Stone tool technology Research Papers (original) (raw)

2025, Archaeological Explorations of the Eastern Trans-Pecos and Big BendL Collected Papers, Vol. 1, Trans-Pecos Archaeological Program Publications

The recent discovery of an Andice type dart point within an eroded hearth in Green Valley, Brewster County, Texas, has stimulated inquiry into the poorly understood Calf Creek culturein the Big Bend. The Andice point type is recognized as one of three overlapping varieties of deep basal-notched Middle Holocene projectiles believed to be affi liated with the Calf Creek
cultural horizon in portions of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. While Andice points have a documented presence in the Big Bend, their relationship to the Calf Creek cultural phenomenon to the east and northeast of the region remains unresolved.

2025, Scientific Reports

Human behaviors from toolmaking to language are thought to rely on a uniquely evolved capacity for hierarchical action sequencing. Testing this idea will require objective, generalizable methods for measuring the structural complexity of real-world behavior. Here we present a data-driven approach for extracting action grammars from basic ethograms, exemplified with respect to the evolutionarily relevant behavior of stone toolmaking. We analyzed sequences from the experimental replication of ~ 2.5 Mya Oldowan vs. ~ 0.5 Mya Acheulean tools, finding that, while using the same “alphabet” of elementary actions, Acheulean sequences are quantifiably more complex and Oldowan grammars are a subset of Acheulean grammars. We illustrate the utility of our complexity measures by re-analyzing data from an fMRI study of stone toolmaking to identify brain responses to structural complexity. Beyond specific implications regarding the co-evolution of language and technology, this exercise illustrates...

2025, PloS one

Stone tools provide some of the most abundant, continuous, and high resolution evidence of behavioral change over human evolution, but their implications for cognitive evolution have remained unclear. We investigated the neurophysiological demands of stone toolmaking by training modern subjects in known Paleolithic methods ("Oldowan", "Acheulean") and collecting structural and functional brain imaging data as they made technical judgments (outcome prediction, strategic appropriateness) about planned actions on partially completed tools. Results show that this task affected neural activity and functional connectivity in dorsal prefrontal cortex, that effect magnitude correlated with the frequency of correct strategic judgments, and that the frequency of correct strategic judgments was predictive of success in Acheulean, but not Oldowan, toolmaking. This corroborates hypothesized cognitive control demands of Acheulean toolmaking, specifically including information ...

2025, THE HOUSES FROM ILIPINAR PHASE X AND VI COMPARED

In this chapter the architecture of Ilıpınar Phase X (ca. 6000-5900 BC) and Phase VI (ca. 5700 BC) are compared. The reason to compare these two phases is that only in these periods fires have consolidated the wooden and mud-brick architecture remains in the excavated area. The comparison is not balanced however, since in Phase X only one complete house was recovered while in Phase VI 15 houses were studied. Therefore the Phase X house is considered a 'standard' house for its period, while the Phase VI houses show some individual variations. In the ca. 300 years that separate these buildings a shift took place from houses with wooden postwalls to houses with mud-brick walls. Also the earlier house has a single storey with a tamped floor, while most of the Phase VI houses have two stories and suspended ground floors. Despite a break in the architectural tradition, the way the interior was used and the elements of the household show a long continuous tradition. Over 300 years the appearance of some objects and installations have changed little; they are basically the same and are used in the same manner. Examples of this include: grinding installations, rectangular indoor ovens, andirons, wall-side bins and the so-called 'tables' at the base of the two roof-carrying posts at the central axis of the house plan. Bu bölümde Ilıpınar'ın X. evre'si (yakla ık MÖ 6000-5900) ile VI. evre'si (yakla ık MÖ 5700) mukayese edilmektedir. Bu iki evrenin birbiri ile kar ıla tırılabilmesinin nedeni, kazılan alanda tahta ve kerpiç mimari kalıntılarının sadece bu dönemlerde yangınla korunmu olarak ortaya çıkmasıdır. X. evre' de sadece bir tam ev bulunmu ken, evre VI' da 15 ev kalıntısının açı a çıkarılmı olması nedeniyle, bu kar ıla tırmanın dengeli olmadı ı görülüyor. Bu nedenle VI. evre'deki evler bazı bireysel de i kenlikler gösterirken, X. evre'deki tek ev bulundu u dönem için "standart" ev olarak dikkate alınmaktadır. Bu evleri birbirinden ayıran yakla ık 300 yıllık bir dönem içerisinde, ah ap kazık duvarlı (postwalls) evlerden, kerpiç duvarlı evlere bir geçi gerçekle mi tir. VI. evre'deki ço u evler iki katlı ve asma zemin tabanlardan olu urken, en eski ev sıkı tırılmı toprak tabanlı tek bir kattan ibaretti. Mimari gelene indeki bu ayrılmaya ra men, ev içlerinin kullanımı ve içeri inin uzun süreli bir gelene i korudu u görülüyor. 300 yıl boyunca ev içlerindeki bazı e ya ve tertibatlar, temelde aynı ve benzer ekilde kullanılmı olmakla birlikte, biraz de i mi lerdi. Bunlara örnek olarak , ö ütme düzenekleri, dikdörtgen iç mekan ocakları, andironlar, duvar yanlarındaki ambarlar ile ev planının merkezinde yer alan ve çatıları ta ıyan iki tahta kazı ın temelinde bulunan "sehpa" benzeri yapılar gösterilebilir.

