Lithic Economy Research Articles

Obsidian Tool Function and Maya Lithic Economy at Terminal Classic Pook's Hill, Belize: Subsistence, Domestic Activities, and Craft Production

Obsidian Tool Function and Maya Lithic Economy at Terminal Classic Pook's Hill, Belize: Subsistence, Domestic Activities, and Craft Production

Color as a key characteristic in the terminal pleistocene fluted-point-period lithic economy in northeastern North America

Red chert attributed to a small number of outcrops within the Munsungun Lake formation, northern Maine is nearly ubiquitous in late Pleistocene Fluted-Point-Period (FPP) archaeological sites throughout northeastern North America, including at sites hundreds of kilometers from this source. Red Munsungun chert also appears more frequently in FPP sites than any other material type in the region. The frequency of use and the distances over which this material was transported during the FPP differ qualitatively and quantitatively from other raw materials regularly found in FPP sites in the region. These differences in use, transport, and discard are not explained by technological considerations --such as texture or nodule size-- alone. One possible explanation for the unique treatment of this material during the FPP is color. Knappable brightly colored stone (including red) is uncommon in the Northeast which may have resulted in a specific preference for red Munsungun chert by stoneworkers during the FPP. The widespread transport and exchange of this material would also help maintain social relationships and information exchange between widely scattered bands, while the act of repeatedly returning to a specific location would have helped socialize a recently settled landscape.

Color as a Key Characteristic in the Terminal Pleistocene Fluted-Point-Period Lithic Economy in the Northeastern North America

Color as a Key Characteristic in the Terminal Pleistocene Fluted-Point-Period Lithic Economy in the Northeastern North America

Lithic economy in South Western France during the Neolithic: A case study from a coastal site - La Lède du Gurp (Aquitaine)

The prehistory of South-western France is known worldwide for its rich record of Palaeolithic sites, especially from the Dordogne region. However, while research on the Palaeolithic is extremely prolific, the Neolithic was at the same time relegated to the background. Since the beginning of the discipline, few researchers worked on the Neolithic from SW France. Besides, they focused on ceramic typological analyses to describe cultural groups, rarely considered lithic tools and armatures, and never performed any techno-economical study of lithic productions. For over thirty years, rescue archaeology excavations revealed a large presence of Neolithic sites for this period; nonetheless Neolithic research remains little developed in relation to its potential. As part of my PhD thesis, the aim will be to fill this gap by characterizing lithic productions through techno-economical analyses, in order to describe the cultural groups existing in Northern Aquitania during the 4th and the 3rd millennia. With the example of La Lède du Gurp, a littoral occupation site dated to the middle and recent Neolithic, I will try to highlight in this paper what the study of lithic industries can say about a cultural group at a local scale.
 The reconstitution of the operating chains and the statistical analysis of small assemblages of non-standardised lithic reduction, allowed us to highlight a similar low investment in lithic production between the Middle and the Recent Neolithic of La Lède du Gurp. Our approach has enabled us to observe that a low investment in lithic production may reflect the complexity of the Neolithic groups and the complementarity of lithic industry with other technical subsystems directly related with the group's natural environment, as may it be the case for salt production during Recent Neolithic at La Lède du Gurp.

Quina Retouch Does Not Maintain Edge Angle Over Reduction

ABSTRACT The Quina scraper features an important role in the discussion of European Middle Palaeolithic variability. Explanations for its characteristic retouch and blank morphology have ranged from economic to functional and cultural considerations. One hypothesis is that Quina retouch maintains the edge angle of the retouched margin, allowing the upkeep of high cutting potential despite repeated resharpening. In this study, we examine this hypothesis by using a sample of scrapers from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Roc de Marsal in southwest France. The results show that, when the influence of reduction intensity and flake thickness are controlled, Quina retouch has no detectable impact on the retouched edge angle. Instead, the overall higher edge angles among Quina scrapers are a product of continuous reduction and the use of thicker blanks. We discuss possible factors underlying the occurrence of Quina retouch with respect to lithic economy and function.

