Are Lithics and Fauna a Match Made in (Prehistoric) Heaven?

Abstract

Lithic artifacts and animal bones form the bulk of the material remains of the Paleolithic. This has led archeologists to interpret these two types of finds as tethered components of subsistence systems. Differences observed through time and space in the lithic repertoire were considered as functional adjustments, designed to maximize gains from a diverse faunal resource base. While we do not challenge the general notion that lithic artifacts were used (also) for exploiting faunal (and other) resources, we note that significant lithic technological breakthroughs, clearly directed towards higher efficiency of procurement of faunal resources (e.g., hafting, projectile weapons), are few and far-apart in the evolution of material culture. Based on case studies from the Levantine Middle Paleolithic (MP), we question the degree to which fauna-based subsistence determined lithic variability. Current research focus on functional relationship between lithics and fauna may preclude consideration of other causes for lithic typo-technological diversity. These may include technological traditions, differences in cultural transmission processes, or the level of within-and between-group connectivity, various combinations of which may have operated in the MP.

Connecting Middle Palaeolithic Datasets: the Interplay of Zooarchaeological and Lithic Data for Unravelling Neanderthal Behaviour

“…However, it is also important to note that causal links between lithic and faunal variation are not always straightforward, as was pointed out in relation to the production and use of points from the early Middle Palaeolithic and African Middle Stone Age onwards (Hovers and Belfer-Cohen 2020;Smith et al 2019). Generally, we assume that innovations in technology, specifically in the most visible technology, lithic technology, resulted in more efficient subsistence systems, and therefore we should see changes in lithic technology correlating with changes in faunal assemblages.…”

The technology and ecology of Lesotho's highland hunter-gatherers: A case study at Sehonghong rock shelter

“…The link between technological change and animal prey type J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f needs to be clearly determined for such interpretations to hold. This relation often proves complex (see for example Dusseldorp, 2014;Hovers & Belfer-Cohen, 2020).…”

Contrasting approaches to lithic assemblages: a view from no man’s land

“…22 sensu Kelly op cit. 23 The spatial and chronological patterning of some techno-typological lineages, like the European Micoquian or the Levantine Mousterian (Richter 2000;Hovers, Belfer-Cohen 2018), can hardly be explained by a recurrent reactivation of similar adaptive circumstantial choices, although tracking similar lineages across the entire Middle Palaeolithic interval constantly failed . If real (cf.…”