Archaeology, Lithic analysis and organization of technology Research Papers (original) (raw)

- by and +1
- •
- Geoarchaeology, Obsidian, Flint (Archaeology), Lithic Technology

Several lithic artefacts that belong to hunter-gatherer's occupations from Quebrada Seca 3 site during the Middle Holocene (Southern Puna of Argentina, between ca. 5000-4700 years BP), are analyzed (Southern Puna of Argentina, between ca. 5000-4700 years BP), are analyzed. These stone tools have been defined as stemmed projectile points whose blades were intensively maintained resulting in asymmetric shapes. Besides, it was proposed the use of these artefacts as knives because their morphology when the artefacts were discarded. Trying to establish a more complete version of the life history of these artefacts, from projectile points to knives, as it is suggested by the techno-typological analysis, we developed a research design that includes several analytical microscopic and compositional techniques to identify the uses that were preserved over time. Information obtained through microwear use traces analysis and the study of microscopic residues (microfossils and chemical residues) in blades and stems, indicates that these artefact were used in several functions. Tools were last used as knives in generalized tasks, for plant and animal processing. The plant material processed includes roasted or dehydrated tuberous/root plants for food. The processing of animal material (skin, flesh and/or bone) was also developed with the artifacts as knives. As projectile points were used for penetration of animal preys and then were recycled as knives. Besides, evidences for hafting (foreshafts or handles) and adhesives use, were found. The use and life history results obtained from analyses of microfossil and other residue, microwear use traces, chemical and techno-typological, were mutually consistent. This contributed to the discussion of artifact’s life history and resource processing by the Middle holocene hunter-gatherers of South Central Andes.

- by Salomón Hocsman
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Use Wear Analysis, Lithic Technology

The site at Red Barns was excavated in 1975, but the large lithic collection remained unstudied. This paper reports on analysis of the lithic material from the site, together with the results of processing sediment samples from the 1975 excavation. An abundant molluscan assemblage was recovered from the deposits covering the main archaeological horizon, allowing climatic/environmental reconstruction and amino acid dating. The synthesis of these data indicates the site to be older than previously thought, dating to between 425,000 and 200,000 BP. The site represents a locale where handaxe manufacture was repeatedly carried out, followed by removal of the handaxes for use/discard elsewhere. It thus represents evidence for logistically organised behaviour earlier in the Lower/Middle Palaeolithic than generally supposed.

This book outlines the basics of fractography and fracture mechanics from the premise that these are essential to lithic research. That is, understanding the formation, meaning and analytical potential of fracture markings — known to... more

This book outlines the basics of fractography
and fracture mechanics from the premise that
these are essential to lithic research. That is,
understanding the formation, meaning and
analytical potential of fracture markings — known to lithicists as attributes is fundamental to a complete comprehension of
lithic chaîne opératoire.

Descripcion de tipologias liticas encontradas por Miklos Szabadics Roka en el Estado Falcon, Venezuela.

- by Jenny Szabadics and +1
- •
- Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeological Method & Theory, Lithic Refitting, Lithic Technology (Archaeology)

The Amakomanak site (AMR-00095), dated around 7500 BC, is located in the Noatak National Preserve in northwestern Alaska and presents an important microblade component (microblade cores, core tablets, and microblades) made of local chert. During the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene, microblade technology is widespread in central Alaska, dominated by Campus-style microblade cores (wedge-shaped microblade cores). The Amakomanak assemblage is primarily composed of larger prismatic microblade cores, similar to assemblages from other northwestern Alaskan sites compared here. This paper argues that raw material available in each area may have played a major role in the different microblade core variants described. Indeed, raw material availability in the northwestern region could be one of the major reasons behind the production of larger prismatic cores, as opposed to central Alaska Campus-style cores usually made on smaller river cobbles. The paper also presents the results of a morphometric analysis of microblade cores and microblades from the Amakomanak site, comparing the data to both experimentally derived data sets on microblade-flaking modes, as well as other microblade assemblages in Alaska and Siberia.

Although it was excavated more than 30 years ago, the Rio Rancho Folsom site remains poorly known among archaeologists interested in Paleoindian prehistory. This is primarily because no major report on the site has ever been published, and the few articles available do not convey much about its size, complexity, or contents. Our goal is to shed a little more light on this remarkable site by presenting the results of an examination of the extensive evidence it contains for Folsom point manufacture. In addition, we evaluate this evidence against models of Folsom technological organization that focus on one component of the system: weapons tip replacement and raw material consumption.

