Lithic Technology Research Articles

Taphonomic and technological analyses of Lower Palaeolithic bone tools from Clacton-on-Sea, UK

The exceptional survival of Middle Pleistocene wooden spears at Schöningen (Germany) and Clacton-on-Sea (UK) provides tantalizing evidence for the widespread use of organic raw materials by early humans. At Clacton, less well-known organic artefacts include modified bones that were identified by the Abbé Henri Breuil in the 1920s. Some of these pieces were described and figured by Hazzledine Warren in his classic 1951 paper on the flint industry from the Clacton Channel, but they have been either overlooked in subsequent studies or dismissed as the product of natural damage. We provide the first detailed analysis of two Clactonian bone tools found by Warren and a previously unrecognized example recovered in 1934 during excavations directed by Mary Leakey. Microscopic examination of percussion damage suggests the bones were used as knapping hammers to shape or resharpen flake tools. Early Palaeolithic bone tools are exceedingly rare, and the Clacton examples are the earliest known organic knapping hammers associated with a core-and-flake (Mode 1) lithic technology. The use of soft hammers for knapping challenges the consensus that Clactonian flintknapping was undertaken solely with hard hammerstones, thus removing a major technological and behavioural difference used to distinguish the Clactonian from late Acheulean handaxe (Mode 2) industries.

The Late and Final Middle Palaeolithic of Central Europe and Its Contributions to the Formation of the Regional Upper Palaeolithic: a Review and a Synthesis

For decades, the relationship of pre-modern hominins to anatomically modern humans (AMH) and the transition from mode 3 to mode 4 industries remain topics of ongoing scientific debate. Over the last 20 years, different disciplines have added new data and much detail to these questions, highlighting the demographic and social and cultural complexity underlaying these major changes or turnovers in human evolution. As with most other regions outside Africa, archaeologists faced long-lasting discussions whether or not the central European archaeological record is to be understood as a regional transition from the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) to the Upper Palaeolithic (UP) or if it is characterised by the replacement of Neanderthal MP techno-complexes by industries of overall UP character imported by modern humans. These debates have been re-fuelled by the discoveries of new sites, of new hominin fossil remains and by aDNA studies pinpointing towards the arrival of AMH in Europe several millennia earlier than previously thought (Slimak et al., Science Advances,8, eabj9496, 2022; Hajdinjak et al., Nature,592, 253-257, 2021; Prüfer et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution,5, 820–825, 2021). Together with new radiometric age-estimates and detailed archaeological site studies, these developments call to recapture the present knowledge of the Late (LMP) and Final Middle Palaeolithic (FMP) of central Europe, viewed from the perspective of lithic technology and typology, raw material exploitation and land-use strategies. We will review and characterise this record as it represents the demographic and cultural substrate that AMH had met and will discuss to which degree this substrate contributed to the formation of the central European UP.

Barely scratched the surface: Development and future directions of lithic use-wear analysis in Island Southeast Asia

Use-wear, microwear, or traceological analysis is a method for the identification of prehistoric tool use and associated activities. While this method can be applied to any lithic and some non-lithic materials, use-wear analysis plays, in particular, an important role in understanding amorphous flake tools from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) during the Late Pleistocene. The absence of formal tool types, including those that are considered as ‘projectiles’ or ‘hafted’ implements, may have hindered our views regarding the actual role these tools played in the development of cognition, behavioural capacity, and complex technologies in the region. Use-wear analysis of unretouched flakes, however, indicate that these were used in a variety of activities, beyond simple actions such as cutting or scraping. In this paper, we provide an overview of the beginnings and development of use-wear analysis in ISEA. Then, we discuss its role in addressing issues such as the bamboo hypothesis, the interpretation of the apparent absence of ‘complex’ lithic technologies from a functional point of view, and in the context of the chronological development of lithic technology. Technological and traceological studies in the region often highlight the presumed presence of a bamboo technology in the past. However, there seem to be limited recurring microscopic wear traces that would allow to verify the hypothetical presence of a ‘vegetal technology’ that would make up for the seemingly simple lithic technology in ISEA. An evaluation of the current state of the art and future directions of use-wear analysis attempts to provide context for the current understanding of prehistoric technology in ISEA. In general, this paper critically examines the development of use-wear analysis as a specialisation in archaeology that was established and developed in the region out of necessity.

