Flaked Stone Tools Research Articles

A contribution to research on the knapped lithic assemblage from the Late Neolithic site of Altheim in Lower Bavaria

The lithic artefacts from Altheim, being regarded as essential for the interpretation of the site, have for a verylong time attracted attention. Here we concentrate on the discoveries made during the excavation of sections of ditches in 2013-2020. Certain earlier observations were confirmed by the latest excavations, namely the high proportion of arrowheads among the flaked stone tools. A large number of the arrowheads were burnt. Many of them have broken tips, and all the analysed arrowheads with broken tips bear diagnostic impact fractures: stepterminating bending fractures or spin-off fractures specifically in the shape of small fractures on the edge between one surface of the arrowhead and the surface of the fracture of the tip. These suggest an angle of impact of the arrow into a hard surface of about 60°-70°. Broken and burnt arrowheads were found in the solid context of the structures. The context suggest that these arrowheads can be connected with conflict.

Reconstructing Neolithic obsidian procurement in Western Georgia through an obsidian characterization study

The Caucasus, situated strategically in terms of natural geography and abundant raw materials, has been attractive to the interest of prehistoric hunter-gatherers throughout ancient times. Recent discoveries at the Neolithic site of Makhvilauri in the Ajara region, affirm this historical focus. The Makhvilauri flaked stone tool assemblage encompasses various lithic resources, of which ∼11 % (n = 59) comprise obsidian, a raw material whose closest sources are 170 km away. Using the XRF method at the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Reactor Research (MURR) to elementally characterise 23 of the obsidian artifacts (∼39 % of the total) we can demonstrate that the Makhvilauri assemblage was made from at least five geochemically distinct sources. This analysis not only sheds light on the mobility patterns of ancient communities but also underscores the extensive contacts established during the Neolithic period (6th millennium BC).

Lithic tool provisioning in the western Aztec provinces: A view from Calixtlahuaca

AbstractWe describe an analysis of the flaked stone tools recovered from households in the Postclassic central Mexican city of Calixtlahuaca (a.d.1130–1530). Most artifacts are obsidian and represent the blade-core technology, but biface and bipolar artifacts are also represented. Even though household residents were involved in limited biface and bipolar reduction, it appears that the city did not have any resident blade producers. This finding is at odds with the views of many archaeologists, who tend to associate craft production with the emergence of complex Mesoamerican urban centers. We examine the technologies from temporally distinct Calixtlahuacan household assemblages. We discuss why the quantity and quality artifacts associated with blade production are not consistent with resident blade making in the city. Finally, we examine four models for blade provisioning: (1) whole-blade trade, (2) processed-blade trade, (3) long-distance itinerant craftsmen, and (4) local, hinterland-based craftsmen. Evaluating how the Calixtlahuacans got their flaked stone tools has important implications for the comparative understanding of the organization and scale of economic provisioning systems in Postclassic central Mexico. This analysis supports new inferences about the nature of commercial networks that supplied the Toluca Valley prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century.

Hafted technologies likely reduced stone tool-related selective pressures acting on the hominin hand

The evolution of the hominin hand has been widely linked to the use and production of flaked stone tool technologies. After the earliest handheld flake tools emerged, shifts in hominin hand anatomy allowing for greater force during precision gripping and ease when manipulating objects in-hand are observed in the fossil record. Previous research has demonstrated how biometric traits, such as hand and digit lengths and precision grip strength, impact functional performance and ergonomic relationships when using flake and core technologies. These studies are consistent with the idea that evolutionary selective pressures would have favoured individuals better able to efficiently and effectively produce and use flaked stone tools. After the advent of composite technologies during the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic, fossil evidence reveals differences in hand anatomy between populations, but there is minimal evidence for an increase in precision gripping capabilities. Furthermore, there is little research investigating the selective pressures, if any, impacting manual anatomy after the introduction of hafted composite stone technologies (‘handles’). Here we investigated the possible influence of tool-user biometric variation on the functional performance of 420 hafted Clovis knife replicas. Our results suggest there to be no statistical relationships between biometric variables and cutting performance. Therefore, we argue that the advent of hafted stone technologies may have acted as a ‘performance equaliser’ within populations and removed (or reduced) selective pressures favouring forceful precision gripping capabilities, which in turn could have increased the relative importance of cultural evolutionary selective pressures in the determination of a stone tool’s performance.