- by David Kilby
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- Lithic Technology, Southwestern Archaeology, Lithics, Paleoindians
- by Jeffrey Peytrequín and +1
- •
- Lithic Technology, Lithics, Chibchan Archaeology, Archaeology, Lithic analysis and organization of technology

In this article, chipped stone raw materials from the Garrett Allen site are discussed, with emphasis on the stone tools. As indicated by Eckles (2013), who discussed the history of investigations and chronology, this is one of several articles to be presented on various aspects of the site’s artifacts. One of the remarkable aspects of the site is the variety of chipped stone raw materials. There are varieties of flint, chert, agate, jasper, chalcedony, petrified wood, orthoquartzite, metaquartzite, quartz, silicified shale, clinker, non-volcanic glass, obsidian, and basalt from many parts of Wyoming and surrounding states. The diversity of raw material types is present throughout the cultural deposits. There is no knappable tool stone on site; the only rocks are small fragments of drab, buff-gray sandstone. All culturally manipulated lithic materials were therefore brought into the site, many from considerable distances. The site is located on private land in southeastern Carbon County, Wyoming at the northern end of the Medicine Bow Mountains and southern edge of the Hanna-Carbon Basin. It is within a homoclinal valley near the perennial Quealy Spring. Deposits are primarily alluvial, derived from the surrounding geological formations (Hayter 1981:31).

- by Adam Guinard
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Geology, Collections Management

Actualistic studies have contributed greatly to our understanding of the past. In this paper, we analyze six stone bifaces used to butcher a 23 year-old African Elephant. Detailed records from this study allow us to illustrate how stone tool reduction is not necessarily a linear process, especially when attempting to use metrics to quantify the amount of reduction over time. Through long-term use of stone tools in butchery, we show that overall reduction was minimal even with successive resharpening events. The utility of these tools raise questions about the role of large bifaces in both Paleoindian and other hunter-gatherer contexts where bifaces may have been used as butchery or long-life tools. Our results suggest that bifaces are superior tools for maintaining an effective cutting edge during prolonged use. These findings may further explain the use of large bifaces among Paleoindian and other foraging populations.

In this diploma thesis, the mountain crystal distribution was examined on the basis of the Mesolithic and Neolithic find spots in Western Austria, South Tyrol and the Trentino. The analysis focused on a comparison of both levels of civilisation, since the rock crystal stock show apparent differences. All in all, 93 find spots, where artefacts made of mountain crystal were found, were listed in the area under investigation. In this context the fissure on the Riepenkar in the Ziller Valley was the key focus of the examinations, because this feature turned out to be especially well-suited to reveal some impressive information on the use of mountain crystal for the lithic industry.

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.

Prehistoric lithic stone tools. An overview.

- by Fabrizio Nicoletti
- •
- Lithic Technology, Lithics, Lithic Technology (Archaeology), Lithic Industries
- by Stephen Shennan and +10
- •
- Neolithic Archaeology, Economic archaeology, European Prehistory (Archaeology), European Archaeology
- by Hugh Jarvis
- •
- Archaeology, Publishing, Geoarchaeology, Open Access

Between 1987 and 1992, Intermountain Research (IMR) conducted a program of survey, testing, and data recovery at Tosawihi Quarries, north-central Nevada on behalf of various gold mining consultants and companies. The area containing silicified outcrops and associated archaeological localities occupies about 28,500 acres, with intensive quarrying in about 825 acres. IMR Conducted block surveys in the area of intensive quarrying and in areas peripheral to it (Western Periphery, Eastern Periphery, Northern Corridor) where mining operations were contemplated. Unlike the the nearly continuous distribution of quarry features and associated debris in the primary quarry area, the localities in the peripheral areas were spatially discrete and functionally diverse, including quarries, short-term residential loci containing food processing implements and exotic lithic materials, small reduction loci and isolated artifacts. This volume contains discussions about chronology, subsistence, reduction trajectories, toolstone extraction, assemblage characteristics, site function , spatial relationships and economics of lithic production, along with appendices. Volume 1describes
the research context (natural and cultural landscape, economic models, research design), analytical data classes, and site descriptions.

Written by: M-L. Inizan, M. Reduron-Balinger, H. Roche and J. Tixier
Translated into Persian: E. Ghasidian
برگردان به فارسی از الهام قصیدیان

Report on Phase III data recovery at Bayou Park, 8OK898, a Late Archaic midden in northwest Florida. Includes chapters on local prehistory and environment, baked-clay objects, ceramics, lithics, shell and bone tools, zooarchaeology, archaeobotanical analysis, lipid and starch grain analysis, and a summary chapter on site history and the Elliott's Point complex in northwest Florida.