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

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

Lithic economy and prehistoric human behavioral ecology viewed from southern Jordan

A lithic sourcing study coupled with analyses of lithic reduction strategies and settlement- procurement patterns of Middle Paleolithic (Late Levantine Mousterian) and Early Neolithic (Late Middle PPNB) occupations revealed intertwined factors that shaped the different lithic provisioning strategies of the prehistoric groups. The accessibility and morphometrics of lithic sources, the techniques guiding the reduction process, economizing measures conditioned by elements of Optimal Foraging Theory and the settlement-procurement patterns of the consuming groups were important factors modeling the different lithic provisioning strategies. The interrelationship of these factors traces the complex process of lithic procurement and places it more fully within the context of human behavioral ecology.

Site fragmentation, hominin mobility and LCT variability reflected in the early Acheulean record of the Okote Member, at Koobi Fora, Kenya

From its initial appearance at ∼1.7 Ma, the Acheulean was prevalent through a vast chronological span of hominin behavioural evolution that lasted nearly 1.5 million years. The origins and production patterns of large bifacial cutting tools (‘LCTs’) – the marker of the Acheulean techno-complex – and the systematic changes in this behaviour through time are gaining increasing interest in paleoanthropology. Here we provide a synthesis of early Acheulean LCT variation in a landscape context by analysing assemblages from four different quasi-contemporaneous (∼1.4 Ma) sites from the Koobi Fora Formation. We characterize this variation using both 3D geometric morphometric and descriptive approaches. The expansive lateral exposures of fluvial and lacustrine sediments, as well as the associated tephrostratigraphy of the Koobi Fora Formation provide the landscape context that enables these comparative analyses. Our study demonstrates that when multiple contemporaneous early Acheulean localities are analysed together, a broader picture of LCT variability is elucidated. Four sites at Koobi Fora appear to represent a single system of lithic economy, characterized by a discrete trajectory of changes in LCT size and shape. These sites have ranges of LCT forms which appear to represent different but overlapping stages on a single reduction trajectory. Certain sites exhibit the full reduction trajectory while others exhibit only fragments of this trajectory. Other inter-site lithic proxies further complement these patterns in LCT variability. We explore patterns of site function, mobility and hominin landscape use, all of which may be suggestive of a depth of planning in early Acheulean hominins wherein technological activities were undertaken in substantial anticipation of future needs.

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.

Lithic Economy and Specialized Activities Among the Iberomaurusian Populations of Tamar Hat Rockshelter (Northeastern Algeria)

Tamar Hat rockshelter (Bejaia, northeastern Algeria) has yielded a lithic assemblage showing general characteristics of an Iberomaurusian Early Late Stone Age nature. Specific “becs,” which we shall call “becs of Tamar Hat,” appear as an important component of the assemblage in the upper occupations, which occurred at the end of Late Glacial Maximum. These becs, from a technological point of view and especially by their shaping processes, constitute a reliable reference collection, though showing morphological variability resulting in part to the reduction process. The use-wear analysis conducted, based on a microscopic examination validated by experimentation, testifies the becs would have functioned for engraving hard bone, such as those of deer. Other scars observed on the sharp edge and lower face near the active portion of the tool are caused by hafting. Hence, the results of the technological and functional analyses of the becs from Tamar Hat reveal the presence of specialized activities in the upper occupations, related to the animal bone processing. These results are supported by the archaeozoological study, which confirms that the site functioned as a seasonal habitat, where Megacerin deer was exploited in the upper occupations for utilitarian, non-food purposes. The emergence of the use of the becs of Tamar Hat is synchronous with the end of the Upper Paleolithic, prior to the expansion of bec use in the Upper Magdalenian of Europe, where technical and stylistic convergences were observed. This raises the question of the emergence of these lithic implements in North Africa and the possible spread of similar industries elsewhere.