2025, Journal of Anthropological Survey of India

The quaternary deposits of Chota Nagpur Plateau region are also the repository of post-Pliestocene culture. Artefacts of various prehistoric cultural stages have been recovered from this region and its adjoining areas by various scholars and they show the continuity of prehistoric culture present in various geological deposits. Among the discovered artefacts, lithic remains are the most important as they give more detailed picture of the past human behaviour. An attempt has been made in this paper to highlight the post-Pleistocene culture of the region at Galudih of Mahulia Panchayet of Ghatsila Block of East Singhbhum region of Jharkhand including mode of adaptation of humans in prehistoric times.

2025, PloS one

2025, The Researchers’ - Volume X, Issue II, July-December 2024 ISSN : 2455-1503 International Research Journal (Double-blind peer-reviewed)

This study explores the prehistoric site of Tirildihi, located near the Similipal Biosphere Reserve in Mayurbhanj, Odisha, India, through the analysis of 58 stone tools from the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods. The tools, predominantly flakes and scrapers, were collected from exposed surfaces and erosional slopes near the Machakandana Hill. The artifacts, made from various raw materials such as Black Chert, Grey Chert, Quartz, and Quartzite, are classified based on typology, technology, and raw material. Flaking is the primary technology used, and the majority of tools belong to the Upper Palaeolithic, reflecting advances in stone tool technology. The analysis indicates a preference for tools like flakes and scrapers, with specialized tools such as spearheads being rarer. The study also presents detailed measurements of tool dimensions and weight, revealing significant variability in size, which suggests a range of uses. The findings highlight the technological complexity of the Upper Palaeolithic period and the adaptation of prehistoric communities to their environment.

2024, Quaternary International

This paper presents the results of the analysis of the lithics from the Palaeolithic layers of Mavri Spilia, excavated during the field season of 2013. For the most part, these lithic assemblages were associated with hearth formations, both at the back and at the entrance of the cave. A wide range of raw materials both local and non-local was used, most likely in the form of pebbles. Evidence points to the application of both Levallois and non-Levallois reduction sequences, with no indication that different techniques were applied on different materials. The most common retouched tool type is the scraper, with most of these being ordinary side scrapers and only a few indicating more invasive, Quina-like retouch. Using all available information, an attempt to understand the site in the context of the Late Pleistocene Neanderthal occupation of the Mani Peninsula is made and some tentative conclusions are drawn.

2024, Revista do Instituto Goiano de Pré-História e Antropologia

Resumo: este estudo se concentra na análise das evidências de uso do fogo em sítios arqueológicos, permitindo a verificação de toda uma sequência estratigráfica e produção de fogueiras. Os carvões encontrados no Abrigo de Itapeva, em São Paulo, Brasil, sugerem várias ações associadas às atividades sedimentares do local. A espectroscopia Raman revelou uma sequência estratigráfica consistente, com a presença de carvão desde os níveis iniciais de ocupação humana. A Difração de Raios X indicou interação com vestígios orgânicos durante a queima, enquanto a espectroscopia no infravermelho confirmou a presença de matéria orgânica nos sedimentos e identificou níveis estratigráficos específicos. Conclui-se que fogueiras, com diferentes constituições físicas e presentes em diversos períodos, revelam uma sequência de atividades humanas ao longo de um extenso período de ocupação por diferentes grupos humanos.

