Lithic Samples Research Articles

Etude techno-typologique préliminaire de l’échantillon lithique du site paléolithique de Lapoş, Poiana Roman (département de Prahova). Les fouilles de la Colline D

Abstract : A Preliminary Techno-Typological Study of the Paleolithic Lithic Assemblage from Lapo – Poiana Roman (Prahova County), Following Archaeological Researches in the “ Colina D” Area. Between 1993 and 2006, archeological researches of the Paleolithic site Lapo -Poiana Roman were located in two main areas : „ Colina D” and „ Liziera P durii”, resulting in the discovery of a large and diversified lithic sample. Unfortunately, outside several quite extended lithic amassing, no other structures or types of artifacts were uncovered ; therefore, the cultural and chronological features of the Lapo sequence remain highly uncertain, since they were inferred only on stratigraphical, palynological and lithic techno-typology basis. Nevertheless, most features of the lithic industry point towards a possible late Epigravettian influence, which, according to some recent synthetic papers, is not an isolated phenomenon, at least for the Eastern Carpathian area.

La place de la pierre dans l'Âge de la pierre: la perspective de la documentation dans la recherche du Paléolithique

Abstract : How much does the stone of the Stone Age matter ? The perspective of the archaeological record on the Palaeolithic research Prehistoric archaeology researches usually face the difficult challenge of random and heavily fragmented data, which persuades a rather materialist approach, especially when it comes to Palaeolithic studies. The latter are typically reduced to more or less imaginative or sophisticated interpretations of the lithic samples, so that the entire chronological and cultural Palaeolithic framework stands on the grounds of lithic implements characteristics. Furthermore, the narrow perspective induced by the lithic data is more often than not used to infer the general cognitive, social and cultural features of the Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. Questioning the standard view on human technology as adaptive, the paper consequently cast into doubt the relative importance of the lithic toolkits during the Palaeolithic and asks for a more socially informed perspective on technological behaviours. As the authors argue, the complexity of the past technological systems cannot and should not be reduced to the variability expressed in a single set of behaviours (i. e. lithic technology). They paper advocates an integrated approach, able to incorporate all the categories of archaeological information.

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.

Late Pleistocene and Holocene activity of the Atacazo–Ninahuilca Volcanic Complex (Ecuador)

The Atacazo–Ninahuilca Volcanic Complex (ANVC) is located in the Western Cordillera of Ecuador, 10 km southwest of Quito. At least six periods of Pleistocene to Holocene activity (N1 to N6) have been preserved in the geologic record as tephra fallouts and pyroclastic flow deposits. New field data, including petrographic and whole-rock geochemical analyses of over forty soil and tephra sections, 100 pumice and lithic samples, and 10 new 14C ages allow us to constrain: (1) the tephra fall isopachs and detailed characteristics of the last two events (N5–N6) including volume estimates of the tephra and pyroclastic flow deposits and the corresponding volcanic explosivity index (VEI); (2) the petrographical and geochemical correlations between domes, tephras, and pyroclastic flow deposits; and, (3) the timing of the last 4 eruptive events and a period of quiescence that endured a few thousand years (1000–4000). The last two eruptive events (N5 and N6) took place at around 4400 ± 35 yr BP and 2270 ± 15 yr BP, producing huge plinian and pyroclastic flow deposits. Taking into account the widely spread deposits of these VEI 5 eruptions, the present population of about 70 000 people, and the current infrastructure; the development of mitigation plans and deployment of monitoring systems at ANVC is highly recommended.

The Rhafas Cave (Morocco): Chronology of the mousterian and aterian archaeological occupations and their implications for Quaternary geochronology based on luminescence (TL/OSL) age determinations

The Middle Palaeolithic chronology of the Maghreb region of North Africa is poorly known because of the paucity of sites with a long stratigraphy and the limited number of available radiometric dates. In this paper, we report the age-estimates obtained by the TL and OSL methods on sediments and burnt lithic samples from the Rhafas Cave in Eastern Morocco. Our results indicate that the Mousterian is largely earlier than 100 ka, that the latest Mousterian dates to OIS 5 between 90–80 ka and the Mousterian to Aterian transition occurred about 70–80 ka, at the end of OIS 5 or during OIS 4. These dates will be most useful in the construction of a chronological framework of this unique sequence and for the interpretation of paleoenvironmental information.

