Chaine Operatoire Research Articles

Perforated bone artifacts from Indor Khera and Rohana Khurd, Upper Ganga Plain, India

This paper presents a techno-functional analysis of two perforated bone artifacts recovered from Indor Khera and Rohana Khurd, North India, dated to c. 6th-2nd century BCE and 4th century BCE, respectively. These artifacts are made from bone walls of the unknown limb of medium/large-size mammals. Based on their morphology and parallels from archaeological sites of India, they have been identified as pendants and daggers. However, a close microscopic analysis of these artifacts tells a different story. The use-wears generated by threads around perforations contraindicate suspending (string-up) assumption. An experimental program has tested this by employing replicas of these artifacts as suspenders and fasteners. The result of this experiment and their comparison with archaeological ones suggest that these artifacts were probably used as fasteners rather than suspenders, thus challenging the conventional hypothesis that they were used as pendants. Apart from the functional aspects of these artifacts, the same experimental program was also used to understand the manufacturing process, i.e., the chaine operatoire.

Multidisciplinary approach to collective burials in caves and in dolmens at the end of the Neolithic period in Eastern Languedoc and the southern part of the Cévennes—abridged version

Since 2012, a research program on the study of collective burial sites dating from the end of the Neolithic period to the beginning of the Bronze Age in eastern Languedoc and the south of the Cévennes has been undertaken. Each study followed the same analysis protocol, both biologically (age at death, sex, health status) and archaeoanthropological (recruitment, reconstruction of the funerary system), as well as on the ceramic analysis. This article presents the first results, discussing the dichotomy observed in the location of these funerary sites: cavities and dolmens. The results make it possible to distinguish differences observed at different scales: structure, site and region, regarding the processing of the bodies and the overall organization of the deposits. We do not observe any significant differences between the two regions of interest, apart from a systematic funerary selection excluding the youngest individuals from the collective burial sites in eastern Languedoc, the south of the Cévennes being more diverse about the funerary selection. The only significant element is the presence of markers of para-masticatory activity on the teeth of a limited number of individuals buried in the dolmens of the south of the Cévennes. This result suggests a practice of basketry or tannery crafts by the populations burying their dead in the monuments of the foothills of the Cévennes, while the individuals found in cavities do not seem to have practiced such an activity. Finally, these studies have led to the establishment of new fieldworks, which have brought to light a preparation of the grounds welcoming the dead, both in caves and in dolmen. These discoveries question the integration of the place of deposit in the funerary “Chaine operatoire” in the collective burial sites. The function (symbolic or technical) of these arrangements has yet to be confirmed.

Implicancias tecnológicas del uso del yeso y la cal en el arte rupestre de La Tunita (departamento Ancasti, provincia de Catamarca): aportes a través de la experimentación con mezclas pigmentarias

This paper presents the experimental research carried out in the study of pigmentary mixtures of La Sixtina shelter and El Hornero cave rock art pictographs, located in the sites complex La Tunita (Department Ancasti, Catamarca). The experimentation was tested and carried out with the aim of evaluating previous investigations, characterize materials properties, and tentatively highlight the main characteristics of the chaine operatoire involved in the execution of the large pictographs. Results obtained allowed to establish that the use of local surveyed natural gypsum -or aljez- gives very good workability properties for the execution of large pictographs. Additionally, the use of filler-type materials like calcite and lime is inferred, which in some cases would improve the material cohesion and substrate rocks, respectively. Finally, it was observed that the use of an organic component (cactus slime) added to the pigmentary mixtures would retard the gypsum setting thus improving the workability.

The emergence of early microblade technology in the hinterland of North China: a case study based on the Xishi and Dongshi site in Henan Province

This paper examines how microblade technology emerged in North China based on the case study of the newly excavated Xishi and Dongshi sites in the hinterland of North China. Used as the lithic production area, Xishi and Dongshi sites generated abundant lithic debris which show the presence of a precocious form of microblade techno-complex embedded within the blade techno-complex. Radiocarbon dating suggests that they are among the earliest microblade sites ever found in North China. A chaine operatoire approach is used to analyze the lithic assemblage of these two sites to investigate the specific features of the precocious form of microblade technology and its correlations to blade technology. The results indicate that the precocious microblade assemblage shows close technical affinity with the blade assemblage but is different from blade technology due to the frequent appliance of the pressure method to produce smaller end products from more diminutive cores. It indicates that the emergence of microblade technology in North China was a local technological innovation based upon blade technology which diffused from Siberia-Mongolia. Its appearance reflects a culturally meditated technological adaptation to cope with environmental change during LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) period.

