Lithic Collections Research Articles

The Lower/early Middle Pleistocene small débitage productions in Western Europe: New data from Isernia La Pineta t.3c (Upper Volturno Basin, Italy)

Isernia La Pineta archaeological site in Central Italy, dated to about 0.6 Ma, is one of the earliest archaeological sites of the Italian peninsula and one of the key sites for the knowledge of human behaviour during the early Middle Pleistocene in Western Europe.Several archaeostratigraphic units have been recognized and systematically excavated. Core and flake assemblages were studied as a bulk in the Eighties of last century with a typo-metrical approach, not taking into account a precise stratigraphic provenance. Here we present a review of the lithic collection from the lowermost archaeostratigraphic unit (t.3c) which is the first techno-economic analysis based on the concept of chaîne opératoire. Our results contrast with those from previous studies. Our analysis demonstrates that the technical criteria employed in small débitage are not opportunistic and unstructured as previously inferred. By contrast, they correspond to well-established mental templates that led knappers (1) to use mainly a discoid method; (2) to apply this débitage method regardless of the size and shape of the original matrix; (2) to maintain a high productivity; and (3) to produce medium-sized flakes to be turned into small tools. The new data are discussed in the framework of the Lower/early Middle Pleistocene technological complexes of Western Europe, calling into question a number of allegations about the first technical traditions that have been previously accepted without reservation.

Reassessment of the Early Acheulean at EN1-Noolchalai (Ancient RHS-Mugulud) in Peninj (Lake Natron, Tanzania)

Recent fieldwork carried out in EN1-Noolchalai between 2009 and 2011, one of the most significant Acheulean sites located on the Sambu Escarpment of Peninj (Tanzania) and dated to 1.5–1.4 Ma, has allowed us to undertake more complete geomorphologic and sedimentological research at this site. This contextual research has allowed us to clarify the geoarchaeological interpretation of this taphonomically complex site in order to assess its relevance within the Early Acheulean in East Africa. New stratigraphic work suggests that the archaeological site has been severely affected by fluvial erosion and redeposition. Our 2009–2011 archaeological excavation has also unearthed a new lithic collection that, along with the samples retrieved in the course of previous research projects, makes it possible to present a more complete assessment of the Early Acheulean technology of this site. The new technological interpretation confirms that the toolmakers at Noolchalai were aware of the volumetric principles related to the production of bifaces and cleavers.

“The Fall of the House of Flint”: A Zooarchaeological Perspective on the Decline of Chipped Stone Tools for Butchering Animals in the Bronze and Iron Ages of the Southern Levant

In recent years, it has been recognized that chipped stone tools continue to be used after the end of the Neolithic in spite of the introduction of metallurgy. However, the rate of change from a lithic to metal-based economy is affected by the type of tool and its various functions. Traditionally, this change is monitored through the frequencies and presence/absence of the various lithic tool types. These data are often negatively affected by the haphazardly collected lithic collections from Bronze and later sites. Recently, an alternative approach to monitoring the shift in technology has been proposed. Microscopic examination of butchering marks on animal bones allows the type of raw material (stone versus metal) and the type of implement (blade versus scraper) to be reconstructed. In this paper, zooarchaeological data from the southern Levant (Israel and Palestinian Authority Territory) will be used to demonstrate the nature and rate of change from a stone to a metal-based animal butchering technology during the Bronze Age. The data demonstrate that chipped stone tools use continues to be widespread during the Early Bronze Age at both urban and rural sites for the butchering of animal remains and tool making. From the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (II), there is a dramatic shift in emphasis to a metal-based technology (ca. 80 percent) corresponding with the spread of high quality tin-bronze metal knives. In the Late Bronze Age, the frequency of chipped stone tools continues to decline. The transition from stone to a metal-based butchering technology is almost complete by the Iron Age, but chipped stone tools never fully disappear in the butchering process even in subsequent periods. Chipped stone tools continue in use long after the end of the Neolithic.

