After acquiring 91 km2 of lidar data from the Zacapu region, West Mexico, we confronted a series of issues that most archaeologists using this technology face. These include the large volume of data available, the limited training of potential “analysts,” the difficult development of a collective mapping tool and protocol, and the reliability of desk-based interpretation of archaeological features. In this article, we present an initiative conducted in 2015 and 2017 as an attempt to answer these methodological and pedagogical issues. We developed a web mapping platform to collectively interpret archaeological features using lidar-derived imagery and to train volunteer students to participate in this desk-based web mapping within a crowdsourcing framework. After evaluating the results of this initiative, we discuss the potential and limitations of this method for both lidar-based research and future training.
Obsidian represents one of the best markers for exchanges between prehistoric communities. In the Western Mediterranean, Corsica has a particular situation: although more than 100 km from the nearest obsidian source, the island received important quantities of obsidian, especially during the 4th millennium BC. Indeed, for that period, there were thousands of these obsidian items, which represent more than 75% of the lithic artefacts of each assemblage studied. The available data show that Corsican communities mostly received laminar cores, already partially knapped. The same assemblages present, however, a clear deficit in cores, suggesting that most of them then left these sites before being fully exploited. This article provides a survey of research and knowledge to date, over the various chronological periods, regarding the origins of the exploited obsidian and the technical aspects of the relevant productions. At the end of the article, the data thus gathered is included in a wider debate on the possible modes of distribution of this obsidian in Corsica. The hypothesis of the establishment of "knapper pedlar” networks between Sardinia and Corsica during the 4th millennium BC is brought forward, although not yet fully validated and accepted.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the available factors of the transformation of lithic production during the Mesolithic in north-west Europe on the basis of examples from Brittany and Ireland, at the turn of the 7th millennium cal. BC. Changes in lithic productions in these two areas -concerning all stages of the "chaîne opératoire”, i. e. techniques, methods and end products - are so important that it is possible to speak about a before and an after 7th millennium, or an Early and a Late Mesolithic. Many reasons can be advanced for these changes as a technical or economical shift due to environmental changes or a transformation of exploitation strategies of the available resources. However our study shows that the transformation of lithic production must be regarded as a shift in social organization of these communities, even if the causes of the social modification
are still unknown.
Research has greatly extended our knowledge of the Mesolithic of the Tyrrhenian Islands these last five years, in particular the excavation of five new sites in Corsica and Sardinia. The growing evidence, notably concerning environment, enables us today to propose new explanations on the modalities of occupation in these islands and way of life of the populations. From these studies, we know that Mesolithic communities settled in these islands, maybe irregularly, living mainly along the coast from which they obtain the exploited resources. This article also attemps to evaluate the impact of insularity upon the technical and economic gestures of these groups whose characteristics were often shown as the mark of a specific culture.
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