2024, Quaternary International

Numerous researchers have noted that at Lower Paleolithic sites in East Africa hominins largely exploited quartz toolstone with the bipolar reduction technique. The choice to pursue bipolar knapping on quartz is often attributed to raw material constraints. Thus, at some East African Lower Paleolithic sites the abundance of bipolar knapping may have simply constituted a response to the local absence of lithic resources other than small quartz pebbles. However, at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, where a variety of other stone raw materials were available, the hominin use of bipolar reduction is still predominately tied to quartz. While quartz raw material constraints may explain the use of bipolar reduction on quartz at Olduvai, what they do not explain is the virtual absence of bipolar reduction on non-quartz toolstones. Thus, we ask here two separate, but related questions: (1) why did hominins use bipolar on quartz?; and (2) why did hominins avoid bipolar on non-quartz? To begin to understand this tight technologytoolstone connection, we formulated two simple hypotheses, which we tested via experimental stone tool replication: (1) Quartz bipolar reduction produces flakes that possess "superior" functional characteristics to those produced via non-quartz bipolar reduction; (2) Bipolar reduction is more expedient on quartz than on non-quartz toolstones. Our experimental tests indicated that while quartz and basalt bipolar reduction yield flakes with similar attributes, bipolar reduction on quartz is significantly more expedient than it is on basalt. As such, the close technologyetoolstone association between quartz and bipolar can be explained by constraints and advantages of both quartz and basalt alike. Bipolar reduction is already widely acknowledged to be an expedient technology requiring little to no skill. By applying bipolar reduction exclusively to quartz, hominins at Olduvai appear to have only enhanced this reduction strategy's features. Overall, our experimental results are consistent with the widely-held notion that Lower Paleolithic hominins recognized the differences in the physical properties of different types of raw material, and that it is the interplay between raw material and reduction strategy that governed hominin association between bipolar reduction and quartz at Olduvai.

2024, Quaternary International

2024, Junior Academic Staff Symposium

Fossil animals (Ratnapura fauna) with man-made chopping and cutting tools that have been discovered from the alluvial soil deposits (gem-containing) in the Ratnapura Deposits, can be considered as ancient stone tools. These findings named as the “Ratnapura Industry” represent the Pleistocene of the Quaternary period according to the Geological Time Scale. This stone tool was found from the upper soil layer of the Thalagahakanda gem mine in Theppanawa Grama Niladhari Division of the Kuruwita Divisional Secretariat. The research problem of this study is to find what is the tradition of this stone tool represent according to the archaeological chronology. Presentation of relative dating for the aforesaid stone tool and identification of its technology can be pointed out as the purpose of this research. The hypothetical deductive method was used during the research and based on the hypothesis that this stone tool represents the lower palaeolithic period, the data record was created by the direct observation, comparison of models, and by taking measurements. Moreover, nonstructured interviews were conducted with five archaeologists. This stone tool had made of chert and marks formed because of flaking off can be identified from the center of its dorsal surface to the Proximal end. The rest of the stone can be recognized as smooth. Flakes are removed at the Distal end of its Ventral surface and ridges can be seen there. Flakes are also removed from the left and right extremities of the Medal of the stone. The tool was designed to befit the size of the palm. The length and the width of this tool are 152.25mm and 80.17mm respectively whereas its thickness is 38.86mm. The extinct vertebrates indicate that the environment in which they lived was a rainforest savannah and consisted of rivers and large lakes watered by heavy rainfall. It can be pointed out that this kind of technological tradition is followed due to the environmental adaptation of the contemporary man. Therefore, as the result of this research, it can be highlighted that in terms of the technology and the form of the above-mentioned stone tool, it is more likely to belong to the Lower Paleolithic period

2024, Junior Academic Staff Symposium (JASS)

2024, Open Archaeology (Meso’2020 – Tenth International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, edited by Thomas Perrin, Benjamin Marquebielle, Sylvie Philibert, and Nicolas Valdeyron)

The coastal settlement in Middle Mesolithic (MM) Southeast Norway is generally described as a dynamic system of small, short-lived sites and large sites that were visited repeatedly over a long time. It has been suggested that in this periodcompared to the preceding Early Mesolithic (EM)an increased attraction towards the large archipelagos along the Norwegian coast, and their broad spectrum of both marine and terrestrial food sources, took place. This has, however, been debated. An important background for the discussion is the documented population influx and the abrupt shift in tool technology around 8300 cal BCE. The question remains whether this great social and technological upheaval was followed by a transformation or break in the environmental knowledge and changes in the ways of living, such as new humanenvironment relations, settlement systems, and mobility patterns. We propose that the continuous process of enculturation of the land and environment would have played a decisive role in the societal development. In this article, we therefore investigate details of site construction and mobility patterns, as well as the marking of the land by the establishment of settlement sites and exploitation of lithic raw materials on a larger scale. We concentrate our investigation on the on-site activity, site location, lithic raw material economy, and technological organisation, which brings renewed opportunities for discussing enculturation processes in the period. Our results document a diverse settlement pattern, as well as diachronic variation, suggesting an internal duality within the sociocultural development process in the area. The article presents the new results from the InterCity Vestfold project, situated by the Oslofjord west coast. Our data comprise a total of eight excavated and 69 surveyed sites from 4 municipalities. A strong isostatic land uplift caused continuous and rapid changes in the shoreline configuration and its nearby environments, in the Oslofjord area throughout the Mesolithic. To enable the discussion of human-environment relations, we therefore present a new relative sea level (RSL) curve, supplying detailed data on the shoreline development in the project area.

