Chipped Stone Technology Research Articles

An investment index for lithic technology: Implications for investment, mobility, and division of labor on the Colorado Plateau, USA

Changes in technological investment may shed light on human responses to social and environmental change, yet these changes are difficult to quantify archaeologically. Here we develop a new technological investment index for examining change in chipped and ground stone tool investment and apply it to understand human behavioral changes during the early Holocene at North Creek Shelter, southern Utah, USA. The findings of this study suggest continued investment in chipped stone technology across the early Holocene, consistent with steady consumption of artiodactyls. Findings also suggest increased investment in ground stone technology, consistent with increased low-return plant resource consumption. Additionally, application of a quantitative model for lithics and mobility demonstrates increased reliance on local toolstone across the early Holocene, suggesting decreased mobility and longer stays at North Creek Shelter. Our results have implications for the division of labor, as some individuals continued to invest in chipped stone tools for hunting unreliable, high-return prey, while others increasingly invested in ground stone tools for processing more reliable, though lower-return, plants, which may have tethered hunter-gatherers to the site.

Cultural Hybridity in Central and Southern Jordan at the End of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A

Abstract. Our understanding of the transition from the PPNA to the PPNB in central and southern Jordan has undergone significant changes in recent decades. Initially, it appeared that the PPNB arrived in the region fully formed during the Middle PPNB, expressed at sites such as Beidha. Yet it retained features like circular architecture associated with the PPNA, and was thus presumed to indicate a time lag in its arrival from the north, where such structures had largely disappeared by the Middle PPNB. Fieldwork has uncovered a rich PPNA record in Jordan, but a marked cultural gulf between the PPNA and PPNB remains visible, for example visible in the contrast between pisé semi-subterranean PPNA architecture and the aboveground stone PPNB buildings, and in the appearance of naviform technology in PPNB chipped stone repertoires. Ongoing research has narrowed this gap, documenting a shift from semi-subterranean pisé constructions to circular free-standing stone structures during the Late PPNA, as well as the cessation of el-Khiam point manufacture and the emergence of an opposed platform blade technology that appears to echo parallel Early PPNB developments in chipped stone technology to the North. There is now no chronological gap between the Late PPNA and the Middle PPNB, and it appears that this central and southern Jordanian Late PPNA is an indigenous trajectory that developed into a local Middle PPNB while simultaneously adopting further external influences such as true naviform technology. However, recent work on the western edges of the Badia has identified a fully developed Early PPNB roughly contemporaneous with Late PPNA settlements in the adjacent wadi systems to the west. Out of sync with local developments, this Early PPNB presence suggests the arrival of a distinct group in the western Badia who maintained their identity, adding to the mix of local, already highly diverse, early Neolithic communities of central and southern Jordan. Interactions between these populations continued and through a process of cultural hybridisation formed the characteristic Middle and Late PPNB of the area.

The stone-to-metal transition reflected in the Iron Age copper production sites of Timna Valley, Israel.

Metalwork was a major technological innovation that displaced stone-tool technologies and transformed human society and the environment. However, our understanding of these processes remains partial. In this paper, we approach the stone-to-metal transition from a novel angle-the presence of flint knapping at metal production sites. Drawing on excavations at the Late Bronze and Iron Age copper smelting sites in Timna Valley, Israel, we demonstrate that systematic production of expedient stone tools was integral to these sites' industrial operations, placing it at the heart of the very same metal circulation networks that were presumably responsible for its displacement. The observations from Timna, coupled with evidence for the use of chipped stone technology in other early Iron Age metallurgical contexts, support the hypothesis that it was probably both the high accessibility of iron and its qualities that put an end to the stone tool industry. Copper and bronze could not easily fulfill the function of the ad hoc stone tools and were not used to replace stone tools even if they were available and accessible.