Lithic Raw Material Economy in the Mesolithic: An Experimental Test of Edged Tool Efficiency and Durability in Bone Tool Production

ABSTRACTThe foundation of this paper is lithic economy with a focus on the actual use of different lithic raw materials for tasks at hand. Our specific focus is on the production of bone tools during the Mesolithic. The lithic and osseous assemblages from Strandvägen, Motala, in east-central Sweden provide the archaeological background for the study. Based on a series of experiments we evaluate the efficiency and durability of different tool edges of five lithic raw materials: Cambrian flint, Cretaceous flint, mylonitic quartz, quartz, and porphyry, each used to whittle bone. The results show that flint is the most efficient of the raw materials assessed. Thus, a non-local raw material offers complements of functional characteristics for bone working compared to locally available quartz and mylonitic quartz. This finding provides a new insight into lithic raw material distribution in the region, specifically for bone tool production on site.

Exploring Neanderthal skills and lithic economy. The implication of a refitted Discoid reduction sequence reconstructed using 3D virtual analysis

Lithic refitting studies have consistently contributed to address two specific research aims: the intra-site mobility and identification of preferential areas or latent structures, and the in-depth analysis of the knapping technologies and core reduction strategies. Multiple refits, in particular, can produce highly detailed data on knapped stone technology. Elucidating human skills and lithic economy, a potential still rarely evaluated for Discoid technology: a stone knapping method largely spread across the Middle Paleolithic of Europe. The opportunity to explore Neanderthal knapping behavior is provided from the remarkable discovery of a primary lithic waste concentration in the Mousterian Discoid level of the Grotta di Fumane, Italy, dated to at least 47.6 ky cal BP. With a combined approach that included the 3D virtual interaction, we were able to reproduce a complete reduction sequence that supports the technological analysis conducted on the lithic assemblage. Results lead to a better comprehension of the knapper's technological and technical behavior, including the detection and quantification of economic objectives and productivity.

A Multi-Method Approach to Inferring Early Agriculturalists’ Stone Tool Use at the Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site

Abstract While there has been much research on the function of stone tools via use-wear analysis, it is clear that a multipronged approach, including an evaluation of material acquisition, production, and tool use, is necessary if tool function is going to prove truly useful for understanding past cultures. Moreover, the role of chipped lithic tools in the economies of agriculture-based populations has seen little research compared to preagricultural systems. A sample of lithic artifacts from the Crescent Bay Hunt Club site, a twelfth- to fourteenth-century Oneota village at Lake Koshkonong in southeastern Wisconsin, are subjected to a multiple-method analysis to determine individual tool use. An assemblage-based analysis provides an overall understanding of the lithic economy. A combination of microscopic identification of edge damage and surface polishes and an analysis of protein residue provides independent lines of evidence that yield strong inferences about tool use in the lithic economies of sedentary agricultural groups in the midcontinent.

The contribution of 3D visual technology to the study of Palaeolithic knapped stones based on refitting

Lithic refitting studies can produce highly detailed data on knapping technologies and cores reduction strategies, human skills, natural and cultural formation processes, lithic economy, and intra-site land-use. However, lithic refitting analysis is notoriously time-consuming and can be tricky when the specimens must be handled in the search for refits; moreover, estimation of volumes, angles, convexities, cross-sections, and missing pieces can prove difficult. In our opinion, the 3D tool could be used in order to address these problems. We applied this approach to an archaeological sample, performing a multiple refitting analysis on a virtual support. This enabled better preservation of the original pieces, easier handling, a more complete interaction with the model, and finally, better exploration of the archaeological information, including the virtual reconstruction of the missing pieces. Moreover, thanks to the 3D support the ease with which these data can be disseminated negates the limitations caused by distance and subjectivity.