Rock crystal appears relatively frequently in Late Prehistoric Iberian sites, especially in the form of micro-blades and knapping debris. With some exceptions, however, these finds have seldom been looked into in any detail, and therefore little is known about the technology involved in the use of this material, its social and economic relevance or its symbolic significance. In this paper we examine a collection of rock crystal artefacts recently found at Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain), one of the largest 3rd millennium BC sites in Western Europe. Among the objects included in this study are a long dagger blade, twenty-five arrowheads and a core, all of which form the most technically sophisticated and esthetically impressive collection of rock crystal material culture ever found in Prehistoric Iberia. Through the analysis of the procedures and techniques applied in the production of these objects , the chemical characterisation of the raw materials through Raman spectroscopy and RTI image processing and the careful assessment of the archaeological contexts in which they were found, this paper makes a robust contribution towards the study of the role of rock crystal in Copper Age technology and society. Recent research suggest that Valencina was a major node in the circulation of exotic materials such as ivory, amber, cinnabar or flint in Copper Age Iberia, which provides a very good background to assess the relevance of rock crystal as a traded commodity. In addition we discuss the role of rock crystal as a marker of status in large megalithic monuments, as well as its possible symbolic connotations.

- by Leonardo García Sanjuán and +3
- •
- Physical Geography, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Geology
- by César Méndez
- •
- Lithic Technology, Lithics, Lithic Refitting, Lithic taphonomy

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Africa encompasses the archaeological background for the origin, early evolution and global dispersal of Homo sapiens. This dissertation project used behavioral information attained from the analysis of MSA stone artifacts, in concert with additional archaeological data and new theoretical concepts, to assess research questions pertaining to key issues in current MSA archaeology and human evolution: What is the nature of coastal adaptations during the MSA and how did they affect the evolution and dispersal of Homo sapiens? Did modern humans in southern Africa possess a less complex behavioral repertoire and inferior cultural abilities before and after the Still Bay (SB) and Howiesons Poort (HP) as suggested by the influential “Synthetic Model”? To what extent can analyses of stone tools from the late MSA inform early migrations of Homo sapiens out of Africa? Lithic assemblages from six southern African MSA sites, dating to MIS 5 and MIS 3, provide the principle empirical basis to answer these questions. Concerning the first research topic, based on analyses on the site (Hoedjiespunt 1), regional (sub-Saharan Africa) and continental levels (Africa), the findings of this dissertation demonstrate the systematic, stable and long-term character of MSA coastal adaptations by at least MIS 5e. These behavioral adaptations had ample potential to affect the biological and cultural evolution of Homo sapiens. The ability to thrive in variable coastal ecosystems, and a general increase in behavior flexibility, constituted necessary prerequisites to disperse out of Africa along a mainly coastal route in a rapid and successful manner after ~130 ka. Lithic analyses at the main study site of Sibudu revealed the presence of distinctive, sophisticated and structured stone artifact assemblages during MIS 3 which are used to refine the concept of the “Sibudan” as a new cultural-taxonomic unit of the MSA. Comparative analyses suggest increased regionalization of lithic technology in southern Africa during MIS 3, the maintenance of advanced lithic technology and complex cultural repertoires, as well as dense populations in some areas. These findings reject the dominant Synthetic Model by showing that complex behaviors were well-established in human populations before and after the HP and SB. The results also falsify ideas of cultural regression and demographic collapses after the HP. Regarding the third major topic, the thesis shows how the phenomenon of convergence can confound the common approach by Paleolithic archaeologists to track large-scale dispersals of modern humans out of Africa by means of stone artifacts. The demonstration of an independent innovation of “Nubian” core technology during MIS 3 in southern Africa, with these artifact types having recently been used to monitor the earliest migrations of modern humans from north-eastern Africa to Arabia, provides a cautionary example that single core or tool types cannot adequately trace such dispersals on large temporal and spatial scales. Apart from providing new insights into the evolution and dispersal of modern humans, the thesis highlights the need for novel approaches in lithic analyses and a holistic bio-cultural perspective on human evolution.