2024, Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society

The Llano Crossing site of Central Texas has an uncommon natural depositional record that spanned
the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene period. Within these deposits are intermittent archeological
components that revealed punctuated occupations throughout much of prehistory from Paleoindian to
Late Prehistoric times. Why and when the site was occupied during this long time frame is a central
research question. A series of correlations suggest the site was occupied during cooler, wetter, times
of bison presence in the region. Using spatial analyses of site distribution patterns as well as temporal
correlations, the site is inferred to represent a long-recurring economic pattern along a strategic vantage
point in a constrained topography. The inferred patterns have implications for regional technology,
site distribution patterns, and many other aspects of prehistoric society in Central Texas over the last
12,000 years or more.

2024

Граптоліти і біохронологія шельфових і нерітових відкладів Силура України.
У монографії описано 47 видів та 7 підвидів граптолітів, що належать до 25 родів 5 родин отряду Graptoloidea.
Біохронологія дозволяє вперше аргументувати поділ Силура на три Епохи / Підсистеми. Вони поділяються на біостратиграфічні стратони: Етапи / Пояси > Віки / Яруси (Tiers) > Фази / Зони.
Вперше обгрунтовується така об’єктивна реальність - палеонтогічна процедура дала Стратиграфії два методи біостратифікації осадових товщ порід: 1) Глибоководних терігенних відкладів за рештками планктонних груп організмів на Фази / Зони > Віки / Яруси (Tiers) і 2) мілководних шельфових за рештками бентосних груп на Етапи / Пояси.
Геологічна історія Землі закарбувала у рештках викопних організмів України 5 невідомих науці силурійських Віків / Ярусів (Tiers) : Конівський, Тагринський, Метонський, Ставанський і Склавинський. Вони знаходяться на шкалі геологічного часу вище граптолітової Зони Saetograptus leintwardinensis і протягуються в межах України до кінця силурійського Періоду - до підошви ранньо-девонської граптолітової Зони Tirassograptus uniformis.
Пост-Лудлов – пре-Скала (= пре-Скальский Етап / Пояс - перерва / прогалина геологічного часу (Hiatus) МСШ заповнилася Улічським Етапом / Поясом пізнього Силуру.
Реконструкція схеми Стратиграфії Силура України показує, що в геологічному розрізі стратотипового району Силура Великобританії відсутня вся Подільська Епоха / Підсистема верхнього Силура - Улічський і Скальський Пояси.
В роботі всебічно обгрунтовано перший макет Міжнародної біостратиграфічної шкали (МСШ) Силура, який відповідає вимогам восьмої сесії МГК (Париж, 1900, табл. 2) та сучасній ієрархії стратонів всіх геологічних систем Фанерозоя: Період / Система > Епоха / Підсистема > Етап / Пояс > Вік / Ярус > Фаза / Зона.

2024, Annales de la Fondation Fyssen

L’histoire des techniques est jalonnée d’innovations plus ou moins pérennes qui ont transformé les modes de vie des sociétés humaines au cours des millénaires et leur ont permis d’investir une grande variété d’environnements. La production d’outils par pression compte parmi les innovations ayant marqué un changement technique majeur au cours de cette histoire. Après son émergence pendant le Dernier Maximum Glaciaire, elle a été mise en oeuvre pendant plus de dix millénaires pour répondre aux besoins des groupes humains en milieux subarctique et arctique au Nord-Est de l’Asie et en Amérique du Nord. Pour comprendre comment ce bagage technique éminemment innovant a participé à l’adaptation des sociétés humaines aux environnements froids, cet article analyse le fonctionnement et l’économie de l’outillage de pierre taillée du site de Pirika (Nord du Japon), qui livre l’un des plus anciens ensembles à composante lamellaire par pression connu en Asie du Nord-Est. L’anticipation des besoins a eu une place considérable dans l’organisation techno-économique de Pirika et cela a probablement largement participé au succès des technologies lamellaires par pression en milieu froid.

2024, Looking Back:

The Plateau Microblade Tradition chapter (revised 2023) from my 2006 Ph.D dissertation.

2024

This paper will be presented the latest research made of gold aggregates found with sclich prospection along the Sushevska river, near Strumica, Eastern Macedonia. The results showed that it was a nugget that is hight grade with average content of gold from 89.85 to 99.72%, significant content of mercury (0.24 to 6.27%) and silver (0.24 to 18.41 %). Of the remaining impurities in small amounts srekjavat iron telurot, copper and arsenic. Investigations showed the morphology of different shapes: elongated, flattened, irregular, isometric, rounded form.

