Lithic Tool Kit Research Articles

Variability in the Middle Stone Age of Eastern Africa

Eastern Africa is an important area to study early populations of Homo sapiens because subsets of those populations likely dispersed to Eurasia and subsequently throughout the globe during the Upper Pleistocene. The Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeology of this region, particularly aspects of stone-tool technology and typology, is highly variable with only rare cases of geographic and temporal patterning. Although there are differences in timing and perhaps frequency of occurrence, those elements that make up the MSA lithic tool kit are also found at contemporaneous sites elsewhere in Africa and Eurasia, making it difficult to identify a unique archaeological signal for hominin dispersals out of eastern Africa. Rather, regional variation appears to be the outcome of possibly long-term interactions between particular physical and social environments experienced by hominin populations.

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.

Raw Material Quality and Prepared Core Technologies in Northeast Asia

The design and assembly of lithic toolkits is mediated by a number of factors including the abundance and quality of raw materials available. In general, low raw material abundance and high raw material quality are thought to lead to formal tool designs, whereas high raw material abundance and low raw material quality lead to informal designs. Low raw material quality is seen as the overriding factor producing informal tool designs, even where low raw material abundance would favour formal designs. In North China, the predominance of simple flake and core technologies, based on relatively poor quality raw materials, and the near absence of sophisticated prepared core technologies seems to corroborate the importance of raw material quality in toolkit design. Recent studies of a late Pleistocene lithic assemblage from the Lower Grotto at Tsagaan Agui cave, Mongolia, suggest however that raw material quality is not an absolute constraint on the development of sophisticated core reduction strategies. Levallois-like and other prepared core forms based on large flake blanks are conspicuous in the Lower Grotto assemblage, despite the poor quality of raw material available at the site. Contrary to expectations, these core forms appear to have developed directly in response to poor raw material quality. The implication is that raw material quality alone cannot explain the apparent technological simplicity of the North Chinese Middle and Upper Paleolithic.

Tool Kit Entropy and Bipolar Reduction: A Study of Interassemblage Lithic Variability among Paleo-Indian Sites in the Northeastern United States

Bipolar flaking as a means of reducing lithic raw material is known to have occurred since the time of the Lower Palaeolithic. As a strategy for working small bits of raw material, it is probable that it has a variety of important selective contexts. Assemblages from northeastern United States Paleo-Indian sites are used to test the hypothesis that bipolar artifacts in these systems represent a method of extending the utility of a transported, highly curated lithic toolkit through recycling. It is shown that what have been called pièces esquillées among these sites are in all probability cores for the derivation of small flakes. This is demonstrated by citing ethnoarcheological and technological data and by a spatial-statistical analysis of the distribution of “pièces esquillées” at the Debert site. The methodological problems related to the accurate functional identification of artifacts are explored and their impacts on archaeological arguments are also discussed. Also discussed are the difficulties in interpreting site activities on the basis of inter site differences in tool frequencies and proportions where assemblages have been affected by lithic recycling. Last, the theoretical significance of recycling through bipolar reduction is outlined as a strategy for solving the raw material and tool replacement problems as conditioned by Paleo-Indian settlement and technological systems.

The Spread of a Late Prehistoric Bison Hunting Complex: Evidence from the South-Central Coastal Prairie of Texas

An artifact assemblage representing the Toyah Phase or Horizon makes a relatively sudden appearance in Central and Southern Texas between ca. A.D. 1250 and A.D. 1400, quickly replacing earlier assemblages. Two models have been suggested to explain this phenomenon. One view posits a rapid migration of people(s) possessing elements of Plains-like material culture, who followed southward-expanding bison herds. The other stresses the possibility of non-migrational spread through widespread adoption of an adaptively advantageous lithic tool kit. While both perspectives interpret the Toyah assemblage as a correlate of southward movement of bison during the Late Prehistoric Period, each emphasizes different processes, with fundamentally different interpretive implications. The present paper presents evidence from the Late Prehistoric Rockport Phase of Texas’ central coastal prairie that best fits the model of rapid adoption of new technology rather than migration. The basic Toyah lithic assemblage appears quite abruptly within the Rockport Phase, as it does elsewhere, and this comlates with the emergence of significant bison hunting by ca. A.D. 1300. Since the Rockport Phase has in situ regional antecedents, and largely represents the linguistically and socioethnically distinct Karankawan groups of the Gulf coastal zone, a rapid spread of the Toyah lithic technology assemblage across a major prehistoric cultural boundary is strongly suggested. This example of technological borrowing indicates that migration need not necessarily be invoked as an explanatory mechanism for rapid technological change during the Late Prehistoric Period.

Archaeological Investigations at 48Sw2302, a Sand Dune Site in Southwestern Wyoming

48SW2302 is a prehistoric site located in the Bridger Basin of southwestern Wyoming and is associated with a stabilized sand dune. Archaeological investigations were conducted here in 1980 and 1981 as part of the Mid-America Pipeline Co. (MAPCO) Project to mitigate the impact of pipeline construction and gather information about regional aboriginal settlement patterns. Five natural strata were defined, six cultural features were exposed, and hundreds of chipped stone artifacts and animal bones were collected. Charcoal from two features returned radiocarbon assays whose calibrated calendric ranges overlap between ca. A.D. 615 and 755. All evidence indicates that 48SW2302 was occupied by Late Prehistoric peoples who hunted artiodactyls and rabbits, cooked and ate those animals, and manufactured or modified their lithic tool kit. They responded to local climatic variations by dietary changes. The site is representative of a ubiquitous and relatively stable pattern of prehistoric settlement and subsistence in southwestern Wyoming.

Salvage Excavations in a Buried Hohokam Site Near Tucson, Arizona

ABSTRACTThe Arizona State Museum has periodically undertaken salvage excavations at Arizona BB: 13:14 near Tucson, Arizona, a Hohokam site largely destroyed by erosion and road construction. A number of burials and cremations dating between A.D. 900 and 1300 have been recovered from the site, including a male human burial with an interesting lithic tool kit and other grave goods, and the burial of a small dog with a painted bowl.

Experimental Manufacture of Wooden Implements with Tools of Flaked Stone

Several contemporary archeologists recaptutring an almost-lost art by developing skill at knapping (shaping) stone artifacts by pressure and percussion. However, little is known of how these artifacts could be used. We describe three experiments in the carving of wood implments with stone tools alone, and we outline some of the problems of making and applying a do-it- yolur-self lithic tool kit.