- by Manuel Will
- •
- Archaeology, Paleoanthropology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Human Evolution

The ‘Movius Line’ is the putative technological demarcation
line mapping the easternmost geographical distribution
of Acheulean bifacial tools. It is traditionally argued by
proponents of the Movius Line that ‘true’ Acheulean bifaces,
especially handaxes, are only found in abundance in Africa
and western Eurasia, whereas in eastern Asia, in front of the
‘line’, these implements are rare or absent altogether. Here
we argue, however, that the Movius Line relies on classifying
undated surface bifaces as Acheulean on typological grounds
alone, a long-standing and widely accepted practice in Africa
and western Eurasia, but one that is not seen as legitimate in
eastern Asian contexts. A review of the literature shows that
bifaces are relatively common as surface finds in Southeast
Asia and on this basis we argue that the Movius Line is in
need of reassessment.

- by Adam Brumm and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Palaeolithic Archaeology, Behaviour (Human Evolution)

Between 1987 and 1992, Intermountain Research (IMR) conducted a program of survey, testing, and data recovery at Tosawihi Quarries, north-central Nevada on behalf of various gold mining consultants and companies. The area containing silicified outcrops and associated archaeological localities occupies about 28,500 acres, with intensive quarrying in about 825 acres. IMR Conducted block surveys in the area of intensive quarrying and in areas peripheral to it (Western Periphery, Eastern Periphery, Northern Corridor) where mining operations were contemplated. Unlike the the nearly continuous distribution of quarry features and associated debris in the primary quarry area, the localities in the peripheral areas were spatially discrete and functionally diverse, including quarries, short-term residential loci containing food processing implements and exotic lithic materials, small reduction loci and isolated artifacts. This volume describes the research context (natural and cultural landscape, economic models, research design), analytical data classes, and site descriptions. Volume two contains discussions about chronology, subsistence, reduction trajectories, toolstone extraction, assemblage characteristics, site function , spatial relationships and economics of lithic production.

- by Robert G . Elston and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Lithic analysis and organization of technology, Prehistoric Quarries

Le massif de l’Estérel est marqué par de nombreuses occupations du Paléolithique moyen. Pourtant la ressource locale, la rhyolite, est remarquablement mal connue : autant dans les aspects de caractérisation que dans les processus de diffusion au cours de la Préhistoire. Ce travail s’intéresse à la composante en rhyolite des industries lithiques moustériennes de l’arc Liguro-Provençal dans une perspective techno-économique.

- by Karen Borrazzo
- •
- Zooarchaeology, Paleoenvironment, Lithic Technology, Patagonia, Archaeology of

The exploitation of the quarries at Plancher-les-Mines (Haute-Saône) and, to a lesser extent, that of Réquista (Aveyron) present good examples of the regional produc-tion of technical tools, whose diffusion barely exceeds 200 to 250 km as the crow flies during the 4th and 3rd millennia B.C. They make interesting points of comparison with the production of axes made of Alpine jades, which, on the contrary, can be found over the whole of Western Europe, at distances of up to 1 700 km, during the whole of the 5th and part of the 4th millennia.
In the case of Plancher-les-Mines, we will study the diffusion of polished axes in terms of social functioning, testing the models proposed by Colin Renfrew, and in particular the decreasing number of artifacts, the further one gets from their point of origin, using one of the best data-bases in France (more than 30,000 artefacts in pelite-quartz : flakes, rough-outs, polished axes, chisels, etc. currently inventoried).
Such an interpretative model, in which are involved the popu-lations and means and rhythms of exploiting of the source-material, the relative distances covered by the various products of the chaîne opératoire (rough-outs, hammer-stones, working axes, large polished axes), should provide a better context in which to elucidate the reasons for the transfer of certain axe and adze blades over substantially greater distan-ces than that of classic down-the-line exchanges. This model can then be compared with the distribution across Europe of Alpine jade axes, which extends considerably further than that of polished axe blades manufactured from regional rocks, such as those from Plancher-les-Mines and Réquista.

The study of artifacts is fundamental to archaeological research. The features of individual artifacts are recorded, analyzed, and compared within and between contextual assemblages. Here we present and make available for academic-use Artifact3-D, a new software package comprised of a suite of analysis and documentation procedures for archaeological artifacts. We introduce it here, alongside real archaeological case studies to demonstrate its utility. Artifact3-D equips its users with a range of computational functions for accurate measurements, including orthogonal distances, surface area, volume, CoM, edge angles, asymmetry, and scar attributes. Metrics and figures for each of these measurements are easily exported for the purposes of further analysis and illustration. We test these functions on a range of real archaeological case studies pertaining to tool functionality, technological organization, manufacturing traditions, knapping techniques, and knapper skill. Here we focus on lithic artifacts, but the Artifact3-D software can be used on any artifact type to address the needs of modern archaeology. Computational methods are increasingly becoming entwined in the excavation, documentation, analysis, database creation, and publication of archaeological research. Artifact3-D offers functions to address every stage of this workflow. It equips the user with the requisite toolkit for archaeological research that is accurate, objective, repeatable and efficient. This program will help archaeological research deal with the abundant material found during excavations and will open new horizons in research trajectories.