A Multi-Method Approach to Inferring Early Agriculturalists’ Stone Tool Use at the Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site

ABSTRACTWhile there has been much research on the function of stone tools via use-wear analysis, it is clear that a multipronged approach, including an evaluation of material acquisition, production, and tool use, is necessary if tool function is going to prove truly useful for understanding past cultures. Moreover, the role of chipped lithic tools in the economies of agriculture-based populations has seen little research compared to preagricultural systems. A sample of lithic artifacts from the Crescent Bay Hunt Club site, a twelfth- to fourteenth-century Oneota village at Lake Koshkonong in southeastern Wisconsin, are subjected to a multiple-method analysis to determine individual tool use. An assemblage-based analysis provides an overall understanding of the lithic economy. A combination of microscopic identification of edge damage and surface polishes and an analysis of protein residue provides independent lines of evidence that yield strong inferences about tool use in the lithic economies of sedenta...

New challenges in the study of lithic raw materials in central Italy at the dawn of metal working societies: La Pietra and other radiolarite quarry-workshops in Tuscany

In central-southern Tuscany radiolarite has been used as a lithic raw material throughout prehistory. During the Copper Age it was selected for the local production of leaf-shaped artefacts. In the area considered, the Copper Age record is almost totally restricted to burials and virtually no settlements have been investigated so far. Radiolarite artefacts are found mostly as refined arrow and, possibly javelin, heads used as grave goods.Within this context, the discovery and recent investigation of the large radiolarite quarry of La Pietra (Roccastrada, Grosseto) and of the related workshops is of great interest. Our aim here is to integrate the record from this site with other contemporary evidence of radiolarite exploitation. A programme of surveys has thus begun on the other radiolarite outcrops of the area in order to verify the existence of further rock quarrying or working. The discovery of a previously unknown quarry-workshop and two previously unknown workshops on radiolarite outcrops is presented here for the first time. The geological and archaeological data coming from the quarry-workshops will be used, in a future stage of research, to source the radiolarite artefacts found in Copper Age graves of Central Italy. The Copper age armatures are valuable artefacts mostly kept in museums and fully non-destructive analyses must be applied to them. To tackle these challenges, we followed a methodological approach which integrates field surveys, the individuation of petrographic markers of the most exploited radiolarite horizons and geochemical analyses. For geochemical characterization, we made use of pXRF portable spectrometer and here we present some preliminary results in the light of current methodological debate.In conclusion, even if some methodological questions remain open, we verified the feasibility of this programme of geographical, geological and geochemical characterizations and need now to increase our dataset in order to reconstruct a viable picture of Copper age lithic economy in central-southern Tuscany.

Mining for a week or for centuries: Variable aims of flint extraction sites in the Mons Basin (Province of Hainaut, Belgium) within the lithic economy of the Neolithic

The Mons Basin (Province of Hainaut, western Belgium) is a geologically rich region, particularly from the point of view of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary deposits, conducive to an important flint gathering activity during the whole regional Prehistory. Focusing on the Neolithic period, indications of flint procurement as early as the end of the 6th millennium have been recorded, but there are concrete evidences of mining sites in the region since the second half of the 5th millennium. Flint extraction activities have lasted at least until the second half of the 3rd millennium. According to literature and recent researches, eleven sites could be extraction sites, including the World Heritage site of Spiennes. This paper critically assesses the accuracy of the data available and focuses on the issue of the unequal function of these extraction sites and their socio-economic function for Neolithic communities. Is it really possible to establish a hierarchy between the extraction sites? Can different acquisition-production strategies be highlighted? These questions are dealt with by synthesizing the data concerning the methods of flint exploitation in the Mons Basin, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the products relative to the production intentions but also by addressing the issue of their importance in exchange networks.