2024, IANSA, Volume XV, Issue 1/2024

The Želešice metabasite body served as a significant area for the exploitation of raw material for the production of polished stone tools in the Neolithic. This study is based on petrographical and mineralogical comparisons of the artefacts from the Želešice-type metabasite collected in the Neolithic settlement (and workshop) at Brno-Holásky/Tuřany with the various rock types occurring around the Želešice metabasite body. The determination of the most probable locations of Neolithic exploitation within the Želešice metabasite body is given. The three main rock varieties of the artefacts from Želešice metabasite have been specified. They match well in their petrography and mineralogy with the rock types determined in the source region. The artefacts with pebble surfaces were most likely obtained from the nearby Bobrava riverbed.

2024, American Antiquity

The pressure knapping technique develops circa 25,000 cal BP in Northeast Asia and excels at producing highly standardized microblades. Microblade pressure knapping spreads throughout most of Northeast Asia up to the Russian Arctic, and Alaska, in areas where the human presence was unknown. Swan Point CZ4b is the earliest uncontested evidence of human occupation of Alaska, at around 14,000 cal BP. It yields a pressure microblade component produced with the Yubetsu method, which is widespread in Northeast Asia during the Late Glacial period. Through the techno-functional analysis of 634 lithic pieces from this site, this study seeks to identify the techno-economical purposes for which the Yubetsu method was implemented. Data show that the microblade production system is related to an economy based on the planning of future needs, which is visible through blanks standardization, their overproduction, their functional versatility, and the segmentation of part of the chaîne opératoire. This expresses the efficiency and economic value of the microblade production system. The flexible use of pressure microblades identified at Swan Point CZ4b is also found in Japan, Korea, Kamchatka, and the North Baikal region, suggesting that their modes of use accompany the spread of early microblade pressure knapping over an immense territory across Beringia.

2024, PLOS ONE

The Lower Paleolithic Late Acheulian in the Levant marks a fascinating chapter in human cultural and biological evolution. Nevertheless, many aspects of the Late Acheulian are still undeciphered, hindered by the complex nature of each site on the one hand, a scarcity of wide, multidisciplinary studies on the other, and by difficulties in obtaining absolute chronology for this timeframe. Therefore, subjects such as human subsistence strategies and modes of adaptation, regional diversity, and the possible existence and nature of interactions between hominin groups are largely understudied. The discovery and study of Jaljulia, a large-scale Late Acheulian site at the central Coastal Plain, Israel, add valuable insights to the research of this chapter in human history. Considered to represent recurrent occupations at a favored, water and flint-rich setting, the site has provided extensive lithic assemblages obtained from several localities. Absolute chronology places the human activity ...