- by Leore Grosman and +2
- •
- Archaeology, Digital Archaeology, Archaeological Method & Theory, Levant Prehistory

Arrowheads, projectile points, or, more generally, hafted
bifaces, have long been the focus of archaeological
investigations. They have captured the attention of
many archaeological enthusiasts, amateur archaeologists,
collectors, and professional archaeologists for decades.
Much has been learned from this focused attention, such
as chronologies, cultural settlement and mobility patterns,
social interaction, trade and transmission of ideas, among
many other things. Understanding formal typologies and
the relationships between technological systems are at the
very heart of archaeology, as it gives us a means by which
to understand the human past. The Southern Hardin, a
relatively unknown hafted biface type in the southeastern
United States, is just one of many such artifacts found in
South Carolina and the broader Southeast. Its presence and
characteristics have been grossly under-evaluated, as its
frequency in assemblages is very sparse to nonexistent. A
sample of this type from South Carolina is evaluated here,
and patterns of spatial distribution, raw material selection,
morphology, and its technological relationship with other
types are presented. This paper is intended to form an
initial understanding of its presence in South Carolina
and the Southeast, in order to more fully understand the
spectrum of cultural development and change among
Early Archaic hunter-gatherers.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a first approximation of explorations and excavations throughout the White Mountain and Steese Conservation areas during the summer field seasons of 2010 and 2011 in the Yukon Tanana Uplands, central Alaska. An analysis of the lithic artifacts from five site excavations (the Big Bend, Bachelor Creek, Bear Creek, US Creek and Cripple Creek) was then undertaken. These assemblages were then examined and modeled using risk-assessments, optimal resource use, and behavioral processes in order to explore the interdependence of environment, ecology, and material culture that drove prehistoric subsistence cycles in this area. This archaeological research will supplement ethnographies to indicate patterns of change and constants in landscape value, trade networks, and local economic strategies.

- by Gerad Smith
- •
- Archaeology, Anthropology, Archaeological Predictive Modeling, Behavioral Ecology

Researchers have explored how hearths were used and the composition of fuel to understand cultural differences and environmental adaptations. However, scant research has been conducted to understand and document methods for producing fires. Given the long-lasting durability of stone, the stone-on-stone method for producing fire with a strike-a-light will survive for thousands of years in
the archaeological record; hence it is important to recognize and document these tools. This paper will present an artifact used as a strike-a-light for producing fire in the subarctic region of interior Alaska
(middle Tanana Valley) some 5,500 years ago. The strike-a-light recognized at Goodpaster-IV is, to our knowledge, the most ancient example currently known in the American Subarctic. By reviewing the current state of research on European strike-a-lights from the French Mesolithic and Neolithic and describing use-wear analysis of the strike-a-light, we demonstrate important characteristics that reveal how strike-a-light tools were implemented in prehistory.

- by Yan Axel Gómez Coutouly and +4
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Alaska Native Studies, American Indian & Alaska Native

"Our view of Neanderthals as a species has been transformed over the last decade following important archaeological discoveries, and
advances in palaeogenetics. New evidence from varied elements of the Late Middle Palaeolithic (lithic raw material transport and
symbolic artefacts/practices) compel reconsideration of other aspects of material culture, and prevailing models of social networks built
upon them. It is suggested that Neanderthals were operating on larger social scales than previously acknowledged, and that regionallydistinctive
lithic traditions found around 60-40,000 BP acted as cultural/ethic markers. They provided a mechanism for individuals to
manage social relations with other groups, facilitating biological reproduction and maintaining relations during times of population
fragmentation and expansion. Reconsidering the Late Middle Palaeolithic record in this way transforms our view of how Neanderthals
perceived their own material record, and sets a stage for the extensive and intimate social contact that we now know was occurring
between late Neanderthals and incoming anatomically modern humans, the vestiges of which we still carry today (Burbano et al. 2010;
Green et al. 2010)."