제주 고산리 돌화살촉의 분류와 계통수 분석

Phylogenetic analyses have been successfully applied to establishing lineages and trajectories of changes of archaeological materials. The present study attempts to apply principles and techniques of phylogenetics to archaeology and produce phylogenetic trees of a large collection of chipped stone arrowheads from Gosan-ri, Jeju. Recent excavations provided new lights on human occupations at Gosan-ri: radiocarbon dates and artifacts suggest that the site was formed by repeated visits of hunter-gatherers spanning almost 5000 years of the Neolithic. More than 1300 arrowheads, or points, were collected and they were made by the same chipped stone technology based on essentially same hunting and gathering way of subsistence economy with no evidence of external migration or notable diffusion. This is why we believe that a phylogenetic tree can adequately depict the persistence and change of artifact lineages. Based on paradigmatic classification using attributes and attribute states such as maximum length, morphology of haft elements, and angle of base and stem, we use PAUP* to produce workable phylogenetic trees of stone arrowhead classes. The result shows that stemmed arrowheads and those with no stem are the two most prominent classes that were likely diverged early and many varieties evolved subsequently in the branches. We also discuss the issue of homology and analogy (homoplasy) and how to distinguish the two from archaeological situations. We expect that the present endeavor will encourage future studies of reconstructing and discussing lineages based on archaeological cases by applying phylogenetic analysis.

Raw material procurement at Boila Rockshelter, Epirus, as an indicator of hunter-gatherer mobility in Greece during the Late Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic

Mobility represents one of the most important behavioural strategies of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, allowing groups to organise their use of landscapes by positioning themselves close to resources, as well as to regulate group size and social networks. One way of measuring the scale of this mobility is through the transport of lithic raw materials in the form of cores and finished artefacts. This paper aims to investigate settlement and mobility in Greece during the Late Upper Palaeolithic to Early Mesolithic transition, by using chipped stone technology and raw material transport as an index for wider subsistence and settlement changes associated with the Early Holocene. We take as a case study the Boila Rockshelter, located in the Voidomatis Basin in the rugged uplands of the Tymphi Massif, part of the Pindus Mountains in northwestern Greece.Typological analysis of almost two-thirds of the Boila chipped stone assemblage was carried out, along with geochemical trace element analysis on chert samples from the site, as well as limestone exposures in the local area and further afield. The geochemical analysis was focused on rare earth and other elements, with the results from Boila and the geological samples then compared. These confirmed that the majority of the chert used at Boila was originally derived from outcrops within the Vikos Gorge and Voidomatis River Valley, with the best pieces from approximately 10 km to the southeast of the site. Abrasion on the surfaces of these indicates that the majority of pieces used at Boila were collected from secondary fluvial deposits, such as those immediately below the site. In contrast, the geochemical results suggested that the reddish-brown varieties which were recovered at low frequency at Boila were probably collected from deposits located further towards the south.Synthesis of the results from the chipped stone and geochemical analyses suggested that during the Early Holocene at Boila, there was a change in the composition of the retouched tool assemblage. Backed bladelets continued to be made, but they were added to by increasing numbers of backed points and geometrics, along with a significant increase in the frequency of microburins. In parallel, the use of local black chert increased, albeit from a high level to begin with, while the poorer quality local greyish-white varieties declined, along with reddish-brown. The decline in greyish-white chert probably points to deliberate choice, favouring the better quality local black variety. The decline in reddish-brown chert, likely to have been collected further towards the south, suggests increasingly localised use of the landscape, possibly in response to improving conditions leading to increasing abundance, thus reducing the scale of mobility systems or the need for as frequent site relocation.

Lithics in the Neolithic archaeology of Greece: Capturing the social dynamics of chipped stone technology.

Over the years, lithic analysis has become an integral part of Neolithic research in Greece. In the past, chipped stone tools were considered as potential chronological and cultural markers. Pottery, however, and polished stone implements attracted the greatest deal of attention for many decades. During the 1960s, prehistoric archaeology shifted toward a positivist approach away from the culture-historical perspective. Pioneering characterization studies and exchange theories made obsidian a focal point of interest in Aegean archaeology. In the course of time new ideas began to challenge old perspectives, offering different interpretations of the Neolithic past. The concept of the operational sequence or artefact biography started to dominate the field of lithic analysis, providing insight into human behaviour and mind. Currently, the artefact biography approach is used to explore space structuring and depositional practices from a contextual point of view.