U-Th dating, taphonomy, and taxonomy of shell middens at Klasies River main site indicate stable and systematic coastal exploitation by MIS 5c-d

The archaeological record, particularly of shellfish, from the Klasies River main site (KRM) is important in understanding the fluctuating nature of coastal occupational patterns and changing coastal ecologies. In this paper, we provide new uranium–thorium (U-Th) dates for one of the earlier phases of coastal exploitation at KRM, and the microstratigraphic analyses generate novel information about the taphonomy of shell-bearing deposits from the Later Stone Age (LSA) to the MSA I period that, in turn, provide a broader context for middening at the site. A wide range of syndepositional taphonomic processes related to human activities and post-depositional effects include burning, fragmentation and compaction, chemical alteration, and cementation. Despite such issues influencing recovery, shellfish data are informative and are presented from three layers of the Witness Baulk: Shell Midden One (SMONE), Black Occupational Soils (BOS), and Silty Black Soils (SBLS). These coarse shell midden deposits exhibit visible decalcification coupled with cementation with secondary carbonate formation in association with conditions of high moisture and soft sedimentation deformation of the underlying sediments of SBLS. This stratigraphy section is chronologically anchored for the first time using U-Th dating of speleothems associated with a hiatus after the deposition of BOS. The three ages, 110,060 ± 1,100, 109,800 ± 970, and 106,000 ± 2,100 years, place the BOS layer as the base of the SASL sub-member at over 110 ka, making the underlying middens from the LBS member even older. The zooarchaeological analyses of the three layers indicate coastal ecological changes from more sheltered conditions prior to the hiatus, with the exploitation of alikreukel and brown mussels predominating. Before 110 ka, in BOS and SBLS, more exposed coastal conditions occurred, and the diversity of exploited shellfish increased. SMONE and BOS are associated with MSA II/Mossel Bay lower lithic technology and SBLS with MSA I technology, indicating asynchronous coastal ecological and technological changes. The MIS 5c-d evidence for early coastal occupation at KRM provides details on the period during which coastal occupation became stable and systematic on the South African coast and puts the KRM amongst the handful of sites with shell-bearing deposits, occurring prior to 110 ka in South Africa.

The Story of the International Scientific Commission of the UISPP for Archaeometry of Pre- and Protohistoric Inorganic Artifacts, Materials and Technologies

The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), an organisation with over 90 years of history, includes all the fields and disciplines that contribute to the development of prehistory and protohistory. To achieve their goals, the UISPP organises periodically a world congress on prehistoric and protohistoric sciences. Based on proposals received, the general assembly decides on the creation of scientific commissions, following the advice of the executive committee of the UISPP. The main objective of these commissions is to promote and coordinate international research in a specific or specialised domain of the prehistoric and protohistoric sciences between each world congress. Based on the success and interest shown in a session of the 17th UISPP Congress, the need has arisen to create a new scientific commission in the field of archaeometry. This brief text describes the creation of this commission and its scientific activities to date. The commission aims at discussing and transmitting the archaeometric approaches to technologies in Prehistory and Protohistory concerning lithic technology, metallurgy, ceramics and glass making; gathering and organising the results, conclusions and circumstances of archaeometric case studies of artifacts; paying particular attention to production, procurement and characterisation of raw materials, and fabrication technologies; and discussing relevant interdisciplinary investigation methods and techniques.

Multiple approaches to predicting flake mass

Predicting original flake mass is a major goal of lithic analysis. Predicting original flake mass allows for researchers to make estimations of remaining mass, lost mass, and other features. All these measures relate to the organization of lithic technology by past societies. The present work tests three different models to predict log of flake mass: multiple linear regression, random forest regression, and artificial neural networks (ANN). Estimations of flake mass were performed using the remaining features of flakes from an experimental assemblage. This assemblage was obtained by the expansion of a previous dataset through the inclusion of bigger flakes, allowing the analysis to account for the effects of sample size and value distribution. Correlation results show a large/strong relation between predictions and real outcome (r2 = 0.78 in the best case). Comparison of the models affords insights into variable importance for predicting flake mass. Results show that (for the present dataset) multiple linear regression still stands as the best method for predicting log of flake weight. Additionally, transformation of predicted values from the multiple linear regression and true values to the linear scale reinforces the linear correlation above the 0.8 threshold.

