Flake Cores Research Articles

IUP Technological Signatures or Mousterian Variability? The Case of Riparo l'Oscurusciuto (Southern Italy)

In the Italian peninsula, the Late Middle Paleolithic exhibits significant technological diversity, featuring blades, points, and bladelets. Assemblages displaying these distinctive characteristics have, in some cases, been labeled as Musteriano evoluto or Evolved Mousterian, and they are interpreted as contributing to the technological and typological variability within the Middle Paleolithic. In this study, we report the results of a detailed technological analysis of the lithics recovered from the latest layers preserved at Riparo l’Oscurusciuto (SU1 to SU3) in southern Italy. These layers were previously attributed to the Late Mousterian based on their chronological age and a preliminary techno/typological analysis of a small number of artifacts. Our comprehensive analysis of entire assemblages reveals the presence of original technological features, including blades, bladelets, and specific production of micro-points on flake cores. Some of these technological traits are comparable to those recently described at Grotte Mandrin in south-eastern France, which have been attributed to an early phase of the Initial Upper Paleolithic and associated with one modern human tooth. The study confirms the variability of the Late Middle Paleolithic in southern Italy and emphasizes the necessity to reassess it considering recent theories on the earlier arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe and their potential interaction with local populations.

The use of carinated items in the Levantine Aurignacian-Insights from layer D, Hayonim Cave, W. Galilee, Israel.

A longstanding debate concerns the function of carinated elements in both, the Levantine, and European Aurignacian. The present study aims to contribute to this topic with the evaluation of the carinated assemblage from layer D in Hayonim Cave, Western Galilee, Israel, one of the type sites of the Levantine Aurignacian. An operational chain reconstruction with an attribute analysis is paired with a typological approach to the preparation and maintenance products based on artefacts defined as West European Aurignacian. The results of this study are investigated with multivariate statistics offering a methodological contribution. The data is subjected to a transformation into a distance matrix using the Gower distance and tested with the adonis-algorithm for significance. The results clearly indicate that the carinated items in Hayonim Cave did fully or partially function as cores. They are accompanied by diagnostic preparation- and- maintenance products known from the literature e.g. Thèmes bladelets. The statistical analysis indicates only a minor correlation with stratigraphy yet supports the techno-typological criteria applied for defining artefact categories (cores, debitage, tools), as well as the proposed differentiation of carinated 'core' types. The non-carinated cores in Hayonim Cave are characterised by a high variability in typology and reduction concepts. A curious similarity to the Levallois-concept is observed on some of the flake cores. It is therefore suggested that the frequent recycling of Middle Palaeolithic artefacts in the Levantine Aurignacian might have given the Aurignacian flint-knappers the opportunity to study the Levallois concept and apply an approximation of it in their own core reduction strategies. The notion that Palaeolithic flint-knappers actively observed former technological systems through the discarded artefacts directly opens up a new trajectory for the understanding of lithic reduction concept permanence. The conceptual diversification and variability in Hayonim Cave D indicate a highly dynamic period in the Levantine Upper Palaeolithic which increased the adaptive potential and promoted a rapid cultural change.

Adaptions of hunter-gatherers before Younger Dryas in Gobi Desert, northwest China: Flexible technological strategies in Pigeon Mountain Locality 10

The role of Oasis-based economies was pivotal for Hunter-gatherers in the Gobi Desert following the Last Glacial Maximum. Despite this significance, there has been a lack of systematic technological studies on lithic assemblages to investigate the technological strategies employed by hunter-gatherers for desert adaptation. In this study, we conducted a lithic analysis based on new excavations at Pigeon Mountain Locality 10 (QG10), focusing on archaeological remains from CL3 and CL2 dating back to 13.7–11.7 ka cal BP. Our findings reveal that the lithic technology employed reflects a flexible strategy, characterized by expedient flake production, the versatility of flake cores, and a diverse array of microblade cores and tools. Notably, we observed an expedient organizational strategy in microblade production, involving minimal investment in pre-shaping microblade cores and reduced depletion in core rejuvenation. Additionally, there was a heightened use of local quartzite raw materials, indicating enhanced flexibility, possibly influenced by the relatively dry and cold environmental changes during that period.