Captive bonobos (Pan paniscus) apply precision grips when using flaked stone tools.

Current evidence suggests that flaked stone tool technologies did not emerge until ~3.3-2.6 million-years-ago (Ma). It is often hypothesized that early hominin (principally Ardipithecus and early Australopithecus) manual anatomy may have prevented an earlier emergence, as the forceful precision grips essential to flake tool-use may have been ineffectively performed by these species. Marzke, Marchant, McGrew, and Reece (2015) observed potentially forceful pad-to-side precision grips being recruited by wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) during feeding behaviors, indicating that Pan-like manual anatomy, and therefore potentially early hominin anatomy, may be capable of effectively securing flake stone tools during their use. Here, we report on the grips recruited by four captive, human-trained, bonobos (Pan paniscus) during the use of stone and organic tools, including flake stone tools during cutting behaviors. It is revealed that pad-to-side precision grips are frequently recruited by these bonobos when securing stone flakes during cutting actions. In some instances, high forces could have been resisted and applied by the thumb and fingers. While our analyzes are preliminary and limited to captive individuals, and Pan is not suggested to secure flakes with the same efficacy as Homo or Australopithecus, it points to early hominins potentially being able to perform the precision grips required to use flake stone tools. In turn, the ability to gain tangible benefits from the effective use of flake tools (i.e., gain energetic returns from processing food resources) may have been - at least anatomically - possible in early Australopithecus and other pre-Early Stone Age hominin species. In turn, hominin manual anatomy may not be a leading restriction on the emergence of the earliest stone tool technologies.

New lithic evidence from Terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene Zhongshan Rockshelter, Guangxi, southern China

The archaeological materials recovered during the 2018 excavation of Zhongshan Rockshelter (ZSRS) in Bubing Basin, Guangxi, southern China helps to fill a cultural gap during the terminal Paleolithic in the region. The evidence from the ZSRS, dated to ∼14,523–8,472 cal. BP, is comparable to other parts of southern China and mainland Southeast Asia where grinding techniques, complex settlement patterns and broad-spectrum subsistence strategies appeared. What distinguishes the ZSRS from other sites in the region however is the widespread use of flaked stone tools and ochre utilization, but with an absence of pottery. This is an excellent example of variation in foraging behavior in this spatio-temporal facies, where one size does not fit all. Regional differences suggest a more complex human foraging strategy rather than a single and fixed behavioral model across southern China during the Terminal Pleistocene to Early Holocene transition.

New evidence for rice harvesting in the early Neolithic Lower Yangtze River, China.

The Lower Yangtze River of China has been identified as an independent center of rice domestication, but tracing the earliest evidence for rice cultivation practices has been challenging. Here we report the first evidence for rice harvesting, based on use-wear and phytolith residue analyses of 52 flaked stone tools (10000-7000 BP) from the Shangshan and Hehuashan sites. The tools reflect two harvesting methods: reaping the panicles at the top and cutting the stalk near the base. Thus, our research provides a new method for investigating prehistoric cereal cultivation, and the data lend support to the evidence of rice domestication in the early Holocene. The results also show the complexity of rice harvesting strategies several millennia before the emergence of full-fledged agriculture in the Lower Yangtze.