Late Acheulean technology and cognition at Boxgrove, UK

The Acheulean industrial complex combines technological variability with continuity on a scale unparalleled by more recent industries. Acheulean variability includes a widely recognized increase in biface refinement from the Early to Late Acheulean, however the specific timing and technological nature of this shift remain unclear as do its behavioral, cognitive, and evolutionary implications. To investigate this topic, we examined lithic collections from the early Middle Pleistocene Acheulean site of Boxgrove for evidence of the use of platform preparation as a biface thinning technique. To aid in the identification and assessment of platform preparation, Boxgrove artifacts were compared with experimental products of Inexperienced, Novice, and Expert stone knappers. Results demonstrate the technologically efficacious use of platform preparation among the Boxgrove toolmakers ∼500 thousand years ago, providing the first direct evidence of this technique in the Acheulean. The use of platform preparation in bifacial thinning increases the complexity of toolmaking action sequences and has implications for understanding the neurocognitive substrates, social transmission, and spatiotemporal distribution of Late Acheulean technology.

Early Acheulean technology at Es2-Lepolosi (ancient MHS-Bayasi) in Peninj (Lake Natron, Tanzania)

The aim of this paper is to undertake the technological description of ES2-Lepolosi, one of the Acheulean sites located on the Sambu Escarpment in the Lake Natron Basin (Tanzania) and dated to 1.5–1.4 Ma. Through the combination of three different lithic collections (Glynn Isaac's 1961–81, Domínguez-Rodrigo's 1999–2002 and the sample retrieved during our own excavations carried out between 2007 and 2011), we provide here a comprehensive description of the technological characteristics seen in this classic African Early Acheulean site. Sedimentological, archaeostratigraphic, and soil micromorphological information, acquired during the course of the 2008–2011 fieldwork, is used as a contextual framework for assessing the environmental and post-depositional history of the site.

Garba III (Melka Kunture, Ethiopia): a MSA site with archaic Homo sapiens remains revisited

Garba III, in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia, is one of the many sub-sites of Melka Kunture, where the overall archaeological record starts at c. 1.8 Ma. Garba III was excavated over several years in the 1970s, under the direction of Francis Hours, who was able to publish only preliminary reports before his untimely death. At the base of the sequence, Acheulean layers were discovered and, above then, MSA layers characterized by ferruginous concretions, where three cranial fragments of Homo sapiens were also found. An age close to 150 ka was suggested for the human remains and associated industry of the upper layers, which are the focus of the current re-assessment. At the time, however, no clear-cut distinction was made between Acheulean and MSA. In 2011, the original site was re-located, geological trenches were dug, the stratigraphic sequence was documented in detail, and a geomorphological reconstruction was prepared. Lithic collections and anthropological remains, kept in Addis Ababa, were also re-studied. New field research highlights complex site formation processes, including cyclic phases of erosion and re-deposition of pre-existing soils and deposits. However, pedogenetic processes, which developed twice, also point to prolonged phases of stability, in good accordance with the state of preservation of the lithic industry, which is neither rolled nor fragmented. Small-sized obsidian pebbles were knapped, which were available locally in the alluvium deposits. The technological and typological analysis confirms that the lithic industry is Early MSA. A variety of knapping methods were in use, including the Levallois method, well established and mostly recurrent. Points were produced, as well as scrapers, denticulates, and scaled pieces. Circumstantial evidence points to an age not later than an early phase of MIS 5e. The anthropological remains, one of which was so far undescribed, are fragments of a right parietal bone, of a parietal or, more likely, of a frontal bone, and of an occipital bone. They contribute to the still scanty fossil record available at the key-time of the “archaic” H. sapiens emergence and early spread.

Lithic tools used in the manufacture of pre-Aksumite ceramics

Among pre-Aksumite lithic assemblages and surface collections from highland northern Ethiopia, well-made convex scraper-like forms are frequently encountered that exhibit a previously unrecognised form of use-wear. Evidence derived from close examination of artefacts from several sites, including primarily from a large and wealthy building complex at Seglamen, southwest of Aksum, is presented of the use of these stone tools to assist in shaping and finishing ceramic wares. The probable involvement of handstones, burnishers and other stone tools in the formation of pre-Aksumite ceramic wares is also considered.