Recycling Neolithic Axes: An Experiment Re-using Polished Axes as a Flint Source for the Creation of Small Tools

ABSTRACT In the western Netherlands Neolithic axes are hardly ever found in a complete state. Flint is scarce in this area and when these axes were exhausted, or when they broke during use, they were often re-used as flake cores. Vlaardingen Culture (3400–2500 BC) sites often yield large quantities of flakes and retouched tools made on polished axe fragments. Using an experimental approach, we tried to better understand the importance of recycling of these objects. For the experiments we reconstructed four so-called Buren axes. The experiments provided insights into the usefulness of broken axes as flake cores. It was also demonstrated that flakes struck from axes generally do not have a remnant of a polished surface, indicating that the importance of broken axes as flake cores has so far been underestimated. Furthermore, it was concluded that micro-debitage can successfully be studied to identify areas where broken axes were flaked.

An integrated study discloses chopping tools use from Late Acheulean Revadim (Israel).

Chopping tools/choppers provide one of the earliest and most persistent examples of stone tools produced and used by early humans. These artifacts appeared for the first time ~2.5 million years ago in Africa and are characteristic of the Oldowan and Acheulean cultural complexes throughout the Old World. Chopping tools were manufactured and used by early humans for more than two million years regardless of differences in geography, climate, resource availability, or major transformations in human cultural and biological evolution. Despite their widespread distribution through time and space in Africa and Eurasia, little attention has been paid to the function of these items, while scholars still debate whether they are tools or cores. In this paper, we wish to draw attention to these prominent and ubiquitous early lithic artifacts through the investigation of 53 chopping tools retrieved from a specific context at Late Acheulean Revadim (Israel). We combined typo-technological and functional studies with a residue analysis aimed at shedding light on their functional role within the tool-kits of the inhabitants of the site. Here we show that most of the chopping tools were used to chop hard and medium materials, such as bone, most probably for marrow extraction. A few of the tools were also used for cutting and scraping activities, while some also served as cores for further flake detachment. The chopping tools exhibit extraordinarily well-preserved bone residues suggesting they were used mainly for bone-breaking and marrow acquisition. We discuss the data and explore the tool versus core debate also in light of a sample of 50 flake cores made on pebbles/cobbles retrieved from the same archeological layer. The results add further pieces to the puzzle of activities carried out at Revadim and add to our knowledge of the production and use of these enigmatic tools and their role in human evolutionary history.

Manufacturing of a sandwich structure engineered wood with a rice husk flake core and teak veneer reinforced with glass/carbon fiber skin

The manufacturing of a sandwich structure engineered wood, constructed from a rice husk flake core and teak veneer as outside skins, was studied in this work. Epoxy adhesive was employed, while glass and carbon fiber, both short discontinuous and woven forms, were used as reinforcement. The impact strength, flexural properties, and dimensional stability of the samples after prolonged water immersion were measured. At the assigned reinforcement loadings, the rice husk flake/woven woods showed mechanical superiority over the rice husk flake/short discontinuous materials, regardless of the fiber type. The reason for the greater rice husk flake/woven interfacial adhesion and laminated woven strength, compared to the rice husk flake/short discontinuous composite was investigated. The samples constructed from teak veneer laminated with woven glass or carbon fiber skin and rice husk flake or rice husk flake/30% woven glass cores had greater mechanical properties. The high shear and tensile/compression stresses of woven glass or carbon fiber laminated onto teak veneer skins were confirmed. The sandwich structure engineered wood using woven glass and carbon fiber reinforcement exhibited good dimensional stability under prolonged water immersion. Carbon fiber was the better material candidate compared to woven glass in terms of manufacturing the sandwich engineered wood presented in this work.

New data on settlement and environment at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa: Interdisciplinary investigation at Fatandi V, Eastern Senegal.

The end of the Palaeolithic represents one of the least-known periods in the history of western Africa, both in terms of its chronology and the identification of cultural assemblages entities based on the typo-technical analyses of its industries. In this context, the site of Fatandi V offers new data to discuss the cultural pattern during the Late Stone Age in western Africa. Stratigraphic, taphonomical and sedimentological analyses show the succession of three sedimentary units. Several concentrations with rich lithic material were recognized. An in situ occupation, composed of bladelets, segments, and bladelet and flake cores, is confirmed while others concentrations of lithic materials have been more or less disturbed by erosion and pedogenic post-depositional processes. The sequence is well-dated from 12 convergent OSL dates. Thanks to the dating of the stratigraphic units and an OSL date from the layer (11,300–9,200 BCE [13.3–11.2 ka at 68%, 14.3–10.3 ka at 95%]), the artefacts are dated to the end of Pleistocene or Early Holocene. Palaeoenvironmental data suggest that the settlement took place within a mosaic environment and more precisely at the transition between the open landscape of savanna on the glacis and the plateau, and the increasingly densely-wooded alluvial corridor. These humid areas must have been particularly attractive during the dry season by virtue of their rich resources (raw materials, water, trees, and bushes). The Fatandi V site constitutes the first stratified site of the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary in Senegal with both precise geochronological and palaeoenvironmental data. It complements perfectly the data already obtained in Mali and in the rest of western Africa, and thus constitutes a reference point for this period. In any case, the assemblage of Fatandi V, with its bladelets and segments and in the absence of ceramics and grinding material, fits with a cultural group using exclusively geometric armatures which strongly differs from another group characterized by the production of bifacial armatures, accompanied in its initial phase by ceramics (or stoneware) and grinding material.