2024, Macedoniae Acta Archaeologica 21

The site Golema Pešt is located to the southwest of Skopje, near the village Zdunje in the
Poreče Region. The entrance of the cave has southeastern orientation with a view on the artificial Lake Kozjak, and on the Treska River in the past. There were several seasons of excavations in the cave, where the trenches were set at different locations: next to the entrance, in the middle, at the end. ± The explorations in four sectors, so far have revealed material remains of stone and bone which point to several phases of inhabitance.
The stone artifacts from the geological layers 6 and 5 in the sector II of Golema Pešt, as well as those in the contact zones, were carefully divided during the excavations, and at the end, their affiliation was defined into separate unit. From the analyzed material in these layers, we can confirm existence of Middle Paleolithic elements. From the raw material, dominant are the milky quartz and the transparent rock crystal, and there also are the quartzite, jasper, rhyolite, flint and basalt. The small cores and tools were made of small pebbles which goes with the fact that was the most frequent raw material in the surrounding area. Stressed is the micro-dimension of the artifacts, at both retouched and unretouched finds.
During the processing of the discovered lithic material from sector II, layers 6 and 5, the division is made into several catogries: cores, cores with traces of breaking, unretouched flakes, unretouched blades and fragments from blades, tools, fragments from flakes, small flakes below 15 mm, chips, chunks, undeterminable. Since the excavation of the site is still ongoing, it is impossible to calculate the spatial distribution of the stone artifacts. The text presents 211 samples which include: cores, characteristic flakes and tools.
The largest concentration of finds is registered in the contact zones: 5a and 5a/4 (from 10 cm
thickness), 5a/4 and 4 (10 cm thickness) and layer 4 (from 15 cm thickness). However, the mix of elements and features in these contact zones, as well as layer 4, point to the existence of two conceptions – Middle and Upper Paleolithic. However, geological layer 3, contact zone 3/2 and the layer 2, with overall thickness of 35 cm, contain Upper Paleolithic characteristics and their determination is placed into a separate unit, more precisely into the cultural layer I. It is hard to determine to which part of the Upper Paleolithic the cores and the tools from layers 3 and 2 belong. For now, besides the typological and technological characteristics, i.e. uniplatform, doubleplatform and cores with changed orientation, the tools do not have strong typological variety. Most numerous are the retouched flakes, the notched tools and the denticulated tools formed on flakes, while the blades and the endscrapers appear in small number. Present is the microlitisation of the finds in the Middle Paleolithic stratum. As an indicator, there is the analysis of volcanic ash, so-called Campanian Ignibrite whose traces are confirmed in the geological layers 3 and 2. The samples from the sedimentation were collected in situ, along the vertical section in 2010 and 2011, and the provided laboratory data matches CI – the largest volcano eruption in Europe that occurred in the time of 40 000 BCE.
Summarized, the geological layers 6 and 5 (as well as in the contact zones) are separated in
the cultural layer II with Middle Paleolithic traditions. The finds were discovered in sedimentation with overall thickness of around 90 cm. Documented are levallois cores and discoid cores, flakes from levallois technique and preparations for bifacial forms of tools. More numerous are the denticulated and the notched tools, and prevalent are the retouched flakes. There are several samples of perforators and bifacial forms, while the least frequent are sidescrapers. The microlitisation is evident. The material undoubtedly points to Mousterian origin. The results from the radiocarbon analysis of two samples of charcoal from these layers revealed dates between 47.100 ± 4.800 and >50.000 BC which contribute to the Upper Middle Paleolithic or the Late Mousterian.
Sites from different regions of the Balkans which have most matches with our site are: the cave Vindija in the NW part of Croatia with Late Mousterian industry dated around 42000 BC; Mujina Pećina in Dalmatia, Croatia, close to the Adriatic coast, defined as Upper Mousterian/ Micromousterian, dated in 50 000 – 40 000 BC; Crvena Stijena in Montenegro where the Upper Mosuterian is dated 40 777 ± 900 BC; in Serbia in the Petrovaradin Fortress (Novi Sad, Vojvodina), in Hadji-Prodanova Pećina (SW Serbia) and the complex Balanica (two caves at 15 km from Niš); in Bulgaria – the sites Bacho Kiro, Temnata dupka, Muselievo, Samuilica II, Kozarnik, Dikilitash and Devetashka peshtera with dates of the Middle Paleolithic collections in the time of 67 000 – 47 000 BC; as well as in Greece Asprochaliko (NW Greece, Epirus), Upper Mousterian/ Micromousterian > 39 900 BC.
The listed sites are chosen due to the comparison of the typological characteristics, the small
dimension finds, most frequent raw material – quartz, and they also have similar chronological indicators.

2024, Antiquity

Lithic technologies dominate understanding of early humans, yet natural processes can fracture rock in ways that resemble artefacts made by Homo sapiens and other primates. Differentiating between fractures made by natural processes and primates is important for assessing the validity of early and controversial archaeological sites. Rather than depend on expert authority or intuition, the authors propose a null model of conchoidally fractured Antarctic rocks. As no primates have ever occupied the continent, Antarctica offers a laboratory for generating samples that could only have been naturally fractured. Examples that resemble artefacts produced by primates illustrate the potential of ‘archaeological’ research in Antarctica for the evaluation of hominin sites worldwide.

2024, Journal of Lithic Studies

The study of the relationships between prehistoric social groups is one of the main targets in present day archaeology. A useful tool to entangle this issue is social network analysis (SNA). Some of the advantages brought by this mathematic approach refer to the possibility of studying relationships through the material culture items, or its capability to integrate different scales of analysis (macro-micro). Moreover, SNA combined with the application of bayesian statistical methods of chronological attribution can create long range diachronic series of relational information, connected with prehistoric social groups dynamics. This methodology enables archaeologists to study archaeological big data from a totally different perspective, not only focused on a descriptive or morphometric point of view. The objective of this work is to apply an SNA procedure, together with a recently developed bayesian tool of chronological attribution, to archaeological sites located in the East of the Iberian Peninsula during the 4th and 3rd millennium cal. BCE using chert arrowheads as an archaeological proxy, due to the chronologic implications their morphology has, in the referred geographic frame. It is our specific target to analyse the transition between the Bell-Beaker world and the Bronze Age, through the differential transmission of information and the time-space variability present in the archaeological record, through the study of relationships between chert arrowheads assemblages. In order to do so, we will build a relational framework between the social communities present in the Late Neolithic-Copper Age through the chert arrowheads morphologic typologies, and we will apply SNA to characterize the resulting networks. Furthermore, we will propose a new metric to quantify the cultural fragmentation using community detection algorithms, in a diachronic axis, to identify groups of sites with homogeneous technological behaviour, to check the initial hypothesis which points to the existence of periods of cultural homogeneity followed by others in which fragmentation-regionalization is dominant.

