Lithic Production Systems Research Articles

Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene lithic industries from Southernmost Patagonia. Discussing technical variability, continuity and innovations

The study of early lithic assemblages from South America's Southern Cone used to be strongly focused on projectile points, including the famed fishtail type, often using a typological approach. The last three decades have seen a growing diversification of theoretical and methodological approaches to lithic studies, as well as new analytical techniques, used to study issues including lithic production systems, technical variability, tool manufacturing and management, raw material economy and circulation, among others. Recent studies on lithic industries are exemplified by discussing Southernmost Patagonia's first human occupations, dated ∼13,000cal BP, and Middle Holocene early marine explorations, dated ∼8000–7000cal BP. An overview and comparison of Southernmost Patagonia's early hunter-gatherer lithic technologies is made.

School of Rocks: a Transmission Time Investment Model for Pleistocene Lithic Technology

We propose a transmission time investment model for integrating the tenets of human behavioral ecology and cultural evolutionary theory to investigate agency and optimality in the social transmission of lithic technologies. While the cultural transmission process is often overlooked in discussions of optimality, we view it as a critical area for the application of adaptive reasoning to further understand the mechanisms responsible for change in lithic technologies. The proposed model modifies a technological intensification model based on the marginal value theorem (Bettinger et al. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33(4), 538–545, 2006; Mohlenhoff and Codding Evolutionary Anthropology, 26(5), 218–227, 2017) to explore how transmissibility may have affected the complexity of socially transmitted lithic production systems during the Pleistocene. This transmission investment model is contrasted with a passive demographic model derived from traditional explanations for changes in lithic technologies. To highlight how optimal considerations of transmissibility may have affected the long-term evolution of lithic technologies, we apply this model to three Pleistocene archaeological case studies investigating increases and decreases in lithic technological complexity. We propose that technological changes in each of these case studies is consistent with the predictions of the model, suggesting that time management strategies may have played a role in the long-term evolution of Pleistocene technologies. It is unlikely that transmission constraints alone were wholly responsible for the observed patterns, and future research should refine the measures of time availability and cost used here, as well as explore the interplay between transmission investment and other optimizing and social constraints.

Flexibility within Quina lithic production systems and tool-use in Northern Italy: implications on Neanderthal behavior and ecology during early MIS 4

The Quina Mousterian is one of the well-defined Middle Paleolithic techno-complexes. Despite the pivotal research carried out in south-western France, the presence of this techno-complex across the rest of Europe is still poorly documented. Here we apply a techno-functional approach, combining technological and use-wear analyses, for reconstructing lithic core-reduction, tool-reduction, and tool use at De Nadale Cave, a single-layered Mousterian site with Quina features located in northern Italy and dated to the early MIS 4. Our results indicate that the flexible core reduction strategies identified at De Nadale show some similarities with the Quina knapping method, in addition to the adoption of centripetal methods on single surfaces. Variations of this scheme identified at De Nadale are the exploitation of lateral and narrow fronts which are aimed to the production of elongated, small blanks. A parallel, ramified reduction is applied to limace cores and Quina or demi-Quina scrapers having diversified purpose (mixed matrix). These blanks are exploited as tools and cores-on-flakes from which thinner, usable flakes or bladelets are detached. The use-wear identified on both scrapers and reaffutage flakes further confirm this behavior, demonstrating the use of both tools, albeit for different tasks (i.e., scraping and cutting). We discuss the ecological implications of this behavior within the Quina Mousterian. The high frequency of retouched tools and Quina or demi-Quina scrapers seems to accompany the highly mobile human groups associated with this techno complex and their seasonally organized subsistence strategies. Finally, by combining available multidisciplinary data on paleoenvironment, subsistence, and chronology, we were able to embed the neanderthal settlement of De Nadale in a regional and Western European frame, underlining the importance of the Quina Mousterian in Western Eurasia between MIS 4 and early MIS 3.