Near net shape fabrication of anisotropic Fe-6.5%Si soft magnetic materials

Efficient and cost-effective soft magnetic materials (SMMs) are essential for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles and the sustainable growth of renewable electricity. While amorphous and nanocrystalline SMMs offer remarkably low magnetic losses, their poor mechanical properties, limited availability in size and shape (particularly ribbon widths), and high cost prevent them from widespread industrial application. Here, we show that ductile Fe-6.5%Si 2-D flakes could be used as building blocks for making high performance bulk SMMs. This approach bypasses the brittleness problem and creates a new morphology and a new fabrication method for the SMMs with improved energy efficiency and lower processing cost. Ductile Fe-6.5%Si flakes are mass-produced by melt spinning and are then consolidated to bulk SMMs with a brick-wall type of structure. The novel process introduces anisotropic electrical and magnetic properties and enables near net shape processing. Resulting Fe-6.5%Si thin sheets display low iron loss (W10/400 = 6.1 W/kg) and high permeability (µr = 28,000), which are comparable to the current state of the art high silicon steel. CaF2 coating reduces the iron losses for thick Fe-6.5%Si parts. Polymer coated Fe-6.5%Si flake cores show potential for high power inductors with greater permeability and lower losses than traditional powder cores.

The Acheulean handaxes from Faysaliyya (Shawbak directorate, southwestern Jordan), 2017 season

This paper presents the inventory of 23 Lower Paleolithic handaxes surface collected at the Faysaliyya archaeological site in 2017. The purpose of the paper is to inform about a new collection of handaxes found in the highland region of southern Jordan, provide its detailed description, and draw some preliminary conclusions which may be useful for further studies on numerous lithics materials from Faysaliyya. The site is located in southwestern Jordan, in the northern part of the geographical and historical region of Edom, the Edom Highland. It was discovered during rescue surveys in 2016 and has been exacavated since 2017 by a Polish team from the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University within the framework of the HLC Project. The presented handaxes were made of relatively high quality local flints. They all are characterized by a state of preservation typical for lithic artefacts obtained from a desert environment (patina, weathering). Moreover, most of them bear traces of abrasion and damages, which suggests that they could have been brought to Faysaliyya by fluvial transportation. The handaxes have been classified according to F. Bordes’ typology. They mostly include amygdaloids and sub-cordiforms but several coridiforms, discoidals, sub-triangulars, and a single Miqocian ficron have been distinguished as well. Two artefacts have been classified as miscellaneous forms. In a very few cases, traces of reutilization as flake cores, or some kinds of modification/rejuvenation are visible on the handaxes. Due to their finding context, the group of handaxes presented in this paper cannot be considered as a homogenous assemblage and may consist of artefacts of various chronology. Generally, the analysed handaxes reveal features which are typical of the Late Acheulean, but it cannot be excluded that some of them may be dated to the Middle Acheulean (alternatively Large Flake Acheulean). Thus, the presented inventory seems to be similar to others surface collections of handaxes from southwestern Jordan, such as Fjaje, Wadi Faynan or Wadi Qalkha.