Neanderthal Shell Tool Production: Evidence from Middle Palaeolithic Italy and Greece

The vast majority of tools recovered from Palaeolithic sites are made of stone varieties. Only rarely do non-lithic implements come to light, let alone tools produced on marine mollusc shell. Interestingly, a good number of shell implements made on Callista chione and Glycymeris sp. valves have been reported from 13 Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) sites in southern peninsular Europe. Of these, more than 300 specimens display evidence of deliberate edge retouch. They are all considered products of Neanderthals and date from ~110 ka BP to perhaps ~50 ka BP. In this paper, we review the evidence for Mousterian shell tool production in Italy and Greece—the only two countries in which such tools have been securely identified—and present experimental results obtained in the effort to understand the production process and typo-functional role(s) of the artefacts. We examine the general provisioning pattern of raw materials, as well as the typological, species-related and chronological data pertinent to the production of shell tools by Neanderthals. The data suggest that the Mousterian shell scrapers are a response to poor availability of lithic raw material in the areas of occurrence, and may be best described as an extension of chipped stone technologies to specific types of marine shell, their form defined by an existing mental template. As such, they constitute evidence for refined adaptation strategies and advanced provisioning of resources amongst Neanderthals, and may lend further support to the idea that these hominids displayed a degree of complex behaviour.

Chipped Stone Technology and the Colonization of the Aleutian Archipelago

Recent research has refined our understanding of the origin and development of the human occupation in the Aleutians through examination of tools and cultural features. Chipped stone technologies, defined by both tools and debitage, can also be used to identify historical and sociopolitical changes based on which technologies are used and how much they are relied upon. Herein, assemblages from recently excavated sites in the western and central Aleutians, dating to ca. 3000 B.P. and 6000 B.P. respectively, are compared to assemblages in the eastern Aleutians, dating between 3000 and 9000 B.P to evaluate whether the record suggests historical continuity or discontinuity. The changes in chipped stone tool manufacture through time that are highlighted by this analysis reveal evidence of population expansions and interactions that occurred in the Aleutians prior to 3000 B.P. Based on the presence of certain technologies, historical continuity is established among the eastern, central, and western Aleutian sites.

Late Paleolithic site at Locality S9 of Shizitan Complex in Jixian County, Shanxi

AbstractLocality S9 within the Shizitan site complex in Jixian County, Shanxi Province is one of the late Paleolithic sites at Shizitan. This locality yielded rich cultural remains. Chipped stone technology, similar to that common in North China, is represented by small sized flake stone tools including scrapers, points and choppers, which was produced by hard-hammer percussion, followed by pressure flaking technique for micro-blade production. Stone querns, stone grinding rollers, pigment pieces and pigment pulverizing tools, and ornaments made of clam shells and ostrich eggshells are also unearthed. Shizitan Locality S9 cultural remains provided abundant information for researches on the transition from late Paleolithic to early Neolithic periods in the region as well as on origins of agriculture in North China in general.

Step by Step

Reduction models have a long and significant history in stone tool analysis. This is particularly true for bifacial technologies, but is the case for some other tool forms as well. Recent advances in recognizing learning and skill transmission in stone tool manufacture, however, raise a number of questions about the suitability of previous middle- and high-level approaches for understanding the organization and execution of chipped stone technologies. This paper considers how the use of some stage- or series-based reduction models, combined with certain theoretical perspectives, actually obscures evidence for learning. Using an example of Folsom biface reduction and point production from the Hanson site in Wyoming, this article explores how archaeologists can improve their understanding of skill variation and the process of learning.

Neolithic Chipped Stone Technology at 'Ain Ghazal, Jordan : The Status of the PPNC Phase

Les fouilles effectuées en 1984 dans le secteur sud du gisement d'Ain Ghazal, en Jordanie, ont révélé artefacts et structures dans un contexte Néolithique acéramique. Stratigraphiquement, ceux-ci étaient situés sous des couches à poterie identifiées comme appartenant à la phase yarmoukienne du Néolithique céramique. Dans les couches acéramiques, de nombreux traits font toutefois supposer que l'ensemble acéramique était distinct de la phase culturelle PPNB, bien connue, et attestée sur de nombreux sites du Nord, Centre et Sud Levant. Ces différences conduisirent à suggérer qu'à 'Ain Ghazal existait une phase culturelle au début du 6e millénaire, jusqu'alors non reconnue, que nous avons appelée PPNC. Récemment, les fouilles de 1984 ont fourni assez d'éléments pour autoriser une description de l'assemblage lithique et permettre de caractériser certains aspects technologiques de plusieurs échantillons lithiques des niveaux Yarmoukien et PPNC. Les résultats de cette recherche confirment qu'en plus des autres aspects distinctifs de ces dépôts culturels, le PPNC représente une période de transition entre le PPNB acéramique et le début du Néolithique céramique, avec ses caractéristiques propres.