Free hand hitting of stone-like objects in wild gorillas

The earliest stone tool types, sharp flakes knapped from stone cores, are assumed to have played a crucial role in human cognitive evolution. Flaked stone tools have been observed to be accidentally produced when wild monkeys use handheld stones as tools. Holding a stone core in hand and hitting it with another in the absence of flaking, free hand hitting, has been considered a requirement for producing sharp stone flakes by hitting stone on stone, free hand percussion. We report on five observations of free hand hitting behavior in two wild western gorillas, using stone-like objects (pieces of termite mound). Gorillas are therefore the second non-human lineage primate showing free-hand hitting behavior in the wild, and ours is the first report for free hand hitting behavior in wild apes. This study helps to shed light on the morphofunctional and cognitive requirements for the emergence of stone tool production as it shows that a prerequisite for free hand percussion (namely, free hand hitting) is part of the spontaneous behavioral repertoire of one of humans’ closest relatives (gorillas). However, the ability to combine free hand hitting with the force, precision, and accuracy needed to facilitate conchoidal fracture in free hand percussion may still have been a critical watershed for hominin evolution.

The North Atlantic Oscillation influence on precipitation in Amadora, Portugal. An exploratory analysis for the period 1836-1915

The prehistoric site of Monte das Pedras (Mina, Amadora): identification and characterization of a new possible Neolithic flint workshop This paper deals with the identification and characterization of a new possible neolithic flint workshop located in Lisbon peninsula, included in an area rich in human occupations of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. By the analysis of the recovered data, as well as by the comparison with other similar sites, we advance the hypothesis that we are standing before an area dedicated to a specific activity — the exploitation of raw materials (namely flint) to the production of flaked stone tools — dependent of one (or more) of the various settlements of the ancient peasant communities that are known in the immediate area. By the same way, we seize the opportunity to re-evaluate the evidences of settlement of the surrounding area of the prehistoric site of Monte das Pedras, characterized by a curious heterogeneity of manifestations, mainly in the funerary universe. Therefore, we hope once more to contribute to a better understanding of the ancient peasant communities from the 5th to the 3rd millennium BC in Lisbon peninsula.

Flaked Stone Tools and Domestic Economy in a Classical Polis: Lithics from the Lower Town at Halieis, Greece

The advent of metallurgy in the Bronze Age corresponded with a reduced role for stone tools. Objects of worked stone from historic contexts have therefore received less attention than objects made of other materials. An assemblage from the Classical city-state of Halieis in the southern Argolid demonstrates the continued use of lithics in historic periods. The material, consisting largely of obsidian blades, with few cores and other production residue, reflects either primary reduction off-site and importation of finished tools or preforms, or recycling of older material. Despite the assemblage's small size, the lithics reveal some nuances of an underreported aspect of the ancient Greek economy.

Equids can also make stone artefacts

Identifying how early humans flaked stone tools is one of the crucial elements in hominin evolution. Here, we show that equids can sometimes also produce equally complex cores with conchoidal breakages that exhibit the characteristics of intentionally-flaked hominin artefacts by bipolar technique and methods. As a result, sharp edged flakes with percussion platforms, previous scars and bulbs, which can easily be mistaken with hominin-made flakes, are also produced by equid self-trimming. Given the ubiquitous presence of equids in landscapes inhabited by hominins, this imposes caution when interpreting isolated flaked rocks and urges some degree of revision of the criteria to identify strictly hominin-made tools.

A stone in the hand is worth how many in the bush? Applying the marginal value theorem to understand optimal toolstone transportation, processing, and discard decisions

Obtaining and transporting material for manufacturing flaked stone tools comes at a cost. Numerous studies evaluate how processing may reduce transport costs, often using models of optimal foraging theory such as central place foraging and field processing. However, to date these studies do not adequately address the continued reuse of toolstone through space and time, or the repeated use of toolstone by multiple individuals. To remedy this, we offer a novel theoretical framework for the conveyance of lithic material derived from the logic of the marginal value theorem. This framework explains changes in lithic acquisition, use, and discard in terms of changing environmental context. Specifically, this study examines the effect of distance from a geological source of lithic material on access to anthropogenic sources of lithic material, including previously discarded tools and cores, and quantifies these spatial patterns in terms of optimal processing before discard. We evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of past and current modeling approaches, and test predictions developed using the marginal value theorem through an artifact inventory and analysis of archaeological sites in the lower Dolores River canyon lands in southeastern Utah. The results of this case study support model predictions, showing that the degree of processing and use intensity represented in lithic assemblages increase in response to the decreasing quality and abundance of available lithic material that occurs with increased distance from the geological source. This theoretical framework offers some general insights that can explain variation in the distribution of lithic artifacts across diverse archaeological contexts.