Living in the Mountains. Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic Settlement in Northwest Portugal: Rock Shelter 1 of Vale de Cerdeira (Vieira do Minho)

Abstract In the 1990s, a research project was developed to identify, in the mountainous areas of the Northwest (NW) of Portugal, the existence of an occupation model associated with the last hunter–gatherer prehistoric communities in the region. Therefore, a set of consistent and detailed field surveys took place in the mountains of NW Portugal, leading to the discovery of the archaeological site named “Rock Shelter 1 of Cerdeira Valley,” a granite rock shelter situated in Cabreira mountain. The campaigns of excavations undertaken permitted the identification of two combustion structures, from which charcoal samples provided two C-14 dates, as well as a significant stone tool assemblage (around 30,000 pieces), that established the prehistoric occupation of “Rock Shelter 1 of Cerdeira Valley” between the Late Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic. This archaeological site and its body of evidences are being analysed within the context of an ongoing PhD project developed by one of the authors (P. Xavier), through two mutually related lines of research. The first one relates to the complete technological and typological study of the lithic assembly, identifying the objectives of the stone tool production, i.e. lithic production systems and related châines opératoires; and the second concerns itself with the classification and characterisation of different raw materials exploited by the prehistoric communities and, wherever possible, to make some additional considerations about raw material procurement. The goals of this article are the presentation of the methodologies adopted in the study of raw materials and the results obtained from the techno-typological study.

Acheulo-Yabrudian and Early Middle Paleolithic at Hayonim Cave (Western Galilee, Israel): Continuity or break?

The long archeological sequence exposed during our renewed excavations in Hayonim Cave sheds new light on the striking technological changes observed at the boundary between the Acheulo-Yabrudian (end of the Lower Paleolithic) and Early Middle Paleolithic in the Levant, as well as on their meaning in terms of population movements. The recent, as yet unpublished, technological studies highlight a clear technological break between these two entities. In Hayonim, the Acheulo-Yabrudian assemblages found at the bottom of the archeological sequence display the specific combination of bifacial shaping and the production of thick, often cortical, flakes frequently shaped into scrapers by Quina retouch. Neither of these lithic production systems is observed in the succeeding Levantine Middle Paleolithic assemblages. In contrast, the Early Middle Paleolithic is characterized by the expansion and diversification of the Levallois production system in its full-fledged form, the emergence of a specific Laminar technology, and a high proportion of retouched tools made on elongated blanks (points and blades). These technological features are unknown in the previous Acheulo-Yabrudian assemblages in the cave. Based on this information, we attempt to determine if the observed changes in stone tool production strategies resulted from an autochthonous development or a dispersal out of Africa.

Jebel Kareem (TH.68): Techno‐typological characteristics of a distinctive lithic assemblage from Dhofar, southern Oman

The lithic sample from TH.68 in Southern Oman is characterised by a set of techno‐typological features: (a) the variety of blank production strategies employed to produce flakes, blades and bladelets; (b) the level of standardisation of tools, including backed bladelets, end scrapers, burins on truncation, unifacial and bifacial plano‐convex points, etc.; and (c) a previously unknown technique that produced specific flakes presenting uniform morphological traits and high incidence of retouch. Here a comprehensive account of the lithic production systems employed by prehistoric human bands and the formal retouched tools that they made is provided.

Lithic production in the centre and south of the Iberian Mediterranean region (Spain) throughout the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (14.5–10.5 ky cal BP)

For the first time we compare lithic production systems from the three archaeological phases identified in the Iberian Mediterranean region between 14.5 and 10.5 ky cal BP: final Magdalenian, microlaminar Epipalaeolithic and sauveterroid Epipalaeolithic. These phases coincided with rapid palaeoenvironmental changes, whose effects on a peripheral region of southern Europe require a regional analysis. The basic blanks used in all three phases were blades and bladelets and there is considerable typological homogeneity.The results obtained in the study of the three phases identified at Coves de Santa Maira provide new grounds for discussion about lithic production systems during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition. Through this study it has been possible to establish the local and regional origin of the raw materials. At the same time, it has been observed that the standardisation typical of the classic Magdalenian decreased and there was an increase in more flexible and opportunistic chaînes opératoires, in addition to the absence of some stone points that are characteristic of more northern facies and cultures. The results have made it possible to contextualise the known data for the central–southern region of the Iberian Peninsula, allowing us to draw up a regional model of lithic production systems and assess the continuity or break between the three phases, as well as providing new possibilities to investigate the relationship with other facies and regional groups.

From Stone to Metal: the Dynamics of Technological Change in the Decline of Chipped Stone Tool Production. A Case Study from the Southern Levant (5th–1st Millennia BCE)

The shift from stone to metal has been considered one of the main technological transformations in the history of humankind. In order to observe the dynamics underlying the disappearance of chipped stone tools and their replacement with metal implements, we adopt an approach which combines two different levels of analysis. At the first, by focusing on the Southern Levant as a case study, we consider the developmental forces internal to the technology itself and the conditions favorable to the invention, spread, continuation, or disappearance of technical traits. At the second, by considering specific historical scenarios, we test the existence of general principles which guide technological changes. Flint knapping and metallurgy, and notably their relationship, are particularly appropriate to observe regularities which operate at different scales, the first one within the developmental lines of objects, techniques and technologies, and the second one within the conditions of actualization of technological facts. On the one hand, following the “rules” of technical tendencies, a techno-logic perspective allows observation of how metal cutting objects, overcoming the “limits” of knapping technology, represent the logical development of flint tools. On the other hand, the analysis of the socioeconomic contexts in which chipped stone tools were produced permits identification of regularities which conditioned changes in lithic production systems, their decline, and the final replacement with metal tools.