Cobbles during the final Pleistocene-early Holocene transition: An original lithic assemblage from Maomaodong rockshelter, Guizhou Province, southwest China

The persistence of the cobble-tool tradition in South China and Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) is a major characteristic of the Paleolithic culture in this region, and researchers have long recognized this phenomenon since the 1940s (H. Movius). However, the cobble-tool tradition is not without changes and diversity; the most significant is the emergence of the Hoabinhian phenomenon in Southwest China and MSEA during the final Late Pleistocene. The Hoabinhian tools could well illustrate the presence of variability among the cobble tools produced by modern humans. However, the technological variability of lithic industries on a larger scale remains elusive because only a few sites have been studied with a technological method and provided more detailed information than the definition of ‘simple chopper-chopping tool’ assemblages, which disguised diverse local facts and various knapping strategies. Here we expose an original technological behavior on cobbles discovered at Maomaodong rockshelter, Guizhou Province, southwest China. The lithic assemblage is characterized by the cobble-split flaking dating to the final Pleistocene-early Holocene transition. On the one hand, dominated by flaking and small flake tools rather than shaping and large/heavy tools, Maomaodong lithic assemblage could represent a new knapping strategy among the ‘cobble/pebble tradition’ in southern China and MSEA. On the other hand, macroscopic and diachronic observations of the lithic industries on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau indicate that the lithic technology at Maomaodong is also a continuity of the local core-flaking tradition. The originality of Maomaodong lies in the reconciliation of the two traditions (i.e., cobble/pebble-tool and core-flaking traditions), making it different from both.

Lithic technological and spatial analysis of the final Pleistocene at Border Cave, South Africa

This contribution focuses on the recently excavated lithic assemblage from Border Cave Members 1 RGBS, 3 BS, 2 WA and 2 BS. These members were attributed by Beaumont to the Howiesons Poort and post-Howiesons Poort Industries of the southern African Middle Stone Age. Here we consider lithics as indicators of cultural behaviour, site formation processes, and occupation intensity. As such, the assemblage is explored in depth through lithic technology attribute analysis, particle size distribution, and spatial analysis. These lines of inquiry follow the new allostratigraphic divisions proposed for the deposits by Stratford and colleagues. Results show that the lower members share a degree of similarity in terms of flaking strategies and raw material selection, whereas the upper members record a dissimilar set of features, with differentiation between them. The technological and spatial analyses suggest the sporadic presence of different groups at the site, each characterized by distinct sets of knapping techniques and methods but employing related knapping strategies and using similar raw materials. The interpretation of these members as a palimpsest of sporadic occupation is supported by the low number of archaeological finds by sediment volume. The evidence at hand does not support a Howiesons Poort attribution for the lowest members. The data show that lithics from part of Member 2 WA and 2 BS are in accordance with those of the recently defined Sibudan technocomplex.

Inferring cultural reproduction from lithic data: A critical review.

The cultural reproduction of lithic technology, long an implicit assumption of archaeological theories, has garnered increasing attention over the past decades. Major debates ranging from the origins of the human culture capacity to the interpretation of spatiotemporal patterning now make explicit reference to social learning mechanisms and cultural evolutionary dynamics. This burgeoning literature has produced important insights and methodological innovations. However, this rapid growth has sometimes led to confusion and controversy due to an under-examination of underlying theoretical and methodological assumptions. The time is thus ripe for a critical assessment of progress in the study of the cultural reproduction of lithic technology. Here we review recent work addressing the evolutionary origins of human culture and the meaning of artifact variation at both intrasite and intersite levels. We propose that further progress will require a more extended and context-specific evolutionary approach to address the complexity of real-world cultural reproduction.