Dating, Paleoenvironments, and Archaeology: A Progress Report on the Sunnyside 1 Site, Clarens, South Africa

Susan Kent had been working on a project excavating an open‐air archaeological site in the eastern Free State, South Africa, at the time of her death. She had commissioned geological studies, which had indicated that the archaeological horizon was in situ, and had involved colleagues in taking dating, pollen, and phytolith samples. We decided to continue with the analysis of the samples after her death and to complete the analysis of the artifacts from the site. This multifaceted approach to understanding the context of the archaeological horizon was the background against which Susan intended to investigate the spatial distribution of the lithic material as a means of identifying activity areas at the site. This chapter reports some of the results of the continuing analysis. The archaeological horizon has been dated to around 30 ka by optically stimulated luminescence. This date supports the final Middle Stone Age or Transitional Middle Stone Age/Later Stone Age designation suggested by a preliminary analysis of part of the lithic sample. Paleoenvironmental information from the site indicates that conditions were favorable for human settlement in the eastern Free State area during this period. Although the site may not necessarily be suitable to answer all the questions Susan initially asked of it, it will certainly make a contribution to our understanding of human settlement of the area during this little‐researched time period of the central interior.

Lithic controls on the removal of iron and remediation of acidic mine drainage

The remediation of streams adversely affected by acidic mine drainage often employs limestone as a neutralization agent. However, metal precipitation on the limestone surface can render it ineffective. This investigation reports preliminary field and laboratory results demonstrating that, in the presence of a mixture of limestone and sandstone, iron preferentially precipitates on the sandstone surface, and iron removal from aqueous solution is greater than with either of the materials alone. First, a river in Tennessee (USA) with preferential iron precipitation was characterized with respect to water quality and lithic surface morphology. Second, a field experiment where lithic samples were placed in an Ohio stream receiving coal mine drainage demonstrated that iron hydroxide preferentially coats quartz-rich lithologies. Finally, laboratory experiments confirmed enhanced iron removal in the presence of mixed lithic surfaces. Based on these results, the use of multiple lithic surfaces, particularly in-stream, has the potential to provide improved methods for the treatment of acidic mine wastes.

A detailed magnetic and mineralogical study of self-reversed dacitic pumices from the 1991 Pinatubo eruption (Philippines)

39 dacitic pumice and lithic samples from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo were investigated through both magnetic and mineralogical means. As in a previous study, natural remanent magnetization (NRM) is found to be reversed for most of the samples, with respect to the direction of the actual geomagnetic field direction. A few samples, amongst them ancient lithics transported by pyroclastic flows, show scattered NRM directions. From thermal demagnetization of these particular samples it is concluded that their orientation changed after emplacement. The emplacement temperature is estimated to be more than 460 °C from thermal demagnetization of lithic samples. Two magnetic minerals with large grain sizes are observed under the optical microscope: titanomagnetite (TM) and haemo–ilmenite (hem–ilm). Microprobe analyses yield x≈ 0.10 for TM and y≈ 0.52 and y≈ 0.54 for two hem–ilm phases, in agreement with the observed Curie temperatures (∼480 °C for TM and ∼250 °C for hem–ilm). The hem–ilm particles display chemical zonation, which seems to be correlated with a change of the domain structure: typically, a ferrimagnetic (FM) phase with slightly higher titanium content is observed in the central part whilst the crystal margin, which is weakly ferromagnetic (WF, due to spin-canted antiferromagnetism) is slightly poorer in titanium. Two different mechanisms for the origin and formation of the two observed phases are discussed: (1) chemical zonation of hem–ilm crystals due to a change in conditions in the magma chamber shortly before eruption; (2) similar to the microstructures observed from synthetic samples, this zonation in the large natural hem–ilm could be the result of migration of the WF phase towards the grain boundary during residence below the order–disorder transition temperature in the magmatic chamber. The room temperature hysteresis loop, which seems to be dominated by TM, provides multidomain (MD)-like parameters: Jrs/Js = 0.01 and Hcr/Hc = 20. The large coercivity of remanence (15–40 mT), which is attributed to hem–ilm, may be intrinsic or due to interactions between WF and FM phases. The field dependence of the magnitude of the thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) is not linear: it increases first, reaches a maximum (negative) value for an applied field H close to 0.5 mT, then decreases steadily. By extrapolation, it is estimated that the TRM should be zero for a field of about 12 mT and become positive beyond. This total TRM is in fact the sum of several components. AF demagnetization of TRMs acquired in different fields shows the presence of at least three components: a self-reversed (SR) component that contains both hard and moderately hard components and a soft normal component. Independently of the value of H, the median destructive field of the SR component is of the order of 70 mT, which suggests that the FM phase is not entirely locked by exchange interaction with the WF phase and can experience noticeable wall movements. However, some 20 per cent of the SR TRM component remains after AF treatment of 220 mT. Although we believe that exchange interaction plays a key role in the process of SR TRM acquisition, torque curves in the high field of samples both with and without SR TRM do not show clear evidence for unidirectional anisotropy. Similarly, we do not observe any significant shift of major hysteresis loops or non-vanishing hysteresis losses, two characteristics generally considered as indicative of exchange anisotropy and usually observed for synthetic single-domain/pseudo-single-domain (SD/PSD) hem–ilm. Indeed, in addition to the exchange interaction the magnetostatic coupling must play some role here because of the large size of the hem–ilm grains.