A Middle Palaeolithic to Early Upper Palaeolithic succession from an open air site at Beedings, West Sussex

The collection of flintwork from the site of Beedings, West Sussex (England) contains by far the largest number of stone tools from the earliest Upper Palaeolithic of Britain, and is one of the two largest assemblages of its type in Europe. Despite its obvious importance, its analysis has been hindered by several factors resulting from its early excavation. Chief amongst these is the almost total lack of stratigraphic or contextual information: its Early Upper Palaeolithic attribution has hitherto been made largely on its typological and technological similarity to stratified archaeology elsewhere.New fieldwork in 2007 and 2008 in an area directly adjacent to the original site located further Upper Palaeolithic material, in addition to Middle Palaeolithic and Mesolithic material, situated within a series of fissures. Here we provide an overview of the excavation and details of the archaeological context within which further flint artefacts were found. By extension this work provides the first contextual information for the old, larger collection.The results of OSL analysis accord with an Early Upper Palaeolithic age for the majority of the old lithic collection from the site. Stratigraphic data support this Early Upper Palaeolithic age, and also help to validate the separation of material within the old collection into Middle Palaeolithic, Early Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. These stratigraphic data also suggest that Beedings is the only stratified Middle–Upper Palaeolithic open-air site in Britain. Taphonomic analysis indicates a mechanism for site formation, and accounts for the exceptional preservation of this Palaeolithic archaeology. In the light of this taphonomic analysis the “Sackung” hypothesis of site capture proposed previously for Beedings is upheld and further discussed. Wider implications for the preservation of open-air Palaeolithic sites in the region are also considered.

Bipolar Knapping in Gravettian Occupations at El Palomar Rockshelter (Yeste, Southeastern Spain)

This paper examines the stratigraphic sequence of El Palomar Rockshelter, paying special attention to the levels associated with the Gravettian. The preliminary techno-typological study of the lithic collections of these Early Upper Paleolithic levels reveals a large number of splintered pieces that have previously been linked to two different activities—bipolar flintknapping and the use of intermediate tools (wedges) for working hard materials such as bone, wood, and antler. An experiment was carried out to determine the different characteristics resulting from each process, with special emphasis on macroscopic traces. All the main bipolar knapping features identified in this experimental program were also present in the splintered pieces from El Palomar, thus providing proof that the use of the bipolar knapping method was routine during this period. The implications of the use of this knapping method in El Palomar are also discussed.

The Stone Industry from Gua Sireh, Serian, Sarawak

The site of Gua Sireh in Sarawak, Malaysia is significant in being one of only two in Sarawak that has produced lithic assemblages that can be compared with others from the region to establish a picture of human activity during the early Holocene. It was excavated by Solheim and Harrisson in 1959 and there have been subsequent campaigns by Zuraina Majid in 1977, Kurui in 1980 and Datan in 1989. The lithic collection has been examined to identify technological and behavioural details and is compared with the material from Niah Cave, West Mouth.

A reassessment of the Middle and Later Stone Age lithic assemblages from Aladi Springs, Southern Afar Rift, Ethiopia

The site of Aladi Springs was discovered and excavated in the 1970s. However, the assemblages from this site did not subsequently receive full investigation. Here, we present results of the first exhaustive analysis of the lithic collections from both the Middle and the Later Stone Age (MSA/LSA) occupation horizons at this site. Detailed analysis of metric and non-metric attributes reveals a marked variability in production techniques and overall size of major tool classes, with dimensional diminution evident across these occupations. However, tool utilisation patterns exhibit an overall similarity where marginally retouched tools and inverse retouch techniques appear to be the characteristic features of both industries. Whereas the presence in the MSA occupation of tool forms with LSA affinities suggests that the site may actually represent a transitional context, additional excavations and/or detailed microstratigraphic studies are needed in order to establish unequivocally the actual cultural trajectories at Aladi Springs.

TIKAL'S EARLY CLASSIC DOMINATION OF THE GREAT WESTERN TRADE ROUTE: CERAMIC, LITHIC, AND ICONOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

AbstractThis article reviews new evidence suggesting that Tikal and its allies controlled trade along the Pasión River during the latter half of the Early Classic period (ca.a.d.460–550) and the possible impacts this had on geopolitical interaction. Recent data in the Candelaria Caves and other Pasión River sites showed the strong influence of Tikal during this time period that could indicate that they were active agents in interregional trade between the Maya highlands and lowlands. A quantitative reevaluation of the Pennsylvania lithic collection does demonstrate an important change in Tikal's importation of both obsidian and jade during the Early Classic period. Together, the stylistic changes in the locally manufactured ceramics and the drastic increase of lithic raw materials at Tikal strongly suggest that Tikal was directly or indirectly controlling the Chixoy-Pasión trade route at this time. After the defeat of Tikal by Caracol ina.d.562, it apparently lost this influence, ceasing to be a strong agent in jade and obsidian production and exchange, instead becoming a wealthy consumer.