Chalcolithic and Middle Bronze Age obsidian industries at Karmir Sar: A mountain view on the lithic economies of the Southern Caucasus

The high-altitude site of Karmir Sar is located around 2850 m a.s.l. on the southern slopes of Mt. Aragats (Armenia). Numerous stone structures (including vishaps, cromlechs, stone enclosures) are found all over the 40 ha-sized meadow, out of which three vishaps, four cromlechs and one circular stone structure have been investigated since 2012. According to 14C-dates, pottery and diagnostic lithic artefacts, human presence at Karmir Sar started as early as the Chalcolithic Period and continued (with gaps) until modern times; whereby the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) and the Medieval era represent the most intensive periods of occupation.
 This contribution presents primary data on the typology and technology of 1129 chipped lithic artefacts that have been excavated in four trenches at Karmir Sar (operations KS A, KS C, KS D, and KS E). This study of the lithic industries of Karmir Sar will be embedded within the framework of lithic economy, which considers lithic artefacts as part of a comprehensive interaction between lithic production and consumption. The lithic economy includes strategies of raw material procurement, blanks production and its transformation into tools, tool use, as well as the circulation of raw materials or products. Due to multiple use episodes and a general lack of clear stratigraphical horizons, the assemblages of Karmir Sar are not suitable to define the lithic industry for specific periods (such as the Chalcolithic or MBA periods). However, the data allows for general conclusions on lithic production and consumption at Karmir Sar, which appears to be quite similar during both periods.
 The Chalcolithic and MBA lithic economies at Karmir Sar are characterized by an ad hoc tool production environment, which well matches the needs of semi-mobile herder societies. The majority of raw materials appear to be procured from secondary source areas (such as riverbeds) which is indicated by a high ratio of battered and rolled surfaces. Tools are predominantly produced on-site, and according to daily demands by simple flake core technology. This allowed for a flexible, spontaneous blank and tool production without being dependent on specialized blade producers.

Fluvial deposits as an archive of early human activity: Progress during the 20 years of the Fluvial Archives Group

Fluvial sedimentary archives are important repositories for Lower and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts throughout the ‘Old World’, especially in Europe, where the beginning of their study coincided with the realisation that early humans were of great antiquity. Now that many river terrace sequences can be reliably dated and correlated with the globally valid marine isotope record, potentially useful patterns can be recognized in the distribution of the find-spots of the artefacts that constitute the large collections that were assembled during the years of manual gravel extraction. This paper reviews the advances during the past two decades in knowledge of hominin occupation based on artefact occurrences in fluvial contexts, in Europe, Asia and Africa. As such it is an update of a comparable review in 2007, at the end of IGCP Project no. 449, which had instigated the compilation of fluvial records from around the world during 2000–2004, under the auspices of the Fluvial Archives Group. An overarching finding is the confirmation of the well-established view that in Europe there is a demarcation between handaxe making in the west and flake–core industries in the east, although on a wider scale that pattern is undermined by the increased numbers of Lower Palaeolithic bifaces now recognized in East Asia. It is also apparent that, although it seems to have appeared at different places and at different times in the later Lower Palaeolithic, the arrival of Levallois technology as a global phenomenon was similarly timed across the area occupied by Middle Pleistocene hominins, at around 0.3 Ma.

Epoxy‐based adhesives filled with flakes ag‐coated copper as conductive fillers

The flake core–shell Cu‐Ag powders are prepared and characterized. Isotropic conductive adhesives (ICAs) filled with flake silver‐coated copper was prepared by using epoxide resin as matrix and tetraethylenepentamine as curing agent. The flake silver‐coated copper was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, and TG‐DTA. The results show Ag content in the surface of coated copper is up to 96.32%. Oxidation resistance of flake Cu‐Ag powders with high surface Ag content is improved greatly investigated by TG‐DTA. And bulk resistivity and shear strength of ICAs are measured. It was found that the percolation threshold of ICAs filled with flake Cu‐Ag powders is as low as 40 wt%. The ICAs have good overall performances. And the main influence factor on electric resistivity was analyzed. POLYM. COMPOS., 38:846–851, 2017. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers

Disparate Stone Age Technological Evolution in North China

The transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic and the global diffusion of modern human populations remain hotly debated topics. The timing and pace of the transition in China are especially uncertain. This paper examines spatial and temporal variation among Paleolithic assemblages in North China dated to Marine Isotope Stage 3. There are two main systems of blank production in evidence: one is Levallois-like whereas the other involves simple unprepared flake cores. The Levallois-like assemblages are limited to northwest China: further dispersal of the technology was probably hindered by the presence of established populations in the eastern part of North China using long-established flake core technology. Consequently we should view North China as consisting of two geographic entities with respect to research on the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. Changes within flake assemblages represent an independent pattern of cultural evolution, and it will be important to clarify when and how other aspects of Upper Paleolithic behavior were expressed there.