Long thin blade production and Late Gravettian hunter-gatherer mobility in Eastern Central Europe

The regular and systematic production of long blades (>120 mm) that maintain a thickness (<10 mm) of regular blades (<120 mm) is a particular phenomenon of the Upper Palaeolithic (40–10 ka BP) archaeological record of Eastern Central Europe. However, the mechanical underpinnings of manufacturing these long blades are still not fully understood. This paper presents experimental research that used heavy (∼800 g) and light (∼570 g) antler percussors to test the effect of percussor weight on the manufacture of Upper Palaeolithic type blades. Statistical analyses showed that a heavier percussor effectively increased the ability to achieve a fine thickness for long blades. The results are then compared to other experimental and archaeological assemblages to suggest that the use of heavy percussors may have played a role in lithic economy of Upper Palaeolithic mobile hunter-gatherers.

Lithic economy and territory of Epipaleolithic hunter–gatherers in the Middle Tagus: The case of Pena d'Água (Portugal)

In Central Portugal (westernmost Eurasia) the transition from the traditional Pleistocene hunter–gatherer societies to the complex Mesolithic societies of the Holocene has been debated for decades. While some argue that these differences were a progressive phenomenon that started with the shift from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, others defend that the Late Pleistocene patterns were fairly similar to those of the Epipaleolithic and that the major shift was rapid, dramatic and triggered by the necessary adaptation to the 8.2 ka cal BP (8.09–8.25 ka cal BP) climatic event. The study of lithic raw material provenance might be useful for this discussion, since it has been suggested that the Magdalenian and Epipaleolithic populations from this region were collecting this resources within a close range territory, whereas the Mesolithic populations were acquiring them at longer distances.In this paper, we present the results from p-XRF, VP-SEM-EDS and μ-XRD analysis done on the Epipaleolithic lithic assemblage from Pena d'Água Rockshelter, and in some geological samples from secondary sources located ∼14 km from this site. This layer is of major relevance for this debate since it is dated from 8.19 ka cal BP. If the transition was gradual, it would be expected that this assemblage would show some traits of higher-complexity seen in the Mesolithic, namely of longer distance acquisition. However, our results indicate correspondence between the archaeological chert types and some of the geological sources. The differences seen between the archaeological specimens and geological samples are mostly present in traits that can be related with manufacture, handling and post-depositional phenomena.The results suggest that, in what concerns to the economy of abiotic resources, the Epipaleolithic populations living at the time of the dramatic 8.2 ka cal BP cold event, were performing a short range acquisition of lithic raw materials which reinforces the idea of continuity from the Late Pleistocene to the 8.2 ka cal BP event and an abrupt and dramatic shift soon after this phenomena.

Assessing the exploitation of double patinated artifacts from the Late Mousterian: Implications for lithic economy and human mobility in northern Italy

The finding of recycled lithic artifacts in the Mousterian stratigraphic sequences of Grotta Fumane, Grotta San Bernardino and Grotta Broion in the southern Alps has stimulated investigations into the economic behavior and technology of Neanderthals during the Late Pleistocene. These three archives preserve remarkable evidence, dated from 90 ka and 40 ka, and show distinct signatures in terms of lithic technology, settlement and the provisioning of flint. A study has been carried out with the aim to detect the possible differentiation of tools between expedient/opportunistic vs. curated/planned and to identify the diverse aspects of tool-kit provisioning to thus infer mobility and provisioning strategies. From the identification of double patinae and from comparisons between these three sites, it has been possible to identify occurrences of recycling consisting of the collection and exploitation of old cores and flakes in expeditious or curated procedures. The evidence suggests that the recycling of old artifacts played a variable role in the Neanderthal economic strategy.The final Middle Palaeolithic in northern Italy is recorded in a handful of sheltered sites and very few open-air settlements, that were visited for short-term occupations or that were repeatedly used to accomplish complex tasks, mostly aimed at the exploitation of mineral, non-mineral and subsistence resources. Huge quantities of lithic raw material as well as the geomorphic and ecological variability in the belt between the upper alluvial plain and the pre-Alps depict the context in which Neanderthals lived and circulated in accordance with a model of low residential mobility.