La gestion du quartz au Pléistocène moyen et supérieur. Trois exemples d’Europe Méridionale

Quartz is one of the main lithic resources employed along the Pleistocene for the manufacturing of tools. The abundance in all kind of environments leads to its frequent presence in archaeological sites. In spite of its suitability for knapping, the scarcity of specific researches on quartz industries has led to a view of this raw material as a second-rate resource, only used when flint was not available in the surroundings. Quite in opposition to this prejudice, the familiarity with the petrological and mechanical properties of the different varieties of quartz has led the Middle/Upper Pleistocene groups to a rational and differential exploitation of the available resources. There is a distinct selection of the varieties attending to the purposes of the exploitation and configuration. The patterns of exploitation of the cores are very standardized, based on longitudinal extractions and documenting the bipolar flaking technique. Moreover, when the raw material is of good quality, more sophisticated reduction methods such as the discoidal or the Levallois may be employed. On the other hand, for the purposes of configuration a clearly differential management of the raw material is attested: thus quartz is used for the small products (denticulates, side-scrapers, notches), while other stones (quartzite, porphyry and others) are devoted to the manufacturing of those tools demanding a more complex control of the elaboration (bifaces, cleavers, etc.). Either acting as the main lithic resource or as a complement to other raw materials, we can observe through the technological analysis of these lithic collections the great conceptual complexity depending on the needs to be fulfilled. Raw material quality allowing, the state-of-the-art technology of knapping can be applied to the quartz and, therefore, we should not understand its use as a consequence of environmental constrictions but rather as a result of the variability of the procurement strategies and management of lithic resources among the prehistoric communities.

Le site de Millon (Malay-le-Petit, Yonne, France). Du Gravettien récent dans la vallée de la Vanne ?

The site from Millon (Malay-le-Petit, Yonne, France). Late Gravettian occupation in the Vanne valley ? In areas from France where caves and rockshelters are missing, as in the Bassin of Paris, each rocky chaos was early investigated by prehistorians seeking for natural living places of prehistoric human groups. From 1911 to 1915, an excavation was performed on such a site by Augusta Hure, a famous local researcher, at a place called Millon (Malay-le-Petit, Yonne, France) in the Northern Burgondy at the south-eastern margin of the Basin of Paris. A large amount of lithic industry from “ Reindeer age period” was recovered and attributed to the Upper Aurignacian with respect to the cultural framework in use in the early 20th century. Test pits from Olivier Bernardini in 1982 failed to find a preserved archaeological layer. After a reappraisal of the Hure lithic collection in 2000, L. Klaric has considered that the industry was a Gravettian one. He also hypothesised that a correlation with a late phase of this culture, frequently observed in this region, was highly possible. Here we are dealing with a study of a lithic assemblage (more than 1000 of pieces) from this site recovered through an extensive survey. Typological and technological features of the industry from Millon are in agreement with an attribution to the Late Gravettian. The debitage is orientated toward the production of small blades and bladelets. Theses last are coming from both independent reduction of bladelet cores and final reduction stage of blade cores. Retouched tools are dominated by burins and some may have been designed as bladelet cores. Backed pieces (microgravette type) were abundantly described within Hure collection but they are infrequent in our surface finds. A taphonomic bias is responsible for depletion of smallest tools and even most of the bladelets. The Gravettian industry from Millon is ultimately compared with the one coming from La Pente-des-Brosses (Montigny-sur-Loing), dated to the Late Gravettian.

Technical and technological complexity in the beginning: The study of Dmanisi lithic assemblage