2023, Australian Archaeology

Stone points have provided key data for studies of hunter gatherer lifeways in several parts of the world. Point technologies occur widely across northern Australia, appearing around the mid-Holocene and persisting into the European Contact period. These points exhibit high-morphological variation, and include bifacial, unifacial and other forms. In the Northern Territory and north Queensland, points have been shown to form part of a reduction continuum. However, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, similar reconstructions of artefact life history have not been conducted. Using a recently excavated assemblage with a large sample of retouched unifacial and bifacial points (n ¼ 137), we examine the effect of retouch intensity on changing point morphology. Quantification of point reduction reveals a complex artefact life history having compelling parallels with point assemblages from other parts of northern Australia. Drivers for the inception of point technology in northern Australia are likely to be multiple, including environmental change, population change and social signalling.

2023, Australian Archaeology

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2023, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences

Open-air Paleolithic sites in desert and semiarid landscapes provide interpretive quandaries because of the absence of depositional matrices and stratigraphic controls. This paper argues that datable and stratified vertical contexts may be preserved in the vicinity of open-air artifact scatters. These, in turn, may account for paleo-environmental conditions that would have attracted Paleolithic groups. The site in question is in the Southern Iraqi desert, a locale heretofore terra incognita for early hominin activity. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates were taken from ancient spring and dune deposits in a depression flanking the hamada surfaces on which the artifact distributions were found. Geochemical and granulometric studies were used to reconstruct the depositional histories of the spring locale, and the dates were projected onto contemporary oxygen isotope curves that serve as proxies for the climatic cycles operational across the greater Near East. The advent of OSL dating provides a new window for dating events and environments linked to Paleolithic chronologies. The locations of surface scatters may signify preservation of nearby micro-environments which could be proxies for structuring landscape and occupational chronologies.

2023, Antiquity

Lithic technologies dominate understanding of early humans, yet natural processes can fracture rock in ways that resemble artefacts made by Homo sapiens and other primates. Differentiating between fractures made by natural processes and primates is important for assessing the validity of early and controversial archaeological sites. Rather than depend on expert authority or intuition, the authors propose a null model of conchoidally fractured Antarctic rocks. As no primates have ever occupied the continent, Antarctica offers a laboratory for generating samples that could only have been naturally fractured. Examples that resemble artefacts produced by primates illustrate the potential of 'archaeological' research in Antarctica for the evaluation of hominin sites worldwide.

2023, Archaeological Survey of Alberta Occasional Paper No 42

Microblade technology in western Canada is reviewed within a regional framework to broaden archaeologists' understanding of its geographic and temporal distribution.

2023, PLOS ONE

2023, Донецкие чтения 2023: образование, наука, инновации, культура и вызовы современности: Материалы VIII Международной научной конференции (Донецк, 25–27 октября 2023 г.). – Том 7: Исторические и политические науки. Часть 2

2023, Antiquity

Zhokhov Island in the Siberian High Arctic has yielded evidence for some of the most remote prehistoric human occupation in the world, as well as the oldest-known dog-sled technology. Obsidian artefacts found on Zhokhov have been provenanced using XRF analysis to allow comparison with known sources of obsidian from northeastern Siberia. The results indicate that the obsidian was sourced from Lake Krasnoeapproximately 1500km distant-and arrived on Zhokhov Island c. 8000 BP. The archaeological data from Zhokhov therefore indicate a super-long-distance Mesolithic exchange network.

2023, Informator Archeologiczny : badania

2023, Stones-Current Stone-Age Research in Northern Europe

Recent studies on the phylogeny of flaked stone tools rely heavily on morphometric characters, describing size and shape. is approach tends to overlook some of the special problems that are associated with a study of lithic material, such as different skill levels, transformation through re-sharpening and the effect of raw material or blank shape on the morphology of the tool. We suggest that tracing technological elements, which we believe to be important units of transmission, can result in different patterns in the archaeological record than those obtained through morphometric analysis. Similarities and differences between two contemporaneous but spatially separated projectile point industries-Kunda/Butovo and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Bare discussed from this viewpoint.

2023, Quaternary International

2023, Technical and technological complexity in the beginning: The study of Dmanisi lithic assemblage

Classic typological approaches have provided significant information about human behavior in terms of morphological ideas as well as relevant data about the main technical and technological evolution. The development of technological approaches in recent times has revealed much detail about human abilities through these records, showing more complex situations in terms of human cultural evolution.