Between continuity and discontinuity: An overview of the West African Paleolithic over the last 200,000 years

In Paleolithic settlement models for Africa, West Africa has been neglected, if not entirely ignored, due to an obvious lack of research in the region but also of the availability of reliable and precise chronostratigraphic data. However, since 1997 research conducted at Ounjougou (Mali) has significantly updated our view of the West African Middle Stone Age with the establishment of the first archaeological and chronostratigraphic sequence and use of a comprehensive geomorphological approach. This site complex has provided most of the data for MIS 5 to 3, but in order to document MIS 2, one must turn to the Falémé Valley (Senegal), where data is now available from research conducted since 2011. Complemented with other scattered data from West Africa, it is now possible to propose a nearly continuous techno-cultural history for the Upper Pleistocene, supplemented by substantive evidence from the Early Holocene. We can now demonstrate significant diversity in lithic production systems, the probable times of their appearance and disappearance, and their very rapid rate of change. The Middle Stone Age in West Africa thus reflects a unique techno-cultural mosaic and technological history, very different from that observed in the Sahara and North Africa.

Tecnología lítica de cazadores y pastores andinos: cambios y continuidades en la explotación de recursos líticos durante el Holoceno en el NO de San Juan

En este trabajo se analizan y comparan aspectos de la organización tecnológica de grupos cazadores-recolectores, transicionales y pastores que ocuparon los ambientes de altura del NO de San Juan. En una escala meso espacial y a partir del estudio de la base regional de recursos líticos se realizan análisis de procedencia, secuencias reductivas, variabilidad artefactual y clases técnicas de un registro correspondiente a tres segmentos temporales del Holoceno. El análisis lítico correspondiente a cazadores-recolectores indica la implementación de estrategias expeditivas y conservadas, caracterizadas por predominio de rocas locales, de actividades de formatización de artefactos y de instrumentos con baja y alta inversión de trabajo. El registro de grupos con economías diversificadas indica el desarrollo fundamentalmente de estrategias expeditivas, caracterizadas por el predominio de rocas locales, de actividades para la obtención de soportes y de artefactos con baja inversión de trabajo. Además, se incrementan rocas de procedencia indeterminada, hay mayor variabilidad artefactual, disminuyen las tareas de formatización y las piezas con alta inversión de trabajo. Se detectó la continuidad de la caza como actividad económica y de sistemas de producción lítica secuenciales y regionales que involucran el desarrollo de tareas diversas en tres sectores altitudinales.

Success of a flexible behavior. Considerations on the manufacture of Late Epigravettian lithic projectile implements according to experimental tests

It is generally recognized that the function and modality of hafting are the main factors influencing mental templates, and consequently, stone tool standardization. But what role do technical knowledge and traditions play? In this study, we investigate the interaction between mental templates and technological choices in the manufacture of Late Epigravettian projectile implements. The examined specimens come from different dwelling phases of the Dalmeri rock shelter (Italian Alps). Technological analyses suggest that lithic production systems gradually simplified their structure over time, implying a shift in technical investment from shaping on the core to a subsequent shaping on the derived flake blank. However, correlations between the dimensions and morphological features among the armatures from the different units suggest that mental templates remained unchanged throughout the Allerod. Experimentation attests to the frequent combined application of different retouching techniques. Further, the variability in their arrangement denotes the absence of strict rules and the Epigravettian capability to recognize the most situationally suitable method. In the Dalmeri rock shelter, the standardization of lithic projectile implements is therefore a result of flexibility in retouching, framed in a production system characterized by a progressive simplification. A such rapidly produced and responsive technology must have been encouraged by Late Glacial climatic and environmental changes and the occupation of alpine territories previously inaccessible. Thus, the flexibility of technical behaviors turns out to be a key element in the transformation of Late Epigravettian societies during this period, enabling them to adapt and evolve in response to environmental, social, and economic changes.