Early MIS 3 occupation of Mochena Borago Rockshelter, Southwest Ethiopian Highlands: Implications for Late Pleistocene archaeology, paleoenvironments and modern human dispersals

Between 70 and 50 ka BP, anatomically modern humans dispersed across and out of Africa to eventually populate all inhabitable continents. Knowledge of paleoenvironments and human behavioral patterns in Africa prior to and during these dispersals is crucial for understanding how and why hunter-gatherers were able to adapt rapidly to the new environments they encountered. However, few well-dated sites from this time period are known from the Horn of Africa, one of the purported staging areas for population movements into southern Arabia and Asia. Excavations at Mochena Borago Rockshelter, situated on the western slopes of a dormant volcano where the SW Ethiopian Highlands meet the Ethiopian Rift, have yielded the first securely dated archaeological sequence for later periods of the dispersal. Three major lithostratigraphic groups incorporating occupational episodes have yielded charcoal radiocarbon ages ∼53–38 ka calBP; deeper deposits have been tested but remain undated. Archaeological assemblages consist mainly of obsidian flaked stone artifacts manufactured from small, minimally prepared, single- to multi-platform flake cores; radially prepared cores are rare and blade cores are absent. Small unifacial to bifacial points from non-radial cores dominate the earliest shaped tool assemblages, and backed pieces first appear by ∼45 ka calBP. By ∼43 ka calBP, scrapers and backed pieces are predominant, rather than points. However, there is little evidence for technological change other than the appearance of bipolar technology. Mochena Borago's archaeological sequence thus cannot be neatly classified as Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age or “transitional” and calls into question some of the principles by which archaeologists have attempted to classify African toolmaking traditions.

Eksperimenter med flækkepilespidser – Studier af pilespidser fra grubekeramisk kultur

Experiments with arrowheads of flintAn investigation of tanged points from the Pitted Ware cultureThis article presents a thematic use-wear analysis of type A tanged points from the Pitted Ware culture. The Pitted Ware culture was contemporary with the late Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture and the early Single Grave culture. The main focus of this article is on an investigation of type A tanged points through a combination of micro and macro use-wear analysis. Together with cylindrical flake cores, and ornamentation in the form of round pits and horizontal lines on the culture’s pottery, type A tanged points date the oldest phase of the Pitted Ware culture. The sample of tanged points which was analysed comes from Kainsbakke, Kirial Bro, Hesselø and Anholt.My goal has been to investigate the following questions by way of use-wear analysis: Do the selected tanged points show any signs of having been used as projectiles? Was the type A0 arrowhead, without a tang, used as an arrowhead or did it have other functions? Have tanged points in general been used for purposes other than as projectiles? How do the tanged points relate to the question of re-shafting? How do the experimental replica tanged points compare with their archaeological counterparts?The relationship of type A0 tanged points to the subsequent types A1-A3 was questioned by Malmer in an article on the early Pitted Ware culture site of Jonstorp RA. The reason for not including type A0 within type A is its lack of a tang.The basis of any micro-wear analysis is an experimental programme. In my case, this comprised three parts: The manufacture of experimental flint replicas of type A tanged points, shafting these replicas and shooting the replica arrows into an authentic target. The target chosen for my experiments was a Sika deer (Cervus nippon). The Sika deer is anatomically similar to the red deer, one of the best represented wild animals at Kainsbakke.On the basis of my experimental results, I can conclude that the type A0 arrowhead performs well as a projectile. Diagnostic macro- and micro-wear traces were observed on all subtypes of the experimental tanged points. In addition, 11 of the archaeological tanged points examined showed diagnostic macro- and micro-wear identical to that on the experimentally produced examples. This means that the type A0 should be considered an arrowhead within the type A tanged point typology.Additionally, none of the archaeological arrowheads showed any evidence of other use-wear other than that found on projectiles. Traces of shafting could be seen on both experimental and archaeological arrowheads.In this article, I discuss the morphology of type A tanged points versus their effectiveness as projectiles and the general results of my experiments.In conclusion, I suggest that there was an alternative target for tanged points associated with the Pitted Ware culture (types A, B and C). The chronological shift from type A to type C arrowheads could be related to a growing use of arrowheads as weapons against humans. In association with these types of arrowhead, we find examples of violent disputes, for example as seen in the case of the Iceman Ötzi, and others.Peter ByeSilkeborg Museum

ESTUDIO TECNO-ECONÓMICO DE LA INDUSTRIA LÍTICA DE CERRO CASTILLO (PROVINCIA DE ÚLTIMA ESPERANZA, CHILE)

The present techno-economic study of lithic materials recovered in Cerro Castillo 1 site, provincia de Ultima Esperanza - Chile, delivers new precedents about the terrestrial hunter groups that lived in the area approximately 4.500 years BP. The set allows characterizing reduction schemes that emphasi- ze technical systems based on the management of bifacial volumes in flake core production, which are then transformed by retouch in sidescrapers, endscrapers and other instruments. Other less represented operative chains are also recorded, as a blade project and the use of percussion over anvil methods. The weak presence of series orientated to the manufacture of bifacial artifacts or faconnage methods is emphasized.

