian sites in Israel indicate different approaches to the design of projectiles fitted with microliths characteristic for these cultures. The shift in design, associated with such important economic and social transformations as transition to sedentary settlements and a broad-spectrum economy, may reflect a demand for light, flexible and efficient projectile weapons requiring low time and labor investment for preparation and retooling. The use of such efficient weapons in conditions of growing population density and restricted areas available for Natufian hunter–gatherers can be considered as one of the factors that could have affected the subsequent transition to food production that took place in the early Holocene.
2013
The reason and significance of variation in material culture is one of the most fundamental debates in archaeological studies. These debates factor strongly into Levantine Epipalaeolithic research, where the morphological variability of microlithic tools has been interpreted to represent distinct cultural or ethnic communities. This dissertation addresses microlith variability during the Middle Epipalaeolithic (≈17,500 – 14,600 cal BP) through the analysis of lithic assemblages from Wadi Mataha, ‘Uyun al-Hammâm, and Kharaneh IV (Jordan). Although regionally disparate, the lithic assemblages are characterized by the same geometric microlith type: the trapeze-rectangle. The integration of typological, technological, morphometric, and use-wear analyses allows for the subtleties in material culture to be explored among these sites. In addition to these analyses, new methods for use-wear quantification are presented. This dissertation sets out to test several hypotheses in regards to the microlith assemblages: 1) microliths will have overlapping functions, indicating that function does not drive form; and 2) microliths will show differences in technological style. These hypotheses relate back to current debates in Epipalaeolithic research about the nature of microlith variability. Is variation in microlith morphology the product of different technological sequences of production or microlith function? Or is variability the result of different cultural practices? This material culture variability is explored through the lens of the chaîne opératoire, where I advocate for the inclusion of functional analysis into our study of lithic assemblages. Through the integration of multiple methods, I suggest there is not a direct correlation between microlith form and function. Instead, the variability we witness in microliths during the Middle Epipalaeolithic is the result of local expressions within different communities.
This section of the research agenda covers the latter end of the Pleistocene during a period between the last glacial maximum of the Devensian at around 18,000 BP, to the beginning of the Neolithic in Britain, around 4,300 cal. BC. In terms of climate, it covers initially a period of climatic oscillation, between extreme cold snaps and rapid warming, followed by a gradual rise in temperature towards the so-called Climatic Optimum of the mid to Late Mesolithic, and terminating with the slow amelioration during later prehistory.
Later Mesolithic Activity down by the River in Guildford
Bishop, B.J. 2008 A Microlithic Industry from Woodbridge Road, Guildford. Surrey Archaeological Collections 94, 125-157., 2008
Archaeological excavations at Woodbridge Road in Guildford produced a substantial assemblage of Mesolithic flintwork associated with a number of pits or tree-throw hollows. The lithic assemblage was dominated by Later Mesolithic microlithic forms and a complementary date for the deposition of artefact-bearing sands was obtained by Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating. In addition to microliths, the lithic assemblage contained significant numbers of micro-burins, indicating the on-site manufacture of microliths, and substantial quantities of burnt flint were also recovered. The almost total dominance of microliths to the exclusion of other retouched types strongly suggests that the activities conducted here were remarkably specialised.