An Experimental Study of Bipolar and Freehand Knapping of Naibor Soit Quartz from Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania)

Abstract

Recent excavations carried out in several Bed I and Bed II sites have shown that hominins at Olduvai Gorge used both bipolar and freehand knapping methods for quartz reduction. Due to the petrographic nature of quartz and to its heterogeneous response to fracture, the identification of bipolar knapping at any given site can be ambiguous and controversial. This work aims to overcome this problem by developing an experimental referential framework for the recognition of characteristic features of flakes produced through both bipolar and freehand reduction of Naibor Soit quartz cores. The final goal of this work is to use a set of variables related to the response of local Olduvai quartz to freehand and bipolar fracture, obtained through two independent controlled experiments, in order to statistically differentiate the diagnostic technological traits that best indicate bipolar reduction on this raw material type.

A new type of anvil in the Acheulian of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov, Israel

“…in the Olduvai sites: [26,[60][61][62][63]), as no evidence for this type of technique was observed within the lithic assemblages of GBY. It should also be stressed that, while the removal of flakes from anvils has been shown to be spontaneous in the African record, where any evidence of conchoidal fracturing is lacking [57,60,62], at GBY all the flake scars on the anvils display clear features of direct percussion.…”

El Yacimiento De Valverde (Monforte De Lemos, Lugo, Galicia, España) Y Las Primeras Evidencias De Poblamiento en El Pleniglaciar Del No De La Península Ibérica

“…Esta problemática sobre las adscripciones cronoculturales de conjuntos al aire libre no es ajena a otros yacimientos peninsulares, pero la coherencia tecnotipológica y los estudios tafonónimos de éstos no arrojan dudas sobre su naturaleza (vg. Tapia et al 2009;Díez 2000; Delibes y Díez 2006).…”

“…6 y 7). Si bien no se han encontrado percutores o yunques con los estigmas de talla propios de esta técnica (de la Torre et al 2013;Díez et al 2011), las características morfotécnicas de los productos, los astillados en las aristas de intervención, la presencia de ondas de percusión marcadas y a veces enfrentadas, tanto de nú-cleos como de lascas, son criterios inequívocos (vg. de la Peña 2011).…”

The role of experimental knapping in empirically testing key themes in the evolution of lithic technology: reduction intensity, efficiency and behavioural complexity

“…Variability in lithic technology has also been explored with an emphasis on methods of knapping (Diez-Martin et al 2011;Li 2016;Madsen 1984;Whittaker 1994), standardisation (Eren and Lycett 2012), use-life (Shott 2002), and reduction intensity in particular. Reduction intensity, or the extent to which stone has been removed from a tool or core, has become one of the primary focusses of lithic analysts as a range of behavioural implications can be drawn from variability in reduction intensity.…”

“…Raw material efficiency refers to the utility of the output of knapping relative to the amount of stone used. It has been compared among a range of different technologies by quantifying the number and size of usable blanks removed during knapping (Barzilai and Goring-Morris 2013;Diez-Martin et al 2011;Jennings et al 2010;Li 2016;Lycett and Eren 2013a;Putt 2015;Rasic and Andrefksy 2001), as well as the length of sharp perimeter produced (Eren et al 2008;Heighway 2011;Lycett and Eren 2013a;Mackay 2008;Muller and Clarkson 2016a;Prasciunas 2007;Sheets and Muto 1972). These metrics are commonly and most powerfully expressed as a ratio to the mass of the original core or the mass of all blanks removed.…”