Abstract
Levallois technology characterizes the Middle Stone Age/Middle Palaeolithic, but one of its earliest manifestations is from the preceding Acheulean of the Kapthurin Formation, in the Rift Valley of east Africa. Here, ~ 400 ka, hominins were creating large flake blank handaxes and cleavers through Levallois knapping. Comparing these tools with other Rift Valley Acheulean assemblages made on large flakes shows those of the Kapthurin Formation are distinguished by their thinness. This was achieved through symmetrical centripetal preparation of gentle upper surface convexities on the Levallois cores, the creation of a protruding facetted platform, and proximal bevelling of the upper surface. A large elongate flake blank was struck from the facetted platform, then finished with marginal trimming to create the symmetrical and regular edge of the handaxe or cleaver. As they were used for the creation of handaxes and cleavers, the Kapthurin Acheulean Levallois cores and flakes are much larger than that of the Middle Stone Age, with overshot flakes from excessive force a more frequent error. The Acheulean Levallois is further distinguished from those of the Middle Stone Age by the lack of recurrent flaking, with cores apparently producing only a single preferential flake without any repreparation of the main flaking surface, despite the cores being big enough for further large blank removals, and even if the preferential removal overshot and was abandoned. The key advantage offered by Levallois in general is large thin elongate flakes. In its Kapthurin Acheulean manifestation, Levallois was used to create an individual tool, but in the Middle Stone Age it was often used to make toolkits.
Highlights
Levallois is the most hierarchically complex knapping mode of the Palaeolithic (Muller et al, 2017), and is associated with both Neanderthals (Moncel et al, 2020) and early Homo sapiens (Richter et al, 2017)
Levallois is the characteristic technology of the Middle Stone Age (MSA), but it was used in both the Later Stone Age (LSA) (Pleurdeau et al, 2014; Shipton et al, 2021) and occasionally at Early Stone Age (ESA) Acheulean sites
The extreme size of the Kapthurin Acheulean Levallois cores most likely reflects the fact that they were for creating handheld large shaped tools, whereas MSA Levallois cores were for creating smaller tools that were often hafted (e.g. Rots et al, 2011)
Summary
Levallois is the most hierarchically complex knapping mode of the Palaeolithic (Muller et al, 2017), and is associated with both Neanderthals (Moncel et al, 2020) and early Homo sapiens (Richter et al, 2017). The earliest date suggested for Levallois anywhere in the world is from the 800–700 ka Acheulean site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in the Levant where a single large core and numerous small cores are classified as such (Goren-Inbar et al, 1994, 2018) These cores do not display the combination of hierarchically arranged surfaces, with shaping of the upper surface, platform facetting on the lower surface, and preferential flaking at the end of the reduction sequence (Goren-Inbar et al, 2018: 208–213), that would be required to meet strict definitions of Levallois. A sequence of tephras have been dated and correlated to provide a robust chronology for the Kapthurin
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