Abstract
Endscrapers are specialized tools that are usually recovered in great quantities in every Upper Paleolithic site in Europe. Although they make their first ephemeral appearance in the Middle–late Middle Paleolithic transitional technocomplexes, endscrapers commonly appear in toolkits from initial and early Upper Paleolithic traditions onwards. Nevertheless, endscrapers and, in general, domestic tools have attracted relatively little attention in debates revolving around the significance of technological change, tool function, and tool specialization after the end of the Middle Paleolithic. With the aim to overcome this paucity of information, here, we present the results of a techno-functional study performed on the large endscraper assemblage recovered from the early and late Protoaurignacian layers at Fumane Cave in northeastern Italy. We analyzed these artifacts using technological, morpho-metrical, typological, and functional approaches. Despite the large morphological variability, use-wear traces reveal functional consistency and high levels of specialization for these tools. Almost all the use-wear traces we recorded developed from hide working with transverse motion. Moreover, we find no evidence that endscrapers were involved in the production of bone and antler tools during the late Protoaurignacian. Macroscopic and microscopic wear on the lateral edges of tools point to a considerable number of hafted endscrapers, which implies systematic time investment and planning depth. Comparison with the few endscrapers from transitional industries that have been analyzed highlights marked differences in the production, morphology, and use of these tools and reinforces our view of the Aurignacian as a complex not directly related with preceding European traditions.
Highlights
The emergence of the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia is traditionally considered to have been an abrupt rupture with the Middle Paleolithic that occurred between 48 and 39 ky cal BP, when Neanderthal populations were replaced by anatomically modern humans (Fu et al 2016; Higham et al 2014; Hublin et al 2020)
Flake production is more important in the late Protoaurignacian of Fumane Cave, where flake cores show, in some cases, a degree of predetermination that was not found in the early Protoaurignacian (Falcucci et al 2020)
It is evident that Protoaurignacian knappers selected those blanks with desired morphometric features, whether they came from the optimal production phase or from the initialization and maintenance phases carried out on bladelet and blade cores (Falcucci et al 2017)
Summary
The emergence of the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia is traditionally considered to have been an abrupt rupture with the Middle Paleolithic that occurred between 48 and 39 ky cal BP, when Neanderthal populations were replaced by anatomically modern humans (Fu et al 2016; Higham et al 2014; Hublin et al 2020) This first spread of anatomically modern humans (hereafter AMH) is associated with the appearance of the initial Upper Paleolithic (hereafter IUP) (Kuhn and Zwyns 2014), Uluzzian, and Aurignacian cultural units, marking an abrupt change in many aspects of human beings like sociality, communication, economy, and technology, and coinciding with clear-cut implications on the design of stone tool sets. The relationship between stone artifact form and function is variable and often context-dependent (Tomáŝková 2005) in relation to behaviors such as use duration, resharpening, and reshaping
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