Naïve, unenculturated chimpanzees fail to make and use flaked stone tools.

BackgroundDespite substantial research on early hominin lithic technologies, the learning mechanisms underlying flake manufacture and use are contested. To draw phylogenetic inferences on the potential cognitive processes underlying the acquisition of both of these abilities in early hominins, we investigated if and how one of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), could learn to make and use flakes.MethodsAcross several experimental conditions, we tested eleven task-naïve chimpanzees (unenculturated n=8, unknown status n=3) from two independent populations for their abilities to spontaneously make and subsequently use flakes as well as to use flakes made by a human experimenter.ResultsDespite the fact that the chimpanzees seemed to understand the requirements of the task, were sufficiently motivated and had ample opportunities to develop the target behaviours, none of the chimpanzees tested made or used flakes in any of the experimental conditions.ConclusionsThese results differ from all previous ape flaking experiments, which found flake manufacture and use in bonobos and one orangutan. However, these earlier studies tested human-enculturated apes and provided test subjects with flake making and using demonstrations. The contrast between these earlier positive findings and our negative findings (despite using a much larger sample size) suggests that enculturation and/or demonstrations may be necessary for chimpanzees to acquire these abilities. The data obtained in this study are consistent with the hypothesis that flake manufacture and use might have evolved in the hominin lineage after the split between Homo and Pan 7 million years ago, a scenario further supported by the initial lack of flaked stone tools in the archaeological record after this split. We discuss possible evolutionary scenarios for flake manufacture and use in both non-hominin and hominin lineages.

Naïve, unenculturated chimpanzees fail to make and use flaked stone tools

Background: Despite substantial research on early hominin lithic technologies, the learning mechanisms underlying flake manufacture and use are contested. To draw phylogenetic inferences on the potential cognitive processes underlying the acquisition of both of these abilities in early hominins, we investigated if and how one of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), could learn to make and use flakes. Methods: Across several experimental conditions, we tested unenculturated, naïve chimpanzees from two independent populations (n=11) for their abilities to spontaneously make and use their own flakes as well as to use pre-made flakes made by a human experimenter. Results: Despite the fact that the chimpanzees demonstrated an understanding of the requirements of the task and that subjects were sufficiently motivated and had ample opportunities to develop these behaviours, none of the chimpanzees tested, made or used flakes in any of the experimental conditions. Conclusions: These results differ from all previous ape flaking experiments, which found flake manufacture and use in bonobos and one orangutan. However, these earlier studies tested human-enculturated apes and provided the test subjects with flake making and using demonstrations. The contrast between these earlier positive findings and our negative findings (despite using a much larger sample size) suggests that human enculturation and/or human demonstrations may be necessary for chimpanzees to acquire these abilities. The data obtained in this study are consistent with the hypothesis that flake manufacture and use might have evolved in the hominin lineage after the split between Homo and Pan 7 million years ago, a scenario further supported by the initial lack of flaked stone tools in the archaeological record after this split. We discuss possible evolutionary scenarios for flake manufacture and use in both non-hominin and hominin lineages.