Pearl and Mother of Pearl in Hispania: Exploitation and Trade of Marine Luxury Products

This article analyses the exploitation of luxury products such as pearls and mother of pearl, a seldom-examined facet of maritime archaeology. This issue will be approached from an archaeology of production perspective, taking into account the whole chaine operatoire, including harvesting the resource, marketing it, and mounting it in different supports. We shall also examine the meaning of these resources and some extravagant practices for which they were used during antiquity. We shall pay special attention to the artisans, as well as the production methods used to process these resources and assemble them. The study will focus on the Roman period, and Hispania will be used as case study. The Iberian Peninsula is surrounded by plentiful seas, but this specific issue had been paid no specific attention to date. An unpublished catalogue of jewels decorated with pearls and other ornaments is presented, which confirms the importance of these resources in ancient Roman markets.

Mutable objects, places and chronologies

Abstract

The Evolution of Lower Egyptian Culture During the Formative Stages of the Egyptian State at Tell el-Iswid: The Contribution of Ceramic Technology

This article focuses on ceramic technology at Tell el-Iswid dating to the second half of the fourth millennium BC—Buto IIIa and Naqada III(A2)-B periods. The study investigates the crucial transitional period during the formation of the Egyptian State. It identifies four ceramic technical traditions and examines their respective evolution and interaction. It provides new data on the mechanisms underlying the homogenization of the material culture that preceded and accompanied the unification of Egypt. The results show increasing contact between the Delta and the Nile Valley during Buto IIIa, and confirm Naqadan potters’ presence in the Delta from at least the Naqada IIIA2 period. At this time, specialized ateliers emerged in the Delta region using a Middle/Upper Egypt’s chaine operatoire for pottery manufacture. Nevertheless, the Lower Egyptian ceramic technical tradition persisted in the domestic sphere.

Milling Cereals/Legumes and Stamping Bread in Mauretanian Tamuda (Morocco): An Interdisciplinary Study

Recent archaeological excavations (2016–2019) in the city of Tamuda (northern Morocco) yielded evidence of commercial milling and bread-making facilities dated to the Mauretanian period (first century BC). This article presents the results of the excavation of two Mauretanian buildings (E0 7 and E0 8) in the Eastern Quarter, in which evidence for flour milling and, indirectly, the preparation of bread were found. These buildings included four rooms used for milling (with low quern-stones of the rotary, saddle, and Pompeian types), as well as warehouses (full of amphorae) and other rooms of undetermined functions. Palynological analysis has indicated the milling of cereal, peas, and faba beans, while soil micromorphology revealed the roasting of hazelnuts and raised the possibility of using fish bones for the production of fish flour. Especially relevant was the discovery of a circular clay mold decorated with a heroic fishing scene, used for the decoration of bread and pies. These elements demonstrate the chaine operatoire of bread-making—milling, dough production and decoration, and other food processing activities. This is the first time that archaeometric techniques are applied to study milling facilities in Morocco, and it is the only known association of bread stamps and pre-Roman milling facilities in North Africa.

Technological strategy and mobility of Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers in the high-altitude Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: a case study from Tshem gzhung kha thog

Microblade technology occupies an important position for understanding the process of peopling of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; however, the region’s specific technological behaviour has been unclear due to a lack of research. Here, we introduce the newly excavated site of Tshem gzhung kha thog (TGKT, in Chinese is Canxionggashuo), located at 4016 m above sea level on the northeast Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, with a focus on its lithic assemblage. Following the approach of chaine operatoire, we reconstruct the reduction sequence, and, from the perspective of the organization of technology, we explore the technology’s implications for hunter-gatherer mobility in this area. Combining the lithic assemblage and the chronological sequence, we hypothesize that TGKT was a workshop occupied by logistically organized hunter-gatherers who used high-quality siliceous rocks found near the site to produce microblades, primarily, to adapt to a limited stay in this high-elevation area. The gradual climatic warming during the Holocene provided better conditions for peopling the high-elevation area; however, considering the distance between the higher and lower elevation areas, we hypothesize that TGKT was not used logistically by lower-elevation foragers but by foragers whose residential base was located elsewhere in the region near the TGKT.

Madīnat al-Zahrā’ or Madīnat Qurtuba? First evidences of the Caliphate tin glaze production of ‘verde y manganeso’ ware

The first workshop evidence of the Caliphate polychrome tin-glaze production known as ‘verde y manganeso’ in al-Andalus has been found in the Cordoban workshops area. This study reports on the analysis of recovered firing debris and workshop items and the tin glaze production chaine operatoire using SEM-EDS and μ-XRD analysis. The findings reveal the use of a tin and lead calx mixed with plant ashes both in the Emirate and later Caliphate tin glaze productions and demonstrate a direct relationship between the Umayyad Cordoba-Madīnat al-Zahrā’ and the Abbasid regions. Moreover, ceramics from both domestic and palatial well-dated archaeological contexts from Cordoba and Madīnat al-Zahrā’ have been analysed to determine the differences among the domestic and palace wares and to shed light on the long running dispute among scholars regarding the location of the tin-glazed workshops. Our data demonstrate so far that the workshop area of Cordoba manufactured ‘verde y manganeso’ tin-glazed ceramics during the Caliphate period and that it could have been supplying both high-quality wares for the palaces and cheaper products for the domestic contexts.

Ceramic technology: how to recognize clay processing

The issue of clay processing concerns both provenance and techno-functional ceramic investigations. In the former, the compositional/textural modification of clay alters the petrofacies expressed by the ceramic body and causes a change from the raw material in terms of bulk chemical and mineralogical composition and petrographical features as well. In the latter, identifying the signs of clay processing will provide information on the steps of the chaine operatoire and on the technological choices made to adjust paste plasticity and to avoid failures in the following stages of manufacture. Several examples of clay processing were considered, encompassing deliberate addition of natural and artificial temper and clay mixing, other than fractioning and homogenisation to prepare the forming stage. The expected effects of mineral, vegetal and animal tempers on the paste and on the fired body were outlined. Finally, some analytical guidelines are provided to identify clay processing, using the most common analytical methods. Optical microscopy and electron microscopy provide the main contribution to identifying most of the processing practices on the clay, whereas bulk methods provide indirect evidence that may alone be insufficient to prove the occurrence of a specific transformation, as well as to detect homogenisation features. However, only a careful and multidisciplinary investigation of the ceramic body will help reveal the actions of the chaine operatoire and to test archaeological models in a sound bottom-up perspective.

Modeling the Evolution of Ceramic Traditions Through a Phylogenetic Analysis of the Chaînes Opératoires: the European Bronze Age as a Case Study

The chaines operatoires underlying the manufacture of objects are good proxies for studying social groups and how cultural traits are transmitted and modified through the learning process. With the rise of evolutionary archaeology, the evolution of ceramic vessels can be modeled by using cladistics to elaborate kinship relationships between different taxa on the basis of shared derived character states. Here the modeling applies to ceramic fashioning from the European Middle Bronze Age (France and the United Kingdom). The aim is to assess the nature of the evolution and the relationships between three main cultures—in southern England, Normandy, and in the center-west of France. The cladistics analysis highlights that the ceramic traditions largely result from a process of phylogenesis—a result of descent with modification from an ancestral assemblage—rooted in the Early Bronze Age, suggesting a common origin for the Trevisker/Deverel-Rimbury and French Atlantic technical traditions. On the other hand, the Norman appears to be related to the Duffaits tradition, but to the exclusion of the Trevisker/Deverel-Rimbury traditions. This study supports the theoretical premise that some technical sequences are more stable than others. The evolution of sequences requiring motor habits, such as shaping, stabilized fairly quickly, unlike the finishing operations that continued to diverge throughout the Bronze Age. This study suggests that cladistics based on the description of the ceramic material in terms of chaines operatoires is a useful tool for studying cultural change.

Flint Type Analysis of Bifaces From Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel) Suggests an Older Acheulian Origin

This paper presents the results of a flint type analysis performed for the small assemblage of bifaces found at the Acheulo-Yabrudian site Qesem Cave (QC), Israel (420–200 kya), which includes 12 handaxes, three bifacial roughouts, one trihedral, and one bifacial spall. The analysed artefacts were measured and classified into flint types based on visual traits. Also, extensive fieldwork aimed at locating potential sources was carried out. The bifaces were then assigned to potential flint sources, using both macroscopic and petrographic data, and were compared with a large general sample (n = 21,102) from various typo-technological categories and from various QC assemblages, studied by the same analytic process. Our results show that while the site is located within rich flint-bearing limestone outcrops of the Bi’na Formation (Upper Cretaceous Turonian), which dominate the general sample, non-Turonian flint types dominate the biface assemblage. The presence of roughouts and complete handaxes, alongside the complete absence of bifacial knapping by-products, as well as the absence of a clear spatial distribution pattern of the bifaces throughout the site’s sequence, stresses the fragmentation of the bifacial chaine operatoire and suggests that the bifaces were not produced at the site but, rather, were brought to the cave in their current state. The extremely low quantity of bifaces at QC, compared with the overall rich lithic assemblages, suggests that handaxes did not play a major functional role in the QC hominins’ everyday lives. It is therefore possible that the QC bifaces originated from older contexts, most likely Acheulian sites existing in the vicinity of the cave, as part of the habit of the QC hominins of collecting older, previously knapped artefacts.

Pots and potters of the Bronze Age of north-west Xinjiang

Abstract

As indústrias líticas antigas de Serranópolis (sítios GO-JA-03 e GO-JA-14)

Os vestígios líticos do sítio GO-JA-03, Serranópolis, estado de Goiás, apresentam uma produção de grandes lascas alongadas, mais e menos espessas, retiradas com percussão de pedra macia ou percussão orgânica tangencial, com procedimentos técnicos muito específicos nas proximidades do talão, as quais servirão de suporte para instrumentos unifaciais de secção plano-convexa. O método de análise compreendeu o conceito de Cadeia Operatória, que considera os instrumentos desde o seu abandono, passando por todas as fases de produção. Os resultados obtidos demonstram uma indústria bem estruturada com um alto nível de savoir-faire.

Technology of Early Szeletian leaf point shaping: a refitting approach

The most precise method for reconstructing operational chains (chaine operatoire) is the refitting of stone artefacts. Unfortunately, the sequences for forming a typical Szeletian artefact—a leaf point—were missing for a long time. Finds from the multilayer open-air site of Moravský Krumlov IV (Czech Republic) brought a unique opportunity to study Szeletian technology through refittings. The excavations of this site uncovered an in situ horizon in the uppermost archaeological layer 0 in sector IV-3 that has been classified as a workshop. On the basis of both technology and dating, the finds are related to the Szeletian. Spatial distribution of bifacial artefact refittings shows that pieces were produced in two distinct spots within the excavated area. An analysis of their deposition indicated an in situ position, and therefore, results of the technological analysis can be understood as significant. Refittings and surface morphological analyses demonstrate a specific manner of leaf point production based primarily on achieving a maximum reduction in thickness and a minimum reduction of their length and, especially, width. Although incomplete and unsuccessful artefacts are reminiscent of the Middle Palaeolithic Micoquian backed knives, the general production strategy tended towards the manufacture of rather symmetrical leaf points. It seems probable, therefore, that the described method of production of leaf points is characteristic for the Early Szeletian in Moravia.

Luobi Cave, South China: A Comparative Perspective on a Novel Cobble-Tool Industry Associated with Bone Tool Technology during the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition

The nature of Paleolithic cultures in South China and their relationship with mainland Southeast Asia remains ill-defined. The lithic industry of South China has been characterized as a simple ‘cobble-tool’ industry, persisting from the early Pleistocene to the Holocene, while the most representative Southeast Asian industry was also marked by a pebble-tool techno-complex, the Hoabinhian, during the Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene. A possible cultural link between the two regions has been proposed by some scholars but the technological characteristics of the two industries remained elusive, as did the variability within them. In this paper we conduct technological analysis of a ‘cobble-tool’ industry associated with a bone tool technology from Luobi Cave, Hainan Island, dated to c. 11–10 ka, and compare it with the well-studied typical Hoabinhian site of Laang Spean in Cambodia. While there is a slight similarity in operational sequence (chaine operatoire), a major difference is that the Luobi Cave site can be rejected as a potential Hoabinhian site. The excavated material indicates a high degree of innovation and demonstrates a new sort of variability in the tool-kit of modern human groups during the Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene transition in South China and Southeast Asia. This study represents an initial attempt to decipher the technological cultural variability in this region. We suggest that the emergence of behavioral modernity and cultural variability should be evaluated at both regional and sub-regional scales, instead of defining them as uniform, progressive and incremental, processes. Here we present, firstly, the variability of operational sequences (chaines operatoires) within the lithic production of Luobi Cave, and then compare this assemblage with typical and well-studied Hoabinhian assemblages from Laang Spean Cave in Cambodia to make clear the regional variability or complexity of human technological behaviors. Secondly, we then discuss the role of these technological behaviors as strategies for adapting to diverse ecology and environments from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene.

Perspectiva funcional del equipamiento lítico tallado de las sociedades canoeras de Magallanes entre los ca. 4.400 - 3.000 años ap. Nuevos resultados a partir del análisis traceológico de pizzulic 3 y offing 2 - locus 1 (componente inferior)

We present the results of the use wear analysis of the lithic assemblages of two sites associated with the “Ponsonby tradition”, characterized by the presence of large lanceolate bifacial points: the lower component of Offing 2 (ca. 4,200-3,700 years AP) and Pizzulic 3 (ca. 3,800 years AP). The results showed a low number of used areas, as well as limited functional spectra, which is influenced by biases of different types (taphonomic and/or possibility of detecting some modes of use in the raw materials represented). Despite this, some artefacts with interpretable use wear were detected, mainly associated to the processing of hide and possibly other soft materials of animal origin; as well as mineral materials. The methodological problems associated with the functional analysis of the sites of this period are discussed, as well as the implications of the results obtained for the reconstruction of the chaines operatoires of the lithic tools of these groups, both of the large bifacial points and of flake tools.

Cadena operativa y análisis tecno-tipológico de los adornos prehistóricos de variscita del centro-sur-occidente de la Meseta Norte Española. Historia de una tradición artesanal

Los adornos de variscita son un tipo de artefacto empleado en distintos contextos de la Prehistoria reciente de buena parte de Europa Occidental y de forma general son interpretados como elementos de prestigio. El registro arqueológico del centro-sur-oeste de la Meseta Norte Española ofrece un caso de estudio ideal para reconstruir al completo su cadena operativa: 1) minería en Palazuelo de las Cuevas y otros lugares de la comarca de Aliste, 2) manufactura en los asentamientos de Quiruelas de Vidriales y en otros yacimientos y 3) consumo en una treintena de tumbas y poblados del Neolítico Final y el Calcolítico de las comarcas circundantes. Así, en este artículo se analizan las características tecno-tipológicas, escala y organización de la producción de adornos de variscita y sus continuidades y transformaciones con el paso del tiempo. Los resultados nos permiten hablar de una tradición artesana originada en el Neolítico Final la cual mantuvo sus rasgos tecno-tipológicos esenciales mientras crecieron la intensidad, la concentración y, probablemente, la especialización de su producción en el Calcolítico.

From clays to pots: chaînes opératoires and technical options at a burnt Late Iron Age potter’s workshop (north-eastern Italy)

The unusual discovery of a potter’s workshop suddenly destroyed by a firing-cum-collapse event at Montebello Vicentino (north-eastern Italy), dated to the Late Iron Age (ca. late fifth–fourth centuries BC), offers the unique possibility of studying two parallel operational sequences or chaines operatoires of ceramic manufacturing in this period, by direct analysis of the various base materials and products lost during destruction. Raw materials (prepared clay batch, sand, and other temper inclusions), unfired vessels knocked to the ground by the collapse, and samples of fired pottery were comprehensively characterized by petrographic and mineralogical analysis. Comparisons with similar ceramic products found at nearby settlements of Montebello can also better define the differences between production which was actually taking place at the workshop at the moment of destruction and previous work, as documented by sherds found at the same site.