Homo sapiens lithic technology and microlithization in the South Asian rainforest at Kitulgala Beli-lena (c. 45 - 8,000 years ago).

Recent archaeological investigations in Sri Lanka have reported evidence for the exploitation and settlement of tropical rainforests by Homo sapiens since c. 48,000 BP. Information on technological approaches used by human populations in rainforest habitats is restricted to two cave sites, Batadomba-lena and Fa-Hien Lena. Here, we provide detailed study of the lithic assemblages of Kitulgala Beli-lena, a recently excavated rockshelter preserving a sedimentary sequence from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene. Our analysis indicates in situ lithic production and the recurrent use of the bipolar method for the production of microliths. Stone tool analyses demonstrate long-term technological stability from c. 45,000 to 8,000 years BP, a pattern documented in other rainforest locations. Foraging behaviour is characterised by the use of lithic bipolar by-products together with osseous projectile points for the consistent targeting of semi-arboreal/arboreal species, allowing for the widespread and recurrent settlement of the wet zone of Sri Lanka.

After the blades: The late MIS3 flake-based technology at Shuidonggou Locality 2, North China.

Contrasting with the predominance of blade-based assemblages in the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic, the large-scale persistence of a core-and-flake technology remains one of the defining features of Late Pleistocene lithic technology in East Asia. In North China, Shuidonggou is an exceptional site where both technologies are documented, therefore, it is an important archaeological sequence to understand regional technological evolution during the Marine Isotopic Stage 3. Blade technology first occurred at Shuidonggou Locality 1 and 2 around 41 ka cal BP while core-and-flake assemblages were widespread in North China. However, systematic technological studies on assemblages postdating 34 ka cal BP have not been conducted to examine whether the blade technology appeared and disappeared over a short yet abrupt episode, or persists and integrates into other forms in the region. Here, we conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses to reconstruct lithic productions on the assemblages at Shuidonggou Locality 2, dated after 34 ka cal BP. Our results show that there is a total absence of laminar elements in stone artifacts dated to 34–28 ka cal BP at Shuidonggou. Instead, we observe a dominance of an expedient production of flakes in the younger assemblages, illustrating a rapid return to flake-based technology after a relatively brief episode of stone blade production. Combining archaeological, environmental, and genetic evidence, we suggest that this technological ‘reversal’ from blades back to core and flake technology reflect population dynamics and adaptive strategies at an ecological interface between East Asian winter and summer monsoon.

Stone‐flaking technology at Leang Bulu Bettue, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

ABSTRACTApproximately 50000 stone artefacts have been recovered from the prehistoric site of Leang Bulu Bettue (LBB), on the Wallacean island of Sulawesi, in Indonesia. This large assemblage offers the opportunity to produce a large‐scale, comprehensive model of the early lithic technologies of South Sulawesi. Through the analysis of half of this assemblage, this study identifies a technological shift between the artefacts produced ca.50–40 thousand years ago (ka) – the “Lower Industry” – and the “Upper Industry” artefacts produced ca.40–16 ka. The majority of the assemblage belongs to the Upper Industry, and these artefacts are associated with portable art, ornamentation, and the Homo sapiens remains reported in previous works. These Upper Industry artefacts are largely made on chert that was brought to the site, sometimes in the form of large flake blanks, which was further reduced within the cave and used for ochre and plant processing. Artefact reduction was strategic during this period, and the bipolar method was frequently used for controlled reduction of flakes of various sizes. This represents a shift from the technology seen on the small number of Lower Industry artefacts, recovered from the deeper deposits. The oldest lithic artefacts yet reported from the site were made on immediately available limestone pieces, which were reduced through least‐effort and non‐intensive flake removal dictated by the available platforms. This study is compared to an analysis of Pleistocene artefacts at the nearby site of Leang Burung 2, where a similar technological shift has been observed.

