Stones in Motion: Cost units to understand flint procurement strategies during the Upper Palaeolithic in the south-western Pyrenees using GIS

Alejandro Prieto,Aitor Calvo,Maite García-Rojas,Aitor Sánchez,Maite Iris García-Collado,Javier Ordoño,Eder Dominguez-Ballesteros

doi:10.2218/jls.v3i1.1310

Abstract

Studies on lithic resource management –mainly flint– by prehistoric groups south of the western Pyrenees have significantly increased during the past decades. These studies usually focus on identifying outcrops and characterising the different varieties found at archaeological sites. However, the understanding of mobility and territorial management patterns based on raw materials is still very limited and has only been tackled in terms of lineal distance.This paper proposes a methodological approach for the territorial analysis of flint distribution with the three following aims: 1) to determine the expansion ranges of each variety of flint from its outcrop; 2) to spatially relate these outcrops with archaeological sites; and 3) to improve our knowledge on the catchment strategies of Upper Palaeolithic groups.The methodological tool chosen to fulfil these objectives is the Geographic Information System (GIS), because it allows to relate spatially the flint outcrops and flint varieties identified at archaeological sites based on: 1) isocost maps showing the cost of expansion for each variety of flint across the territory built on topography; 2) the quantification of the cost of expansion using Cost Units (CU); and 3) the relationship between the percentage of each variety of flint at each archaeological site and the cost of accessing its outcrop. In order to demonstrate that cost is a powerful way to relate spatially raw material distribution and archaeological sites with outcrops, we contrasted its results with the ones obtained by more classic means (Euclidean distance and distance across the most optimal route). It was therefore shown that cost is better at explaining the spatial relationship between flint outcrops and archaeological sites, which, in turn, provides new data on catchment strategies, mobility patterns and territorial management of Upper Palaeolithic groups.

Highlights

Despite the progress made in recent years, only a few aspects of the macrospatial behaviour of Palaeolithic societies are known and information about the decisions and determining factors that led these groups to settle or move across the landscape is still scarce
As a first case study, this paper focuses on the Upper Palaeolithic of the southern region of the western Pyrenees and seeks to fulfil the following objectives:
We wanted to test these methodologies, so we produced three maps, one departing from each outcrop, with the objective of comparing these two traditional measurements with the one proposed in this paper: cost (Figure 5, 6 and 7)

Summary

Introduction

Despite the progress made in recent years, only a few aspects of the macrospatial behaviour of Palaeolithic societies are known and information about the decisions and determining factors that led these groups to settle or move across the landscape is still scarce. The increasing interest in palaeogeographic analyses, the development of new theoretical models, the application of new techniques (e.g., palaeoenvironmental, stable isotope or archaeopetrological studies) and the progressive addition of new computational tools to process geographic information, have enabled new perspectives on Palaeolithic territorial patterns to emerge as a result (Kelly 1995; Binford 2001; Burke 2004; Vialou 2005; Whallon 2006; Hamilton et al 2007; Geneste et al 2008; Grove 2009). Tarriño over the past several years has been especially important (Tarriño 2006; Tarriño et al 2007a; Tarriño et al 2007b; Tarriño 2011a; b; Tarriño et al 2013; Tarriño & Elorrieta 2013; Tarriño et al 2015)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion