Chert Raw Materials Research Articles

Arslantepe in the foreground: The economic and social role of the large blades at the end of the 4th millennium BC

This paper focuses on the study of large blade assemblages made from chert raw materials at the site of Arslantepe VI-A period (3500–3200 BCE). By applying an analytical approach combining raw material characterization (NM-PCI protocol), technological and use-wear analyses, and experimental archaeology, we discuss our results from a double perspective. At first glance, we demonstrate the great potential that this proxy offers for the reconstruction of technical systems and routine activities in late prehistoric sites. Secondly, we highlight the contribution of large blades for understanding socio-economic dynamics in case-oriented debates. Specifically, large chert blade study provides further pieces of the puzzle to characterize technical and economic behaviors of the social group settled on the mound of Arslantepe at the end of the 4th millennium BC. At this time, a palatine complex with centralized administration and symbols of power, were tools to boost social inequality.

New deposit of chocolate flint in Załęże gully (Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, Poland) – Raw material characterization and its availability for prehistoric communities

One of the valued chert raw materials used by prehistoric communities in Central and Eastern Europe was chocolate flint. Despite finding artefacts made of it over a wide area, for many years, it was thought to occur only in one location - in the Holy Cross Mountains in Poland. However, the discoveries of recent years have shown that deposits of this raw material also occur in another region of Poland, in the northern part of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland (KCU). The result of intensive field surveys conducted in this area is the finding of a new outcrop of chocolate flint in Załęże gully (Lesser Poland voivodeship) described in this paper. Based on the results obtained from the radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating of sediments co-occurring with the flint deposit, a history of the paleogeographic development of this gully has been proposed. Access to the deposit in its present form is limited to modern times, but it was likely accessible elsewhere in this area. Macroscopic and microscopic (using optical and cathodoluminescence microscopy) examinations showed a high similarity with the material of other KCU provenance from the prehistoric mine in Poręba Dzierżna, site 24. In the vicinity of Załęże gully there are many archaeological sites where chocolate flint artefacts were found. Preliminary research suggests that they could have been made from the raw material from the newly discovered outcrop. The new location of chocolate flint occurrence in the KCU region described here is another premise to re-think the existing interpretations related to the extraction, use and distribution of this important chert raw material in prehistoric times in Central and Eastern Europe.

Creating frames of reference for chert exploitation during the Late Pleistocene in Southwesternmost Iberia.

Southwestern Iberia has played a key role in characterizing Late Pleistocene human ecodynamics. Among other aspects of human behavior, chert procurement and management studies in this region have received increasing attention in the past two decades, especially focusing on the sites showing repeated human occupation, such as the case of Vale Boi (Southern Portugal). However, these studies have been very limited in their geographical scope, and mostly focused on brief macroscopic descriptions of the raw materials. To further our knowledge of the relationship between regional availability of raw materials and its impact on human adaptations and mobility, a more detailed approach to characterizing geological sources is needed. This paper characterizes chert raw materials location, diversity, and availability in a geologically well-defined region of southern Portugal - the Algarve. Through macroscopic and petrographic approaches, we provide a detailed characterization of geological chert sources to build a frame of reference for chert exploitation in the region. Our results show that there are four main chert formations in Algarve, and that despite the within-source variability, sufficient differences at macroscopic and petrographic levels are present to allow clear source attribution. These results provide a baseline for raw material studies in archaeological assemblages across southwestern Iberia, that will be essential to further characterize the dynamics of human behavior in some of the most important eco-cultural niches.

The origin of chert in the Aurignacian of Vogelherd Cave investigated by infrared spectroscopy.

The analyses of raw material provenance offers the possibility of tracing short and long-distance raw material transport. So far, most studies of raw material of flint and chert in Europe have been based on macroscopic analyses. We apply infrared spectroscopy to Aurignacian assemblages from Vogelherd cave and to the Magdalenian site Randecker Maar in southwestern Germany. We compare raw material samples from three chert-bearing areas in Germany with archaeological samples from Vogelherd. Our results show that infrared spectroscopy can distinguish between different raw materials. Our archaeological samples from Vogelherd correspond to the sampled geological cherts in terms of their spectral signature. Our comparison of reference samples and archaeological samples highlights problems in commonly used macroscopic identifications of chert raw materials.

Valuing the ubiquitous: Resource availability and landscape value among the Classic period Maya of western Belize

Studies of materials' value in past societies have examined a wide variety of causes for value including, but not limited to, labor, skill, access, cultural associations, and scarcity and abundance. This article examines how scholars can determine which of these causes of value relate to values of landscapes and the materials extracted from those locations, particularly for abundant materials. It draws on an archaeological case study of the availability of chert raw materials for making lithic, or stone, tools for the Late Classic period Maya of western Belize (600–900 CE). In western Belize, chert resources are common but distributed unevenly across the landscape. Despite the ease of access, chert was a valued raw material, and households relied on its extraction as a key economic activity. The economic logic behind resource value can be examined based on a lithic extraction and production area, Callar Creek Quarry. This article, based on excavations of quarry and household contexts and analysis of the resultant materials, finds that the widespread availability of chert resources in the Maya lowlands did not result in these resources being less valuable but that the skill added to the materials through extraction and production increased their value.

Moving to the land: First archaeometric study of chert procurement at Cueva de la Cocina (Eastern Iberia)

AbstractThe present work represents the first attempt using an archaeometric approach to characterize the potential chert outcrops and retrace the provenance of the chert raw materials in the Mesolithic and Neolithic contexts of the Eastern Iberia central site of Cueva de la Cocina (Dos Aguas, Valencia). Therefore, a research project aimed at identifying and characterizing potential sources in the surroundings of the site was carried out, as a first step, to test some hypotheses related to raw material provenance. Elemental profiles of several archaeological artifacts and of geological samples collected in different local and nonlocal outcrops were obtained using X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. These chemical data were processed using multivariate statistics to investigate the possible links between the outcrops and archaeological artifacts. Preliminary results point to the use of local raw materials and also the presence of rocks outcropping in a perimeter of more than 50 km around Cueva de la Cocina, opening a new window to investigate the socioecological dynamics of the last hunter‐gatherer and the first farmer inhabitants from a diachronic point of view in this region.

Anatolian chert raw materials: Preliminary results and perspectives

In Central Anatolia, chipped stone at sites such as Çatalhöyük comprises approximately 90% of obsidian and 10% of other raw materials. These other raw materials are not precisely characterized when they show diverse quality, type of raw material and different technical investment for knapping. Speculations about sources and provenance of these raw materials in Central Anatolia are diverse but rarely supported by surveys. This paper proposes the preliminary results concerning surveys in the region of Konya, Karaman and Beyşehir with the site of Çatalhöyük at the centre.To this purpose, this work proposes a new approach combining field observations, petrography and mineralogical study (by using FTIR) for the characterization of raw materials and flint sources. A systematic description of Cretaceous and Ophiolitic formations in Central Anatolia and an evaluation of potential raw materials sources during prehistory is presented here.The fieldwork allows us to observe typical flints of the region, but tectonics and metamorphism have modified their mineralogical characteristics and physical properties making them largely unsuitable for knapping. Jasper sources, in Ophiolitic formations, similar to the poor quality raw material exploited for chipped stone at Çatalhöyük site, are located around the settlement. Flint suitable for the large blade production observed at Çatalhöyük are not available in the area of our study; its provenance remains unknown.

Chert exploitation and environmental awareness of the prehistoric inhabitants of Nahal Me‘arot Caves, Mount Carmel, Israel

Chert is the main raw material in prehistoric remains. The long sequence at Nahal Me’arot Caves enables us to examine the origin of chert raw material procured by the inhabitants of these caves. I carried out a geological survey in Mount Carmel in order to locate, characterize and map the Mount Carmel chert outcrops. The chert outcrops mapping and characterizing makes it possible for us to examine Nahal Me’arot chert assemblages and divide them into possible raw material sources. Defining the sources that were used by the inhabitants of Nahal Me’arot Caves could be help us understand their environmental and geological awareness. In this article I claim that living in a high quality and varied chert outcrops region in the Mount Carmel area, the prehistoric inhabitants of the Nahal Me’arot Caves had an excellent local environmental awareness. I will also show that they chose the chert raw material for their tools according to technological criteria (especially the size of the raw material), while scouting the area for food and other survival needs.

