Study Of Lithic Industry Research Articles

Prehistoric frontier or frontier of prehistorians: what about litho-spaces during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in central France?

Abstract. The aim of this paper is about discussing to the homogeneity and relationship of the Belloisian tradition with the more southern Laborian. In this regard, we choose central France, the reputed southern margin of Belloisian, to be the geographical framework of this study. It is punctuated by key sites belonging to the Pleistocene-Holocene transition: Muides-sur-Loire, Champ-Chalatras and Cuze de Sainte-Anastasie. What we are questioning in this article are the networks relationships between the Belloisian and the Laborian traditions through the study of lithic industry. This research area is on the fringes of the major dynamic’s university programs too and involves research traditions that differ regionally. We therefore also question the notion of “prehistoric” or “prehistorian” boundaries through a petro-techno-typological analysis of lithic series. In this case study, the techno-economic data shows a frequentation of common outcrops and economic management of the silicites for the three sites. This complex network of relationships between groups shows the porosity between the prehistorian designation. The identification of laborian “know-how” from silicites in the south of the Paris Basin and the circulation of large laminar supports corroborate this fact. So finally, these results lead us to propose the hypothesis of an interweaving of a Belloisian technical sub-system with a Laborian tradition, now well defined.

The Pointe de Saint-Colomban site (Carnac, France): redefinition of the Colombanian culture, in the framework of the European Acheuleans

The technocomplexes of the European Lower Palaeolithic are often attributed to the so-called Acheulean. Through several prehistoric sites located in the South Armorican coast, a distinct and contemporary Acheulean cultural facies was proposed at the end of the 1980s. Based on the study of lithic industries at the Pointe de Saint-Colomban site in Carnac, it is called “Colombanian” and is characterised by the coexistence of macro-tools on pebbles and a variety of small tools on flakes. As is often the case, the presence or absence of handaxes is a determining criterion to qualify a lithic assemblage as “Acheulean”. However, this categorial attribution loses all meaning when a technological analysis is conducted. Consequently, we used a techno-structural approach to illustrate the technological and functional variability of lithic artefacts from the early occupations of the Pointe de Saint-Colomban site (layers 5, 6 and 7). The application of the “chaîne opératoire” principle allowed us to reveal the processes and objectives of the lithic production system and to establish a homogeneous reading grid among the different pieces of the assemblage. We present here the data from our study which clearly shows that the “Colombanian” is no longer valid and that we need to initiate a change of definition. The lithic industry of the Pointe de Saint-Colomban site is dominated by the concept of flaking (débitage) represented by numerous cores and flake tools. The concept of shaping (façonnage) is illustrated by only two sandstone pebble tools. All this highlights the diversity and originality of the lithic technical systems of the Lower Palaeolithic of the Atlantic Armorican coastline.

Neolithisation in the Northern French Alps: First Results of the Lithic Study of the Industries of La Grande Rivoire Rockshelter (Isère, France)

Abstract The “transition” period from the end of the Second Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic is a singular phase in the prehistory of Western Europe. The first signs of neolithisation will be observed in the Northern French Alps between 5500 and 5350 cal. BC, after having experienced an arrhythmic progression from the Mediterranean sphere. The presence of numerous imprecisions in the North Alpine chronocultural sequence makes it difficult to understand the rhythms and mechanisms of its implantation. The subject is all the more complex in that there seems to be a temporal and geographical proximity between the last indigenous hunter-gatherer-collector groups and the arrival of the first agropastoralists in the regions, which could have led to the acculturation of one or the other community. Some sites thus provide assemblages presenting industries described as “mixed sets,” where characteristic materials of the Second Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic are jointly revealed. Generally judged unreliable, they are considered to be the result of asynchronous mixtures of occupations. The study of lithic industries from recent excavations at La Grande Rivoire rockshelter offers a new perspective on this particular neolithisation context. This site of the Vercors massif is especially promising in this matter, displaying almost uninterrupted occupations from the First Mesolithic to the Protohistoric periods and having revealed a significant number of material productions. Oriented mainly on the observation of possible behavioural changes within the reduction sequences, the first results of this study already allow us to note the presence of a certain evolutionary sequence of lithic industries.

Lithic economy in South Western France during the Neolithic: A case study from a coastal site - La Lède du Gurp (Aquitaine)