Bornholm i ældre stenalder – Status over kulturel udvikling og kontakter

Bornholm i ældre stenalder – Status over kulturel udvikling og kontakter

The Lower Palaeolithic Site at Red Barns, Portchester, Hampshire: Bifacial Technology, Raw Material Quality, and the Organisation of Archaic Behaviour

The site at Red Barns was excavated in 1975, but the large lithic collection remained unstudied following preliminary examination. This paper reports on further analysis of the lithic material from the site, together with a reappraisal of the faunal remains and original mineralogical analyses, and the results of processing sediment samples from the 1975 excavation. An abundant molluscan assemblage was recovered from the deposits covering the main archaeological horizon, allowing climatic/environmental reconstruction and amino acid dating. The synthesis of these data indicates the site to be older than previously thought, dating to between 425,000 and 200,000 BP.Analysis of the lithic material has suggested that the site is an undisturbed palimpsest of flint tools and debitage. The poor, severely frost-fractured nature of the raw material used for knapping, together with the location of the site on a Chalk outcrop, have enabled investigation of some assumptions about the influences upon knapping technology of i) poor quality raw material and ii) local availability of flint fresh from Chalk bedrock. The persistent manufacture of finely worked plano-convex handaxes suggests that, even in an area where fresh Chalk flint must have been abundant, the immediately available poor quality flint source was not a bar to formation of an assemblage dominated by handaxe production. Secondly, the emphasis on carefully shaped pointed plano-convex handaxes suggests that this shape was both deliberately imposed and not dictated by a lack of local availability of flint fresh from the Chalk. Behaviour at the site was investigated by analysis of the organisation of the lithic production and it was demonstrated that, while some handaxes and flake-tools were abandoned at the site and some flake core reduction also took place there, the dominant pattern was for handaxes to be made at the site and then removed and abandoned elsewhere.

Early Occupations and Cultural Sequence at Moose Creek: A Late Pleistocene Site in Central Alaska

Early investigations at the Moose Creek site in 1979 and 1984 recovered stone tools within and below paleosol stringers dated between 8160 ± 260 14C yr BP and 11730 ± 250 14C yr BP. Although questions remained regarding the absence of diagnostic artifacts and the validity of the radiocarbon dates obtained from soil organics, this assemblage was tentatively assigned to the Nenana complex. Excavations at the site were resumed in 1996 in hopes of solving persisting problems associated with the culture-historical positions of its components. Microstratigraphic excavation techniques identified two superimposed microblade components associated with the Denali complex. Hearth charcoal dated the deepest microblade occupation at 10500 ± 60 14C yr BP, while a geological sample dated the second at 5680 ± 50 14C yr BP. The oldest microblades lay 15 cm above a Nenana complex occupation that contained a hearth dated at 11190 ± 60 14C yr BP. Artifacts associated with this feature included a large scraper-plane, two side scrapers, a biface, an exhausted flake core, a hammerstone, and anvil stones, as well as a sub-triangular point and a teardrop-shaped Chindadn point. The majority of these tools were manufactured from a large basalt cobble reduced using a bipolar technique. Subsurface testing at several localities around the site did not uncover new late Pleistocene occupations. The chronostratigraphic positions of the diagnostic artifacts found during the re-excavation support previous culture-historical sequences observed for Nenana and Denali complexes in the region. Results from this latest research confirm that the Nenana and Denali complexes are chronologically, stratigraphically, and technologically distinct in the Nenana Valley.

Les niveaux intermédiaires entre le Gravettien et le Solutréen de l'Abri Casserole (Les Eyzies de Tayac) : Mise en évidence d'un mode de production original de microlithes et implications

ABSTRACT The technological study of lithic industries from the intermediate Gravettian/Solutrean strata in Abri Casserole (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, Dordogne) has revealed bladelet production for microliths. Thick flake cores resulting from this flaking technique could be typologically described as end-scrapers "à museau", an argument in favour of an Aurignacian V attribution. On the other hand, several typological elements suggest Gravettian links.