Classic typological approaches have provided significant information about human behavior in terms of morphological ideas as well as relevant data about the main technical and technological evolution. The development of technological approaches in recent times has revealed much detail about human abilities through these records, showing more complex situations in terms of human cultural evolution. Since 2003, a Georgian-Spanish team has restarted the study of the Dmanisi lithic collection from a technical and technological view, using knapping experimentation, and technological diacritic analysis from a significant sample of tools. The study of lithic raw materials indicate that the selection of blanks was mainly produced in the nearest outcrops and secondary deposits. At the same time, the workability selection of blanks indicates that an accurate selection of raw materials was made. Small differences in the way in which selection was produced can be detected from levels II to IV. The main schema analyzed in the first cluster (old level IV), includes a selection of natural forms with a simple knapped series (about 3–4 strikes) using good natural angles, with restarting in the same surface with a shorter sequence of two-to-three strikes to produce final forms. Following this schema, the use of new adequate surfaces can produce polyhedric morphologies in the core during the final steps. Technically, the materials from this level indicate a special kind of percussion, close to a bending effect. The analyzed flakes show attributes that are usually linked to soft-hammer percussion. In this case, after experiments, those stigmas are produced by stone hammer percussion with a special movement of a slow-perpendicular strike. In the second cluster (old level II), the use of better raw materials allowed a longer and successful production of sharp flakes without changing this strategy. The organization of series implies on occasions the generation of discoid-like morphologies, perhaps as a result of a more complex organization of series. With the decrease in the size of the blanks, blank dimensions become smaller, and thus require speedy-angular percussion in order to assure flake production. New technical abilities produced changes in the attributes, sizes and core morphologies. Everything indicates that first human occupation at Dmanisi-Geogia involved people with an important background in knapping skills that allowed several changes, in terms of adaptation, to particular lithic environments, raw material selection, technical strategies, as far as known within a short period.

Documenting Caddo Ceramic Sherd and Lithic Collections from Prehistoric Sites at Lake Bob Sandlin

Following on the heels of a previous archaeological effort where we documented collections of ceramic and lithic artifacts from a wide variety of prehistoric archaeological sites along the shoreline at Lake Bob Sandlin, this article puts on record the range of prehistoric ceramic and lithic artifacts in collections we recently documented from four sites at the lake in Camp and Titus counties, Texas. One of the four sites has been previously reported in the Caddo archaeological literature, but the other three have not.

Were Olduvai Hominins making butchering tools or battering tools? Analysis of a recently excavated lithic assemblage from BK (Bed II, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania)

A new interpretation of early stone-tool use by hominins at Olduvai depicts them as involved in battering activities (using pounding tools) rather than making cutting butchering tools as is commonly inferred in most other Plio-Pleistocene sites where lithics appear associated to faunal remains. The bulk of this interpretation is based on the recognition of the stigma of percussion activities in anvils and detached by-products. Renewed excavations at BK after more than half a century of the beginning of the digging at the site by M. Leakey have produced a new and unbiased lithic assemblage. The taphonomic study of the faunal assemblage has shown that BK is an anthropogenic site where carcass butchery practices were repeatedly performed over a vast amount of time. The present analysis of the lithic artefacts supports this interpretation by showing that the obtainment of flakes was the principal aim in stone knapping. We argue that a number of technical traits observed in the lithic collection of BK can be best interpreted as the result of bipolar loading rather than the by-products of battering activities. Since BK has provided the second largest collection of hominid-modified bones from Olduvai, it is concluded that detached pieces produced in the course of bipolar reduction might have played an active role in bone modification and that active rather than passive percussion behaviors might have been responsible for the formation of the lithic assemblage. The functionality of the Oldowan stone tools are discussed under the light of the new study.

La Quina Lithic Collections Assembled by the American School of Prehistoric Research atthe Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

This report examines lithics from the Mousterian site of La Quina in southwestern France housedin the collections at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. In 1921 the American School of Prehistoric Research, newly founded by George Grant MacCurdy, went to LaQuina and excavated cultural material, a portion of which was brought back to New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Here the lithic samples from that expedition — including additional La Quinalithics obtained by Yale Peabody Museum through exchange — are described using both metricand nonmetric characters, analyzed for differences as a function of excavation level, and compared to earlier published findings.

Earlier Palaeolithic Settlement Patterns: Landscape Archaeology on the River Duero Basin Plateaus (Castilla y León, Spain)

This paper is based on a landscape archaeology project, ongoing since 1996, that is being conducted on the Tertiary limestone plateaus of the Northern Spanish Meseta. The study aims to document the abundant Palaeolithic archaeology of these tablelands adjacent to the river Duero, and to interpret its territorial implications. We provide a synthesis of the chronological context of the discoveries, the extent of the forces of post-depositional disturbance involved in the formation of the various archaeological aggregations, the technological description of the lithic collections, the environmental reconstruction of the locales selected by Palaeolithic human groups in this region and their mobility patterns, based on the intensive field research carried out to date.

La producción lítica del yacimiento neolítico de O Regueiriño (Moaña, Pontevedra)

The lithic collection recovered in the recent archaeological excavations in the Neolithic site of O Regueirino is analyzed in this paper, following a theoretical and methodological scheme that is previously presented.