Characterizing stone tools by rock-magnetic methods

Of the many petrophysical properties such as acoustic velocity, dielectric constant, electrical resistivity, etc., the widest variation is shown by magnetic responses. Susceptibilities commonly range over 4 orders of magnitude between different lithic samples. Thus, magnetic properties show great potential for the characterization, provenancedetermination, thermal history, and treatment of stone tools and masonry. In order of increasing complexity and decreasing value to the archaeologist, we recommend lowfield susceptibility, saturation remanence, hysteresis ratios, isothermal remanence acquisition, and alternating field demagnetization of a saturation remanence. The natural remanence (NRM) is rarely of any value in characterizing artifacts. The physical basis for this discrimination is the nature of the magnetic minerals, their abundance and distribution through the sample, and, for remanence-bearing minerals, their domain structure, crystallographic perfection, and grain-size. These characteristics may be changed in distinctive ways by cultural effects such as percussion or fire, and surface conditions such as frost action, forest fires, or subsequent weathering. © 1998 John

An analysis of prehistoric greenstone artifacts in Northeast Alabama

AbstractLithic artifacts consisting of celts, atlatls, pipes, knives, scrapers, and ceremonial placards were excavated from 54 archaeological sites throughout four counties of northeast Alabama. An analysis of mineralogy, texture, and structure of the lithic implements was employed. Samples were studied visually and microscopically by thin section. Rock samples indigenous to the study area were also examined and compared to the artifacts to determine similarities and differences. All artifacts analyzed were formed from meta‐morphic rock types derived from outcrops ranging from less than 1 km to 60 km away from a respective archaeological site. Variance in mineralogy was notable; however, the most significant difference was in the texture and internal structure of the minerals within the artifacts. A total of 50 lithic samples were ultimately accepted as actual worked artifacts. Forty‐one (82%) exhibit a texture, structure, and mineralogy indicative of the Hillabee (Greenstone Schist) Formation, while nine (18%) exhibit physical characteristics indicative of the Heflin Phyllite. Trade and migration routes with minimum distances to known outcrops hosting rocktypes most indicative of the artifacts collected from these prehistoric camps and villages are inferred. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Analysis of Lithics from Four Markham Middleport Iroquoian Sites

The lithics from four Middleport Iroquoian sites in the Markham area, east of Toronto were analyzed. Thomson, Elliot, Robb and New were occupied between AD 1250 and AD 1400. The study of the lithic samples provided data on the developments of lithic technology within this culturally associated group of sites.

Deltaic Sedimentation on a Carbonate Shelf: Stanton Formation (Upper Pennsylvanian), Southeastern Kansas