The prehistory of South-western France is known worldwide for its rich record of Palaeolithic sites, especially from the Dordogne region. However, while research on the Palaeolithic is extremely prolific, the Neolithic was at the same time relegated to the background. Since the beginning of the discipline, few researchers worked on the Neolithic from SW France. Besides, they focused on ceramic typological analyses to describe cultural groups, rarely considered lithic tools and armatures, and never performed any techno-economical study of lithic productions. For over thirty years, rescue archaeology excavations revealed a large presence of Neolithic sites for this period; nonetheless Neolithic research remains little developed in relation to its potential. As part of my PhD thesis, the aim will be to fill this gap by characterizing lithic productions through techno-economical analyses, in order to describe the cultural groups existing in Northern Aquitania during the 4th and the 3rd millennia. With the example of La Lède du Gurp, a littoral occupation site dated to the middle and recent Neolithic, I will try to highlight in this paper what the study of lithic industries can say about a cultural group at a local scale.
 The reconstitution of the operating chains and the statistical analysis of small assemblages of non-standardised lithic reduction, allowed us to highlight a similar low investment in lithic production between the Middle and the Recent Neolithic of La Lède du Gurp. Our approach has enabled us to observe that a low investment in lithic production may reflect the complexity of the Neolithic groups and the complementarity of lithic industry with other technical subsystems directly related with the group's natural environment, as may it be the case for salt production during Recent Neolithic at La Lède du Gurp.

The Early and Middle Holocene Lithic Industries of Ifri n\u2019Etsedda (Eastern Rif, Morocco)

Archaeological research has been carried out in the Eastern Rif (Morocco) since 1995 by a collaborative Moroccan-German research team. A major topic of the project is the transition from hunting-gathering to food production and related cultural developments. Innovations such as pottery and domesticated species appeared around 7.6 ka calBP. The cultivation of cereals and pulses is evident at that time. Two of the most important sites in the area are Ifri Oudadane and Ifri n’Etsedda. Both provide Epipaleolithic as well as Neolithic deposits. While innovative technologies such as pottery production and cultivation indicate external influences, lithic artifacts demonstrate local technological and behavioral traditions. Therefore, the study of lithic industries is crucial to understanding the nature of cultural continuity and discontinuity between the hunting-gathering and agricultural populations in the Eastern Rif. Ifri n’Etsedda provides two distinct Epipaleolithic deposits and thus offers the opportunity to study possible changes throughout the Epipalaeolithic and relationship to the later Early Neolithic (ENC). In combination with the earlier phases of Early Neolithic assemblages (ENA, ENB) at Ifri Oudadane, we are now in a better position to understand the development of early-to-mid Holocene lithic technology in the Eastern Rif. We show that the lithic record of Ifri n’Etsedda does not indicate any significant change in raw material supply, blank production, and tool distribution from the Early Epipaleolithic to the Early Neolithic B. Therefore, we argue for behavioral continuity from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic period. In contrast, the assemblages of the Early Neolithic C show changes in lithic technology.

Le site de la fin du Bronze final du Hexenberg à Leutenheim (Bas-Rhin) : études sur le paléoenvironnement rhénan et études archéologiques. Résultats préliminaires

The decade of excavations on the Hexenberg site led to a first archaeological synthesis. An important research problem concerns the relationship between the site, the floodplain (here, the North Ried) and the former course of the Rhine (now the Hexenberg is situated in the agricultural plain, at five kilometers from channelized river). To answer this issue, a study window was opened between Seltz and Drusenheim from the review of a LIDAR document, old maps, aerial photos and results from two recent operations in preventive archaeology to understand its relationships with its environment. A palaeochannel a hundred meters wide is still marked in the landscape and spends about five hundred meters down the Hexenberg hill. It seems to connect to the Rhine system and recent observations show a contemporary hydrological activity of the Hexenberg occupation. In addition, studies on metal objects rejected in ancient branches of the Rhine confirm this dating. The river has moved from west to east since the Protohistory. However, these data are fragile and this study marks the beginning of an extensive recognition and dating of Rhine paleobranches. The archaeological site, fortified by a palisade, is occupied during a relatively brief period, the late Bronze Age, with no prior occupation. The site was deserted, and although “ cleaned” during the Hallstatt C, and was briefly reoccupied by a small Gallo-Roman necropolis and a moat of the Early Middle Ages. The 4,000 m2 excavated revealed 197 structures and 100 stratigraphic units, making it a densely occupied site in comparison with the other known sites of the Rhine plain where the loess substrate, subjected to the agricultural erosion, are troncated to several tens of centimeters. The main strucutures are mainly shallow structures, similar to storage spaces. There are some silos (twenty cases) and, in e qual proportion, a serie of pits associated with undetermined bilobed skills. There is no pole building. The archaeological material consists of 900 kg of sherds within which 881 vases were isolated. In this group, we can find a wide variability of types especially for the open forms. The printed decorations on the high forms are varied. The decoration of red and polychrome paint is also present, but this corpus is very fragmented. Besides the pottery, we should report the presence of several fragments of clay crescents and ridge tiles, spindle whorls, cheese presses and loomweights. Metal artifacts, according to the habitat, differs by the presence of two main tools (burin and chisels). The study of lithic industry and petrographic determination attest the presence of a wide variety of raw materials, not yet certified in the Alsatian sites of this period (brecciated sandstone, basalt). The faunal spectrum indicates a preference for beef, wild animals and pork. These studies allow a better characterization of the Hexenberg site and its location, in relation with the course of the Rhine. This occupation appears as an original site in the Alsace plain during the final phase of the Bronze Age.