A Simple Photogrammetry Rig for the Reliable Creation of 3D Artifact Models in the Field

AbstractThree-dimensional (3D) artifact modeling is becoming an increasingly utilized tool in archaeology. In comparison with other methods of 3D scanning, photogrammetry has the benefits of being relatively inexpensive, mobile, and more adaptable for use in field conditions. As part of a larger project to document variability in lithic production systems across the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in Western Europe, we developed a photography rig for the express purpose of systematically capturing images for the creation of 3D photogrammetric models. This low-cost rig greatly streamlines both the photo-taking and post-processing stages of model creation. Additional tips relating to the coating of difficult-to-capture objects with a mineral spray are also provided. Three-dimensional models of lithic cores from the Châtelperronian, Protoaurignacian, and Early Aurignacian levels of the site of Les Cottés (France) are presented as examples of the quality of model that can be produced using this system.

The contribution of lithic production systems to the interpretation of Mousterian industrial variability in south-western France: The example of Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, France)

Disentangling the relative contribution of the various factors underlying Middle Palaeolithic industrial variability remains one of the foremost problems for researchers interested in Neandertal technological and behavioural adaptations. The site of Combe-Grenal (Dordogne) has figured prominently in these discussions given its long stratigraphic sequence and rich archaeological record that extends from MIS 6 to MIS 3 and contains all of F. Bordes' Mousterian facies. Departing from a strict typological approach, we provide a revised vision of the site's sequence focused on individualising lithic production systems. We investigate to what extent typologically different industries, beyond their separation imposed by the very idea of discrete Mousterian facies, nevertheless portray comparable production systems. By eschewing a chronology of the traditional Mousterian facies, our technological approach to the Combe-Grenal assemblages succeeded in identifying a clear stratigraphic succession where strictly typological approaches had previously failed. Moreover, comparison with other regional sequences shows the succession of Mousterian technological systems identified at Combe-Grenal not to be an exception in south-western France. We propose a revised chronology for the site's sequence based on a correlation of changes in the structure of regional faunal communities with independent palaeo-environmental data. Finally, comparing technological data with raw material provisioning strategies and elements of faunal exploitation, such as prey availability, provides insights concerning the interpretation of Mousterian variability and the investigation of changing patterns of Neandertal landscape use.

A Gravettian Knapping Workshop at Tercis (Landes): A Probable Case of Apprenticeship in the Fabrication of Lithic Weapon Tips

The site of Tercis, in the Adour Basin, contains several distinct artefact concentrations. It consists of a vast open-air knapping workshop where the production of lithic weapon tips in Tercis flint was a significant activity. Some of the lithic concentrations can be attributed to the Gravettian culture. However, the degree of technical investment varies from assemblage to assemblage, contrasting this probable cultural unity. This paper presents a study of the apprenticeship process revealed by these assemblages in order to stress the high degree of technical investment devoted to projectile tips, and consequently, their significant role in the evolution of lithic production systems.

Transport Distance and Debitage Assemblage Diversity: An Application of the Field Processing Model to Southern Utah Toolstone Procurement Sites

Understanding the decisions made at toolstone procurement localities is critical to understanding lithic production systems. However, lithic assemblages at procurement sites are typically voluminous, frequently overlapping, and always complex. This paper explores the influence of expected toolstone transport distance on procurement site assemblage variability using a central place theory inspired model from Human Behavioral Ecology. Debitage assemblage diversity is examined for 43 sites in two procurement contexts with different expected overall transport distances. Twenty-six of these sites are from the Canyonlands region of southeastern Utah where toolstone transport distances are expected to be uniformly short; seventeen sites are from the Black Rock desert region of west-central Utah where transport distances are expected to be longer. Observed differences in debitage assemblage diversity from each procurement context are consistent with expectations derived from the model which suggests that procurement site assemblage variability is predictably affected by expected toolstone transport distance.

Le site paléolithique moyen récent du Fond des Blanchards à Gron (Yonne). État des premières recherches et implications