For Our World Without Sound: the Opportunistic Debitage in the Italian Context—a Methodological Evaluation of the Lithic Assemblages of Pirro Nord, Cà Belvedere di Montepoggiolo, Ciota Ciara Cave and Riparo Tagliente

The informative potential taken on by lithic artefacts has increased over the years. They gradually grew into proxies to detect the most relevant features of human material culture, including cognitive abilities to realise stone tools or, in other words, to track down the delineation of behavioural complexity. Consequently, notions like predetermination, standardisation (morphologically likewise) and hierarchisation have been intensely used in lithic technology as markers of such complexity, leading to ruling out contexts lacking any trace of these traits. Within the present state of the art, the use of the terms expedient and opportunism has characterised, in a negative way, the dichotomy between complex and simple within prehistoric contexts. Even if a requalification of expedient technologies has been recently observed, opportunistic behaviours still connote the complete absence of planning and complexity (even in terms of the mental scheme) within lithic industries. This background often prevented a consideration as relevant, from a technological and methodological perspective, these assemblages, primarily when Lower Palaeolithic contexts were addressed. With the definition and use of the term opportunistic debitage, this work questions the possible methodological implications of assemblages known as complexity- and planning-free and that can be found throughout different chronological and cultural phases.

The Middle Paleolithic at Große Grotte (Blaubeuren, southern Germany). New Insights from Lithic Technology and Implication for Assemblage Classification

The Middle Paleolithic at Große Grotte (Blaubeuren, southern Germany). New Insights from Lithic Technology and Implication for Assemblage Classification

New evidence of Neandertal butchery traditions through the marrow extraction in southwestern Europe (MIS 5-3).

Long bone breakage for bone marrow recovery is a commonly observed practice in Middle Palaeolithic contexts, regardless of the climatic conditions. While lithic technology is largely used to define cultural patterns in human groups, despite dedicating research by zooarchaeologists, for now butchering techniques rarely allowed the identification of clear traditions, notably for ancient Palaeolithic periods. In this paper, we test the hypothesis of butchery traditions among Neandertal groupsusing the bone assemblages from three sites in southwestern Europe. These sites are located in southeastern France and northern Italy and are dated to the Late Middle Palaeolithic: Abri du Maras (Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 4-3, Ardèche), Saint-Marcel (MIS 3, Ardèche), and Riparo Tagliente (MIS 4-3, Verona). The detection of culturally-induced patterns of bone breakage involves differentiating them from intuitively generated patterns. To tackle this issue, we used a zooarchaeological approach focusing on the percussion marks produced during the bone breakage process. Statistical analyses as the chi-square test of independence were employed to verify if percussion mark locations were randomly distributed, and if these distributions were different from the intuitive ones. For femurs and humeri, our results demonstrate that Neandertal groups occupying the Abri du Maras (levels 4.1 and 4.2) and the Saint-Marcel Cave (levels g and h) sites in France applied butchery traditions to recover yellow marrow. However, the traditions developed at each site were different. On the contrary, in Riparo Tagliente, in Italy, several groups or individuals of a same group did not share the same butchery traditions over time. Regarding the Abri du Maras and Saint Marcel Cave assemblages, our research demonstrates that Neandertal groups applied intense standardized bone breakage, far from the intuitive practice observed experimentally and related to bone density and/or skeletal morphology. These standardized patterns, which are systematic and counter-intuitive, can be interpreted as culturally induced for the Abri du Maras and Saint Marcel Cave. The diversity of Neandertal traditions should be considered by taking into account the butchery, in particular the practice of bone marrow extraction, and not only technological behaviours and types of tool kits.

The Neolithization Process in the Lower-Scheldt Basin (Belgium, mid-6th to mid-4th Millennium cal BC) from a Lithic Technological Perspective

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the results of a detailed analysis of the lithic assemblages from four key sites in the Lower-Scheldt basin of NW Belgium in the context of the Neolithization process beyond the agro-pastoral frontier of the European loess area. The study demonstrates both continuity and change in raw material use, lithic technology and the toolkit throughout the 5th and early 4th millennium cal BC, supporting the theory of acculturation of indigenous hunter-gatherers under the influence of southern farming groups.