Previous models predicting Early Archaic mobility and subsistence strategies in South Carolina have evaluated behavioral negotiations of specific resource distributions. A new model is presented using empirical datasets that quantify and evaluate the quality and geographic distributions of lithic raw materials and drainage systems in the state. By utilizing datasets from private collections and landscape elevation data, this model is generated using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software in order to produce a "Risk Landscape" from which predictions of site density, artifact density, lithic raw material diversity, and the condition of lithic toolkit assemblages can be generated based on landscape location. This model is tested using geographically extensive private collections from site specific locations and demonstrate variability in archaeological assemblages based on proximity to resources.

A l’extrême fin du stade isotopique 3a, le Châtelperronien, dernière manifestation des néandertaliens en France et dans le nord de l’Espagne, est un technocomplexe défini comme de transition avec un monde nouveau, celui du Paléolithique supérieur, dont l’artisan est l’Homme anatomiquement moderne. Cette industrie n’est pourtant connue que par un nombre restreint de séries récemment étudiées. Nous en documentons ici la variabilité, par le biais de l'analyse taphonomique et techno-économique de trois séries lithiques aquitaines de plein-air : le Basté (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), Bidart (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) et Canaule II (Dordogne).
Intégrés à une synthèse bibliographique mobilisant les autres collections châtelperroniennes pondérées selon leur valeur, ces résultats confirment la forte unité technique du Châtelperronien, probablement symptomatique d’une unité culturelle forte, tant dans les modalités que dans les objectifs de la production lithique, Quasi-exclusivement laminaire, l’équipement lithique est orienté vers l’obtention, à la pierre tendre, de lames plutôt larges et courtes, de profil rectiligne, principalement dévolues à la fabrication de pointes ou couteaux de Châtelperron. En outre, la forte unité morphométrique de ces dernières, ajouté à la remise en cause de la réalité d'une composante moustérienne au sein de l'industrie châtelperronienne, remettent en cause l’idée d'une évolution interne de cette culture au travers de ces arguments classiquement admis.
Le Châtelperronien ne peut donc plus être défini, en l'absence de mixité culturelle dans les chaînes opératoires observées, comme une industrie de "transition" au sens propre du terme.
Toutefois, le processus ayant conduit à sa formation depuis un substrat moustérien local, semble reposer sur la place prépondérante donnée à la recherche de pointes lithiques légères et potentiellement utilisées comme armatures. Ce processus est comparable à celui en action, à la même période et dans le reste de l'Europe occidentale, au sein des autres technocomplexes dits de "transition".
Ces travaux rejoignent ainsi l’idée d’une apparition graduelle des éléments structurants du Paléolithique supérieur, dont certains sont déjà en œuvre bien avant l'émergence de l'Aurignacien (production laminaire, rôle prépondérant des armatures au sein des équipements lithiques, industrie en matière dure animale). Ils tendent donc à estomper l'image de rupture communément admise pour cette période charnière dans l'histoire de l'humanité.

- by Bachellerie Francois
- •
- Prehistoric Archaeology, Lithic Technology, Lithics, Paleolithic Europe

‘Ein Qashish (EQ) is a late Middle Paleolithic (w60 ka) open-air site located in the Yizra’el Valley east of
Mt. Carmel, at the geographic center between some of the major Middle Paleolithic cave sites in northern Israel. Three seasons of excavation at the site revealed a small faunal collection and a diverse lithic assemblage. In this paper we discuss the composition, reduction technology, and raw material curation strategies represented in the assemblage. The assemblage is flake-dominated, with low frequencies
of retouched artifacts and of cores. Several reduction sequences were identified. Products of Levallois methods appear in low frequencies. The modified artifacts include lightly retouched flakes and blades, side-scrapers, truncations and burins. The low frequencies of primary elements, core trimming elements, and cores suggest that only part of the reduction sequence took place on-site. Side-scrapers may have been imported into the locality. In contrast, short non-Levallois reduction sequences were
applied on-site. The expedient nature of the retouch and of local reduction sequences suggests that the site represents
an ephemeral occupation(s) on the banks of the Qishon stream. The nature of the lithic assemblage is not
consistent with specific tasks such as butchery or hunting. Technological aspects of the assemblage and
its composition bear similarities to those observed in habitation sites found in caves in the late Middle
Paleolithic.

- by Erella Hovers and +1
- •
- Prehistoric Archaeology, Levant Prehistory, Lithic Technology, Middle Palaeolithic