Шокпартас – новый энеолитический памятник Центральной Сарыарки

The paper deals with Eneolithic materials of the settlement Shokpartas, which is located on the right side of the mountain range with the same name as the Taldy River in the Central Saryarka. The main archaeological complex of the monument belongs to the late bronze age and contains materials of the BegazyDandybai (Sargarin-Alexeyev) culture, which is part of the common culture of roller ceramics. In 2018, part of an earthen type dwelling was investigated in the settlement. In the cultural layer of the settlement, together with Sargary utensils, were found flaked stone tools and several fragments of pottery with Neolithic appearance. Stratigraphically, it is impossible to separate these two complexes since the early layer is destroyed by later structures. The stone industry of the Eneolithic period is represented by 526 items, among which there are nuclei, bifaces, flakes, and scrapers. They are made of typical local siliceous rocks. A special feature of the collection is the absence of small arrowheads with a notch in the base, which are markers of Eneolithic complexes of the steppe zone. The presence on the monument of remnants of blanks of nuclei, a large amount of broken stone, production waste, allow us to consider it as a storage- workshop for the primary processing of stone. According to the typology of some tools, the raw materials and manufacturing techniques, the materials are found analogical to in the Eneolithic layer 1a of the Shiderty 3 site, as well as in the synchronous monuments of Northern Kazakhstan and Turgai. The stone industry of Shokpartas is associated with a small number of ceramics decorated with «false textiles» with the method of “pulling through «and «combing». This kind of ceramics have similarities with those found in locals, in the South-Western Kulunda, the Upper Irtysh region and in the Middle Trans-Urals. However, «false-textile» ceramics in General are not typical in Saryarka while mainly prevails on the right Bank of the Irtysh in complexes of the Borly 4 type. The age of the artifacts is determined based on stratigraphic observations of the occurrence of stone industries of a similar type at the stratified site of Shiderty 3 and is supplemented by radiocarbon analysis of Eneolithic complexes in Kazakhstan. Based on this, the early materials of the Shokpartas settlement can be tentatively dated within the second half of the IV-turn of the IV-III Millennium BC, assuming a relatively late age within the epoch. It is difficult to clearly determine their cultural affiliation, which is due to the lack of knowledge of the Eneolithic of Central Kazakhstan, so at this stage of problem, Shokportas materials can only be considered within the Ust-Narym-Shiderty circle of monuments, which tends to the Irtysh Region.

Stones that Made Food. A Lithic Viewpoint on Food Production Practices in the Early Mediterranean Neolithic

Food gathering and production are daily and fundamental activities for the reproduction and development of human societies, now and in the past. Food practices are deeply embedded in social, cultural, environmental and technological settings. During prehistory, for example, the most important changes in lithic technology were linked to the appearance of new techniques for obtaining food: more effective, requiring less time and fewer raw materials or simply better suited to the environmental and cultural framework. With the transition towards a farming economy, new food practices appeared, which gave rise to new skill sets, technologies and knowledge. This article focuses on the flaked stone tools of the Early Mediterranean Neolithic and their use for the obtainment of foodstuffs from both vegetal and animal resources. In particular, this article concerns the stone tools and techniques associated with hunting, animal slaughter and butchering, as well as with crop harvesting tasks. How were those tools made and how were they used? Were those tools crucial for food production? What factors influenced their geographical and chronological variability? What can we learn about early farming societies and their economic organization by studying them?

Plant processing experiments and use-wear analysis of Tabon Cave artefacts question the intentional character of denticulates in prehistoric Southeast Asia

The presence of notches on European Palaeolithic flaked stone tools termed ‘denticulates’ has been variously ascribed to cultural, functional and taphonomic factors. In Southeast Asia prehistoric stone tool assemblages are dominated by unretouched flakes, so the rare retouched lithics, including denticulates, can be considered unique testimonies of the intention of the tool makers to control the shape and properties of tool edges. Here we report the results of plant processing experiments with modern unretouched flakes made of red jasper. Splitting plants with the help of a specific hand and arm movement (“twist-of-the-wrist”) resulted in a series of use-wear traces that included large crescent-break micro-scars. These are very similar in shape and appearance to the notches of prehistoric denticulated tools. These results suggest that some denticulated pieces in prehistoric Southeast Asia could be less intentional than previously thought, being instead the result of plant processing activities. We also report here the analysis of 41 denticulates from Tabon Cave, Philippines. While some are clearly intentionally retouch, others exhibit use-wear and nocth micro-morphology characteristic of plant splitting. The notches of others result from utilisation and taphonomy or trampling. Altogether, our observations raise the following question: should the term denticulates be restricted to the tools intentionally retouched or encompass all the tools with adjacent notches whatever the origin of the latter is?