An Early Presence of Modern Human or Convergent Evolution? A 247 ka Middle Palaeolithic Assemblage from Andhra Pradesh, India

The region of South Asia, located between the prepared core-based technologies in the west and simple core technologies in the east, is crucial in the modern human dispersal routes. The nature and chronology of initial modern human presence in the region and associated lithic technologies – microlithic vs the Middle Palaeolithic prepared core technology – are debated between the coastal and continental routes of dispersals. Recent research, however, has pushed back the antiquity of Middle Palaeolithic technology in the region to 385 ± 64 ka, suggesting the possibility of local innovation. However, the age mentioned above is isolated spatially and requires further studies to support the local innovation model. Our research in the Paleru river basin, Andhra Pradesh (SE India), have identified several Palaeolithic sites in a stratigraphic context. We present the results of a systematic examination at the Hanumanthunipadu (Andhra Pradesh) site, where the deepest of three geomorphologically distinct phases of the sedimentary sequence contained Palaeolithic artefacts. The fine-grained sediments in the sequence, p-IR-IRSL dated to > 247 ± 32 ka, yielded Middle Palaeolithic artefacts that imply South Asian Middle Palaeolithic assemblages may be a part of local innovations that emerged from the preceding Late Acheulian technologies.

Filling in the Blanks: Standardization of Lithic Flake Production Throughout the Stone Age

ABSTRACT Standardization can be applied to a lithic assemblage via raw material selection, blank production, blank selection, and/or retouch. Here we explore the baseline level of morphological standardization achievable through blank production alone. By quantifying how little morphological variability is inherently involved in different blank-producing lithic technologies that span much of the Stone Age, we seek to gain a long-term perspective on the evolution of lithic standardization. 728 flakes were knapped from 26 cores of 7 different lithic technologies: bipolar, multiplatform, discoidal, Levallois, direct percussion prismatic blade, indirect percussion prismatic blade, and pressure prismatic blade. Using generalized Procrustes analyses of blank outlines, we observed three noticeable jumps in shape standardization: between bipolar and free-hand flaking, between flake and blade technologies, and between the percussive blade and pressure blade technologies. Technologies that involve more skill and more investment in core preparation appear to create a more standardized set of blanks.

Coherent changes in wood charcoals, site occupation and lithic technology across the MIS 4/3 transition at Klein Kliphuis rock shelter, South Africa

AbstractWe explore the correspondence between changing palaeoenvironments, patterns of site use, and lithic technology at the rock shelter site Klein Kliphuis (South Africa) across the interval 65–55 000 years before present. This period coincides with the termination of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4, and the disappearance of an iconic late Pleistocene archaeological unit known as the Howiesons Poort. Wood charcoals indicate sufficient soil moisture around Klein Kliphuis throughout the Howiesons Poort to support diverse tree species at a time when site occupation was relatively intense. At least some fuelwood‐gathering in this period may have been undertaken to support heat treatment of silcrete, which was the dominant lithology in tool production. A coherent set of changes occurs across the MIS 4/3 transition: occupational intensity declines, tracked by declining diversity of fuelwood species, an increase in the proportion of charcoals from shrubs and small flowering plants, lower prevalence of silcrete, and less heat treatment. While declining soil moisture is implied, there appears to be a significant change in behaviour relating to site usage, whereby foraging for dense fuelwoods was replaced by the construction of ‘fast fires’ that may reflect briefer visits and increased forager mobility in early MIS 3.

North Angara Early Holocene hunter–gatherers: Archaeological evidence of the collector strategy

This paper examines Early Holocene hunter–gatherer subsistence–settlement patterns in the North Angara region, located at the northern boundary of Cis-Baikal, Siberia. The archaeological evidence, supported by radiocarbon and stratigraphic data, indicates the presence of hunting and fishing activities, resource diversification, lithic technologies, and settlement organization showing some aspects of the “collector” end of Binford's forager–collector continuum: specialized “logistical” camps and a multi-activity residential base with different patterns of resource procurement and technology. Considering paleoenvironmental conditions, this pattern can be largely explained as an attempt by hunter–gatherers to minimize the risks of seasonal deficits from fishing and game hunting in a boreal zone.