2023, Antiquity

2023, Open Archaeology

When they work, controlled experiments can efficiently and clearly reveal essential characteristics of the functions and performance of ancient hunting and fighting weapons. However, homogenous target media must be carefully validated to ensure that controlled tests capture the same variables that made weapons effective in their original application. Although homogenous flesh simulants have proven effective for studying firearms, the same simulants cannot be assumed to be effective when testing low-velocity cutting/piercing projectiles, which have significantly different performance characteristics than bullets. We build on past research showing that two flesh simulants that are commonly used by archaeologists, ballistics gelatin and pottery clay, fail to capture how atlatl darts and arrows perform when penetrating biological tissues. In accord with forensic research of knife-thrust attacks, natural and polymeric skin simulants may prove effective in future experiments, but this req...

2023, Cadernos do LEPAARQ

RESUMO: O estilo tecnologico e o resultado de escolhas culturalmente determinadas que se refletem na selecao das materias primas, nas tecnicas e sequencias de producao e nos resultados materiais destas escolhas. A comparacao de estilos tecnologicos de diferentes industrias liticas de uma mesma regiao permite, portanto, antever a possibilidade de distincao entre identidades sociais ou culturais no registro arqueologico. Buscando testar a validade desta premissa teorica para o estudo da variabilidade artefatual das industrias liticas do sul do Brasil, analisamos de forma comparativa os conjuntos liticos da regiao do alto vale do rio dos Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul, relacionados a tres distintos sistemas de assentamento, associados aos cacadores coletores da Tradicao Umbu e aos horticultores das Tradicoes Taquara e Guarani. ABSTRACT: Technological style results from cultural choices reflected in raw materials selection, technical sequences and in the material results of these choices. Th...

2023, Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia

A partir da avaliação dos conceitos de sistema tecnológico e estilo, analisaremos a noção de estilo tecnológico e as suas implicações no estudo de indústrias líticas. Paralelamente, refletiremos sobre a sua aplicabilidade no estudo dos... more

2023, Journal of Geography (Chigaku Zasshi)

2023, Open Archaeology

2023, SAU rapport 2019:8

Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis (SAU) genomförde arkeologisk förundersökning under två
veckor i slutet av september 2016 och sedan en arkeologisk undersökning under tre veckor i november samma år. Undersökningarna föranleddes av att Trafikverket planerar en utbyggnad av
väg 50 mellan Axbergshammar i Örebro kommun och Lilla Mon i Nora kommun och utfördes
efter beslut av Länsstyrelsen i Örebro län.
Undersökningarna resulterade i att tre olika aktivitetsytor från senmesolitisk tid identifierades. Större delen av fyndmaterialet härrör från produktion av sammansatta spetsar. Alla tre aktivitetsytor tolkas ha uppkommit av liknande aktiviteter inom området. De är alla mer eller mindre
samtida. Utöver detta fyndmaterial hittades en intakt och välbevarad senneolitisk bergartsyxa.
Boplatsen har varit belägen mellan skärgård och inland och kan tolkas som en tillfällig uppehållsplats där jaktredskap tillverkats och reparerats inför jaktexpeditioner. Mer långvarigt utnyttjade
platser återfinns bland annat i nuvarande Käglanområdet möjligen kan detta ha varit målet för
dessa expeditioner. Ur ett forskningsperspektiv är Mogetorpboplatsen med dess höga andel hälleflinta och tydliga mikrospånproduktion ett viktigt bidrag till fortsatta studier av Mellansvenskt
mesolitikum. När detta material infogas i en större regional och kronologisk studie faller den väl in ett nyupptäckt mönster vad gäller förändrade kontaktvägar. Det tycks som att det sker en dramatisk förändring ca 6000 f. Kr som kan kopplas till ett flertal större klimatologiska och geografiska händelser. Vid denna tidpunkt sker följande saker: Sjön Vättern avsnörs från Östersjön vilket
får konsekvenser för tidigare vattenfarleder, stora issjöar i Nordamerika töms plötsligt ut i Atlanten vilket får stora konsekvenser för vattentemperaturer, Golfströmmens riktning samt klimatet
som blir kallare. Dessutom sker Storeggatsunamin vid denna tidpunkt med dramatiska konsekvenser för kustbosättningar i hela norra Europa. I Närke sker ett tydligt skifte vad gäller råmaterialbruk i samband med detta. Innan ca 6000 f. Kr. används för området det exotiska råmaterialet
kambrisk flinta (från Kinnekulle i Västergötland) för produktion av spån. Efter samma tidpunkt
förändras råmaterialnyttjandet till det mer lokala materialet hälleflinta. Det är även intressant att
notera att inga kända mesolitiska platser finns området under perioden 6200–5500 f. Kr.