Migration, adaptation, innovation: The spread of Neolithic harvesting technologies in the Mediterranean.

This article explores the changes that occurred in harvesting technology during the dispersal of the Neolithic in the Mediterranean basin. It does so through technological and use-wear analysis of flaked stone tools from archaeological sites dated between ca. 7000 and 5000 cal BCE, from the Aegean Sea to the westernmost coasts of Portugal. The main goal is to analyse the transformations that occurred in the harvesting toolkit. Our study reveals dynamics of continuity and change in sickles at a Mediterranean scale, resulting from adaptations of the migrant groups to the newly occupied territories and from processes of technological innovation. Adaptations in the production system of the inserts and in their use-pattern occurred in relation to lithic raw material availability and knappers’ skills, but also in relation to the scale of production and farming techniques. A major shift took place in the north-western Mediterranean arc with the diffusion of parallel-hafted inserts, probably as a result of heterogeneous phenomena including the diffusion of new groups, technical transfers, establishment of new interaction networks and new systems of lithic production.

Fish resource exploitation in the southern Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula: A view from the traceological analysis of flaked stone tools (sixth-fourth mill. cal BCE)

In this paper, we provide new data on fish resource exploitation during the Mesolithic and Neolithic period on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Evidence from four different sites is presented: Vale Marim I (end of the seventh/beginning of the sixth millennium cal BCE) and Vale Pincel I (2nd and 3rd quarters of the sixth millennium cal BCE), both located on the southwestern Portuguese coast, and La Esparragosa and SET Parralejos (fourth-third millennia cal BCE), both located on the southern Spanish coast. The analysis of the lithic assemblages by means of use-wear analysis provided evidence of fish-processing activities. The analysis of the archaeological tools has been based on a renewed experimental framework for fish-related use-wear traces. Despite data being still scarce and fragmentary, this study points out the necessity of a more integrating approach, including traceological analysis in the framework of a broader research on prehistoric fishing.

Earliest known Oldowan artifacts at >2.58 Ma from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia, highlight early technological diversity

The manufacture of flaked stone artifacts represents a major milestone in the technology of the human lineage. Although the earliest production of primitive stone tools, predating the genus Homo and emphasizing percussive activities, has been reported at 3.3 million years ago (Ma) from Lomekwi, Kenya, the systematic production of sharp-edged stone tools is unknown before the 2.58-2.55 Ma Oldowan assemblages from Gona, Ethiopia. The organized production of Oldowan stone artifacts is part of a suite of characteristics that is often associated with the adaptive grade shift linked to the genus Homo Recent discoveries from Ledi-Geraru (LG), Ethiopia, place the first occurrence of Homo ∼250 thousand years earlier than the Oldowan at Gona. Here, we describe a substantial assemblage of systematically flaked stone tools excavated in situ from a stratigraphically constrained context [Bokol Dora 1, (BD 1) hereafter] at LG bracketed between 2.61 and 2.58 Ma. Although perhaps more primitive in some respects, quantitative analysis suggests the BD 1 assemblage fits more closely with the variability previously described for the Oldowan than with the earlier Lomekwian or with stone tools produced by modern nonhuman primates. These differences suggest that hominin technology is distinctly different from generalized tool use that may be a shared feature of much of the primate lineage. The BD 1 assemblage, near the origin of our genus, provides a link between behavioral adaptations-in the form of flaked stone artifacts-and the biological evolution of our ancestors.