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

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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. Since 2003, a Georgian-Spanish team has restarted the study of the Dmanisi lithic collection from a technical and technological view, using knapping experimentation, and technological diacritic analysis from a significant sample of tools. The study of lithic raw materials indicate that the selection of blanks was mainly produced in the nearest outcrops and secondary deposits. At the same time, the workability selection of blanks indicates that an accurate selection of raw materials was made. Small differences in the way in which selection was produced can be detected from levels II to IV. The main schema analyzed in the first cluster (old level IV), includes a selection of natural forms with a simple knapped series (about 3–4 strikes) using good natural angles, with restarting in the same surface with a shorter sequence of two-to-three strikes to produce final forms. Following this schema, the use of new adequate surfaces can produce polyhedric morphologies in the core during the final steps. Technically, the materials from this level indicate a special kind of percussion, close to a bending effect. The analyzed flakes show attributes that are usually linked to soft-hammer percussion. In this case, after experiments, those stigmas are produced by stone hammer percussion with a special movement of a slow-perpendicular strike. In the second cluster (old level II), the use of better raw materials allowed a longer and successful production of sharp flakes without changing this strategy. The organization of series implies on occasions the generation of discoid-like morphologies, perhaps as a result of a more complex organization of series. With the decrease in the size of the blanks, blank dimensions become smaller, and thus require speedy-angular percussion in order to assure flake production. New technical abilities produced changes in the attributes, sizes and core morphologies. Everything indicates that first human occupation at Dmanisi-Geogia involved people with an important background in knapping skills that allowed several changes, in terms of adaptation, to particular lithic environments, raw material selection, technical strategies, as far as known within a short period.