Variability in chert raw material procurement and use during the Upper Paleolithic and Early Neolithic of the southern Levant: A regional perspective from the Greater Petra area

In SW Asia, chert procurement studies have received increasing attention in the last two decades. However, studies on chert availability and procurement are often focused on single sites or inventories and characterize different groups of cherts for each site, complicating cross-site comparisons. Our paper aims to show the potential of lithic studies if similar standards in raw material description and analysis of availability are applied in a cross-project and diachronic study. We analyzed more than 25,000 lithic artefacts from nine Upper Paleolithic to Early Neolithic sites in the southern Levantine Greater Petra Region. Parameters of study include the identification of flint raw material groups (FRMG), the analysis of cortex or remains of natural surfaces, the geological availability of FRMGs within the Greater Petra Region, and a minimal distance analysis (MDA) of chert raw materials for the sites based on least-cost-models.Two chert raw material surveys, conducted in 2012 and 2015, show that primary source areas of most FRMG in the Greater Petra Region are restricted to two geological formations and are a suitable tool for predictive source modelling.The spectrum of used FRMG among the sites and periods is very variable, with the tendency of a wider spectrum in early Neolithic, and a more restricted one in Upper Paleolithic sites. Upper Paleolithic inventories show either a very targeted and direct procurement of lithic material, or an embedded one - resulting in greater raw material diversity. Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) lithic economies are characterized by increasing complexity and craft specialization. Specialized (surplus) production of standardized bidirectional blades co-exist with a generalized household production (non-standardized and assumed to be primarily self-sufficient). While the generalized household production shows very opportunistic modes of chert procurement (often gathered from nearby wadi fills), the raw material procurement for specialized production is characterized by a clear preference for high-quality cherts from primary sources. Generally, only one or two chert types are processed per workshop.We suggest that different socio-economic settings contribute to the variabilities observed and use a multivariate statistical method (Canonical Correspondence Analysis) to test selected binary covariables (chronological and cultural affiliation and PPNB blade technology) for significance. All tested covariables show significant differences in raw material procurement behavior. A general trend is observable towards increasing complexity in procurement processes mirroring the more complex ways of life in the Early Neolithic Period. In general, lithic economy in the Greater Petra Region shows a diachronic consistency of high investment if high quality cherts are needed, and a low investment if no special demands are placed on the material.

A multi-technique analytical approach to sourcing Scandinavian flint: Provenance of ballast flint from the shipwreck "Leirvigen 1", Norway.

Although Scandinavian flint is one of the most important materials used for prehistoric stone tool production in Northern and Central Europe, a conclusive method for securely differentiating between flint sources, geologically bound to northern European chalk formations, has never been achieved. The main problems with traditional approaches concern the oftentimes high similarities of SiO2 raw materials (i.e. chert and flint) on different scales due to similar genetic conditions and higher intra- than inter-source variation. Conventional chert and flint provenance studies chiefly concentrate on visual, petrographic or geochemical investigations. Hence, attempts to generate characteristic fingerprints of particular chert raw materials were in most cases unsatisfying. Here we show that the Multi Layered Chert Sourcing Approach (MLA) achieves a clear differentiation between primary sources of Scandinavian flint. The MLA combines visual comparative studies, stereo-microscopic analyses of microfossil inclusions, geochemical trace element analyses applying LA-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) and statistical analyses through CODA (Compositional Data Analysis). For archaeologists, provenance studies are the gateway to advance interpretations of economic behavior expressed in resource management strategies entailing the procurement, use and distribution of lithic raw materials. We demonstrate the relevance of our results for archaeological materials in a case study in which we were able to differentiate between Scandinavian flint sources and establish the provenance of historic ballast flint from a shipwreck found near Kristiansand close to the shore of southern Norway from a beach source in Northern Jutland, the Vigsø Bay.

The Iceman's lithic toolkit: Raw material, technology, typology and use.

The Tyrolean Iceman, a 5,300-year-old glacier mummy recovered at the Tisenjoch (South Tyrol, Italy) together with his clothes and personal equipment, represents a unique opportunity for prehistoric research. The present work examines the Iceman’s tools which are made from chert or are related to chert working - dagger, two arrowheads, endscraper, borer, small flake and antler retoucher - and considers also the arrowhead still embedded in the shoulder of the mummy. The interdisciplinary results achieved by study of the lithic raw material, technology, use-wear analysis, CT analysis and typology all add new information to Ötzi‘s individual history and his last days, and allow insights into the way of life of Alpine Copper Age communities. The chert raw material of the small assemblage originates from at least three different areas of provenance in the Southalpine region. One, or possibly two, sources derive from outcrops in the Trentino, specifically the Non Valley. Such variability suggests an extensive provisioning network, not at all limited to the Lessini mountains, which was able to reach the local communities. The Iceman’s toolkit displays typological characteristics of the Northern Italian tradition, but also comprises features typical of the Swiss Horgen culture, which will come as no surprise in the toolkit of a man who lived in a territory where transalpine contacts would have been of great importance. Ötzi was not a flintknapper, but he was able to resharpen his tools with a medium to good level of skill. Wear traces reveal that he was a right-hander. Most instruments in the toolkit had reached their final stage of usability, displaying extensive usage, mostly from plant working, resharpenings and breaks. Evidently Ötzi had not had any access to chert for quite some time, which must have been problematic during his last hectic days, preventing him from repairing and integrating his weapons, in particular his arrows. Freshly modified blade tools without any wear suggest planned work which he never carried out, possibly prevented by the events which made him return to the mountains where he was killed by a Southern Alpine archer.

Chert raw materials and artefacts from NE Bulgaria: A combined petrographic and LA-ICP-MS study

In the present study two analytical methods are applied to characterize chert artefacts and raw materials from northeastern Bulgaria (Ludogorie region): petrographic observation and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). Archaeological samples from 12 Chalcolithic sites from Bulgaria are analyzed as well as raw material from 6 outcrops in northeastern Bulgaria are identified and documented during a survey in 2012 when many raw material samples were collected. The chert raw material mostly occurs in various Quaternary secondary deposits, originating from destruction and disintegration of the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) limestones in the area. The paper is aimed at tracing the provenance of the artefacts based on their petrographic characteristics and geochemical composition. The archaeological evidence shows a wide distribution of the Ludogorie chert throughout the country. On the basis of micropetrographic observations, Gurova and Nachev (2008) described two main chert types (Ravno and Kriva Reka). Our petrographic study confirmed the previous results and an additional chert type was distinguished, originating from primary and secondary deposits (quarries in Koprivetz and Krasen villages) and is represented by silicified limestones (bioclastic-peloidal packstones or grainstones). It is noteworthy that the first two types of chert were largely used for prehistoric artefact manufacturing while the last one is not attested among studied assemblages at all.

MICROSTRUCTURE OF FLINT AND OTHER CHERT RAW MATERIALS*

The crystallite size, microstrain, stacking disorder and moganite content of flint and other chert raw materials were studied by X‐ray powder diffraction profile analysis. The broadening of the X‐ray reflections of all microfibrous quartz varieties is due to both anisotropic small crystallite size and anisotropic microstrain. The microstructure varies for samples of different origin. The moganite content and the number of structural defects are higher in flint than in older chert and petrified wood. The X‐ray diffraction pattern of the cortex of flint differs from that of the core material, whereas those of the patina and the unweathered interior of the rocks do not.

Prehistoric exploitation of Grevena highland zones: hunters and herders along the Pindus chain of western Macedonia (Greece)

The surveys and excavations carried out in the highland zone of the Grevena Pindus Mountains have revealed that the watershed that separates western Macedonia from Epirus was (seasonally) inhabited in different prehistoric times, from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age. The highest concentration of ‘sites’ is known from the surroundings of the modern village of Samarina, which is rich in good-quality chert raw material outcrops. This territory is still nowadays heavily exploited by Vlach shepherds who seasonally carry out pastoral activities, moving their flocks from the eastern lowlands up to the high-altitude pastures. The excavations carried out at three different sites, all lying on a flysch substratum, revealed the presence of a redeposited lower sediment, characterized by a polygonal soil caused by ground freezing that was later effected by erosion canals produced by human interference in the landscape. The results so far obtained from a few charcoal radiocarbon dates indicate that this fact took place in at least three different periods from the middle Bronze Age to the seventh century ad.