The Pennsylvanian epicontinental sea periodically covered much of Mid-Continent North America during Missourian time, burying local siliciclastic source areas in Kansas--such as the Nemaha uplift and Central Kansas uplift--with carbonate sediments. During regressive depositional phases in the Missourian (Late Pennsylvanian), siliciclastic sediments were transported into Kansas mainly from the southeast. The five members of the latest Missourian Stanton Formation (in ascending order: Captain Creek Limestone, Eudora Shale, Stoner Limestone, Rock Lake Shale, and South Bend Limestone), form a transgressive-regressive-transgressive sequence, in which the black phosphatic shale of the Eudora Member represents maximum transgression and the sandy Rock Lake shale represents maximum regression. In southernmost Kansas, the regressive Stoner Limestone Member grades into a siliciclastic sequence, most of which is assigned to the Rock Lake Shale Member. Detailed study of surface and subsurface data from these siliciclastics show that deltaic systems prograded into the cratonic sea from Ouachita sources. Analyses of texture and sedimentary structures in lithic samples and of geophysical well-log characteristics indicate that early during Stanton regressive deposition, a fluvially dominated deltaic lobe complex prograded northwestward across the Oklahoma-Kansas border and initiated Stanton siliciclastic deposition in the detrital-facies belt in southeastern Kansas. This lobe complex was eventually abandoned as the sediment sources shifted northward along the eastern margin of the ea, and a later deltaic lobe complex (represented by the Onion Creek Sandstone) prograded along the southern limit of the carbonate platform (Stoner Limestone Member) to the north. Textural and compositional characteristics of Stanton siliciclastics indicate that they were derived from preexisting sedimentary rocks. Pennsylvanian plate collisions that formed the Ouachita and Appalachian Mountains resulted in the uplift of early Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. Sediments derived from these rocks were transported northward and westward, particularly during regressive episodes resulting in punctuation of the dominantly carbonate Missourian Series with siliciclastics in southeastern Kansas. Although very little petroleum has been produced from the siliciclastic portions of the Stanton Formation, similar sedimentary complexes may be more productive. It is hoped that this work may serve as a guide for exploration efforts in this and other complexes in similar tectonic settings.

Lithic Analysis of a Controlled Surface Collection from a Site in Western Montana

In 1970, a controlled surface collection was carried out at site 24 PW 320 in the Avon Valley of Montana. Lithic samples were obtained from two areas within the site. Analysis of the chipped stone debris, as well as the finished tools, has provided information on aboriginal activities at these two loci during the late prehistoric era.

Systemic Change and Lithic Debris: The Nine Mile Creek Survey

Data from 55 archaeological sites located during the course of a survey of a portion of Nine Mile Creek northeast of Lawrence, Kansas were analyzed as the focus of a seminar at the University of Kansas in 1969. The recognition of significant variation in lithic debris samples from the Nine Mile Creek sites resulted in the development of a seriational procedure and an explana tory model in terms of temporally changing subsistence patterns. In 1968, a group of students from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas conducted an intensive survey of a three mile segment of the valley floor and surrounding bluff tops along Nine Mile Creek northeast of Lawrence, Kansas (Fig. 1). Nine Mile Creek is a tributary of the larger Stranger Creek, which in turn flows into the Kansas River approximately 12 miles east of Lawrence. The section of Nine Mile Creek which was surveyed is six miles upstream from the junction with Stranger Creek. The valley of Nine Mile Creek averages one-third of a mile in width within the survey area. It is bounded on the east and west by limestone bluffs with interbedded bands of chert. Evidences of glacial episodes are present in the form of a mantle of detritus which occasion ally overlies the limestone. Fifty-five archaeological sites were located in the three mile survey area along Nine Mile Creek. A majority of the sites are on the valley floor, although a few also occur on surrounding bluff tops. The valley floor was searched more thor oughly than the bluff tops, so in part this seeming concentration may be a reflection of variations in sampling. Other archaeological sur veys conducted in this section of Kansas (Univer sity of Kansas, Museum of Anthropology files), however, indicate a similar concentration of sites on valley floors, so it is believed the differential in site distribution recorded during the Nine Mile Creek survey is a fair representation of the real situation. Data recorded and collected during the course of the survey provided the substantive basis for a seminar in analytical archaeology conducted dur ing the academic year of 1969-1970. Nine students participated in analyses of the data, which included specific information on the size and location of archaeological sites and collec tions of material culture from each. Site size was estimated from the extent of surface scatter, an estimation made possible by the fact that most of the sites are now plowed farm fields. Collec tions were for the most part grab samples, although an attempt was made to collect from the entire surface of each site and to collect a large sample of all readily observable types of debris. Numbers of items available for study from each site ranged from 50 to 3005. In a few instances, more careful samples were drawn by superimposing a grid on the site and collecting all items of cultural debris from each unit of the grid. During the analyses of the collections, a bias towards the presence of quantities of lithic debris and towards the absence of artifacts with known cultural-historical distributions soon became ob vious. This bias, undoubtedly a reflection of intensive collecting activities of local amateurs, resulted in a situation wherein only 36 of the 55 sites located by the survey provided collections which included artifacts with known cultural historical distributions. Initial analytical efforts were thus centered on these 36 sites, resulting in the recognition of the presence of three named cultural-historical units in the survey area: the Archaic, Plains Woodland, and Central Plains traditions. Artifacts assignable to the Archaic tradition