The Middle Palaeolithic settlement of «Le Fond des Blanchards» was discovered in 1996 in a gravel quarry of the Yonne valley (Paris Basin, France). It is contained in an alluvial sequence, the Gron formation, which overlies the 3 ± m incision floor. The settlement has yielded several prehistoric levels attributed to the Lower or Middle Pleniglacial Weichselian substages. The lower levels (DG, DB, D5, D4, D3 and D2) are interstratified in a sandy bank deposit belonging to a braided channel. A loamy sand representing floodplain deposits contains the upper levels (Da, D1). The D levels result from different occupations in the same natural context, along the river bank. Faunal remains found on the settlement (Reindeer and Horse) attest to cool climatic conditions and an open landscape. The lithic artefacts configuration shows that all stages of flake production in the chaîne opératoire are represented on the site, from the acquisition of raw material to the transformation of blanks into tools. The knapping methods are simple and allow the production of a large diversity in flake morphology; «type-tools» are rare. In the C level knapping results in the production of large flakes to be transformed into scrapers. Found in large numbers, they are structured along the same manufacturing concept: it involves intensive reworking. The techno-functional analysis allowed the transformation modalities to be recreated, and showed the production of various types of blanks where reworking took place in ways specific to the different techno-types. The lithic assemblages of Le Fond des Blanchards have been qualified, on techno-typological criteria, as «Moustérien de type Quina», as described in south-western France. However the last technological and techno-functional analyses allow us to reconsider this attribution. The lithic production systems of Le Fond des Blanchards are both classical Quina-like and as original as Levallois. The production objectives seem to be more varied and the manufacturing of tools leads to the realisation of different morpho-types of quite functionally precise scrapers. The lithic production systems of Le Fond des Blanchards, beyond the typological and technological differences, lead to the revising of our definitions, and to looking anew at the variability of the Neanderthalian lithic industries during the last part of the Middle Palaeolithic.

Les sites et les industries lithiques du Paléolithique inférieur, moyen et supérieur de la basse vallée de l'Yonne dans leurs contextes chronostratigraphiques. Bilan de dix ans d'activité archéologique pluridisciplinaire dans le sud-est du Bassin parisien

Since 1994, the archaeological survey of the Pleistocene alluvial deposits of the north of the River Yonne valley, in the southeast of the Paris Basin, has allowed the discovery of twelve Palaeolithic settlements (Lower to Upper Palaeolithic), the plotting of the evolution of the Yonne terrace system and the proposal of a chronostratigraphical hypothesis. The settlements found in the six last alluvial terraces (Soucy 1 to 6, Etigny Le Brassot PLM, Le Fond des Blanchards and Le Chemin de l'Évangile 3 at Gron, Le Brassot at Étigny) have yielded many lithic industries andfaunal assemblages preserved in fine fluviatile sequences (sands and silts). The first studies and analyses of these settlements have provided much new information about modes of occupation in the palaeovalleys (Soucy), lithic production systems (Le Fond des Blanchards and Le Chemin de l'Évangile 3 at Gron) and the variability of the lithic industries (Soucy), and strategic behaviour in acquiring and exploiting animal resources (Soucy and Le Fond des Blanchards at Gron).

Perspectives méthodologiques de l'analyse fonctionnelle des ensembles lithiques du Pléistocène inférieur et moyen d'Atapuerca (Burgos, Espagne)

Methodological Perspectives of Usewear Analysis Applied to Lithic Assemblages from Atapuerca's (Burgos, Spain) Lower and Middle Pleistocene. This work presents a methodological revision of the usewear analysis applied to ancient lithic assemblages. The aim of this revision is the application of usewear to the Atapuerca sites. In this way, functional data recovered so far at the Gran Dolina and Galería sites are presented. The conclusion obtained deals with the actual function of tools, as well as the relation between use and lithic production systems.

De quelques chaînes opératoires lithiques en Asie du Sud-Est au pléistocène supérieur final et au début de l'holocène

About some operating sequences in Southeast Asia during the late upper Pleistocene and the early Holocene. The variability of lithic production systems of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens sapiens in Southeast Asia is still mostly unknown because the size of this area which is dispatched between continentality and insularity and because of the scarcity of typological synthesis. Southeast Asia does not follow the linear and simple evolutionary stone implements model that we find in Western Europe (choppers / chopping tools, bifaces, flakes debitage, etc.) but it seems to defy any logico-empirical scheme. The different operating sequences (‘chaîne opératoire’) that are listed here are not exhaustive and on the contrary, they pose the question of the variability of the lithic production system of the modern human in this region of the world in a tropical environment. Following a strictly qualitative point of view we will only discuss the operating sequences of shaping and debitage knapping made by forceful hammering.

Quantifying Lithic Curation: An Experimental Test of Dibble and Pelcin's Original Flake-Tool Mass Predictor

This paper describes an experimental test of a method proposed by Dibble & Pelcin (1995) for reconstructing the original flake mass from striking platform dimensions. The results of this test indicate that while there is a correlation between flake mass and flake attributes for hard-hammer lithic production systems, using the specific variables identified by Dibble & Pelcin (exterior platform angle and platform thickness) consistently underestimates original flake mass. The reasons for this discrepancy and possible future research directions to resolve it are explored.