Raw Material Constraints Research Articles

Nineteenth Century Tools for Twenty-First Century Archaeology? Why the Middle Paleolithic Typology of François Bordes Must Be Replaced

The artifact typology of Francois Bordes has been universally applied to European Middle Paleolithic assemblages for the past half-century. Although its utility as a common descriptive language is acknowledged, it is argued that Bordes' type definitions are inadequate for use in modern quantitatively and technologically oriented studies of lithics because they are overly subjective and are an uncontrolled mixture of technological and functional variables acted on by raw material constraints. They also incorporate untested assumptions about the cognitive abilities of Middle Paleolithic hominids. This paper proposes to replace the Bordes typology with a method based on attribute combinations in which artifact descriptions will contain more behaviorally significant information than is afforded by the current system.

A New Synthesis of Middle Paleolithic Variability

The familiar debate concerning Middle Paleolithic variability has opposed stylistic vs. functional explanations based on the assumption that tool types and assemblage groups represent discrete, invariant entities. Middle Paleolithic variability, however, actually occurs continuously. Further, recent research shows that raw-material constraints and different degrees of artifact-reduction intensity constitute more basic and observable factors of variability than function and style. Thus, much of the variability in these assemblages appears to have been caused by toolmaking and tool-rejuvenation processes and/or by differential occupation intensity induced by environmental circumstances. The correct interpretation of these Middle Paleolithic assemblages must therefore consider these factors, as well as interregional stylistic drift, function, and diachronic change.

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The Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 sites are located in the Guadix-Baza Basin in Orce (Andalusia, Spain) about 80 km from the Mediterranean Sea. The sites were accumulated in swampy areas near the paleo-lake Baza’s eastern shoreline. There, hominins and hyenas competed for access to large herbivore carcasses abandoned by carnivores. The ages of the Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 sites have been evaluated from large and small mammal biochronology, magnetostratigraphy and also by ESR to around 1.4–1.2 Ma, respectively. Both sites have yielded fauna and lithic artefacts in situ. Systematic excavations at Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 have been underway since the 1990’s and contribute to growing evidence of hominin presence in southern Europe well before 1 Ma.The two lithic assemblages show strong similarities. At both sites, the artefacts were knapped from tabular flint and limestone pebbles collected nearby. The assemblages are composed mainly of small, non modified flakes and angular fragments, as well as some cores. Larger limestone heavy duty tools and cores are also present. There are no standardized small or large tools. Stone knapping was carried out using hand held and bipolar-on-an-anvil reduction strategies in accordance with raw material constraints and probably also desired product morphology. The assemblages are characterized by widespread use of unidirectional knapping methods. Reduction strategies were progressively adapted as the cores evolved into different forms. The Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 stone tool assemblages express a variant of Oldowan or Mode 1 technology that may be considered to be more complex than that observed at some earlier African sites, mainly because of the systematic use of extended orthogonal knapping episodes producing multiplatform cores and the differential use of two types of raw materials for making small cutting tools and larger percussion instruments.

2.6 Packages for Intensive Farm Enterprises

The number of computer “packages” now being offered to farmers is growing rapidly and this paper does not present an exhaustive or critical account of these. Rather, it concentrates on packages offered by the feed trade to the intensive animal production sector of British agriculture. The paper will deal with the cattle, pig and poultry sectors, in that order, and then examine computer applications as they have developed, are now, and how they may become. Finally, the important criteria when considering the potential success of new computer packages will be described.Though some may consider the cattle sector to be less progressive than the pig and poultry sectors, as far as the application of the computer is concerned, cattle led the way. The earliest application was in the late 50's and early 60's, when the feed trade abandoned hand formulation of cattle feeds and provided one of the first commercial applications of linear programming—least-cost feed formulation. Though in those days, diet specifications were heavily constrained by raw material limits (for example, 5% fixed linseed cake and 5% copra cake in a well known high performance dairy feed), the effects were to reduce formulation costs by about 5% (£1 per ton in those days!). Cattle feeds were soon universally computer formulated, closely followed by pig feeds. Broiler and turkey foods remained as fixed formulae for some time but, as nutritional knowledge increased, these too fell into line. Currently, only a few specialized diets, such as baby pig foods, remain as fixed formulae. The remaining products now have very few raw material constraints left but many are tightly constrained on amino acids, undegradable protein, fatty acid levels and rations, various descriptions of energy components, etc.

An operational optimization procedure for production scheduling

The methodology takes a sufficiently long time horizon and breaks the problem into two subproblems. The first subproblem is the long range planning model and the second the short run production scheduling model. The long range model is essentially a resource constrained model and has a linear programming formulation with a profit maximization objective function. The long range plan fixes the discretionary marketing variables, such as the selection of product line, and the timing and extent of promotional sales. It estimates manpower requirements and establishes the raw material procurement plans. Lagrange multipliers obtained in the long range model are then used in the short run production scheduling model. The scheduling algorithm, having a Lagrangian function for an objective, is the solution to an unconstrained maximization problem. This then reduces to one of sequential allocation of production facilities to products. The algorithm is being applied on a problem with five production lines, 126 products, 26 time periods and 32 raw material constraints.