Flakes Crossing the Straits? Entame Flakes and Northern Africa–Iberia Contact During the Acheulean

Abstract

The entame core method was defined after studying the Acheulean bifaces from the site of Ternifine, Algeria. This specialized core method for the production of larges flakes (>10 cm) used for biface blanks involves the detachment of primary large flakes from skillfully selected quartzite cobbles. While technologically simple, a competent selection of raw material and dexterous detachment of the flake resulted in a blank perfectly suitable for the production of bifaces, with minimal further shaping required. This core method resulted in high frequencies of entame blanks in the Ternifine lithic assemblages, as well as from the Iberian Peninsula Acheulean, but not in assemblages from other large flake Acheulean sites. It is suggested that the frequent use of the entame core method common to both North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula indicates similarity in lithic tradition during the Acheulean. This may support the view of North African origin for the Iberian Acheulean during the Middle Pleistocene.Résumé La méthode de débitage par entame a été définie lors de l'étude des bifaces acheuléens du site de Ternifine en Algérie. Cette méthode, spécialisée dans la production de grands éclats (>10cm) utilisés comme supports de bifaces implique le détachement d'éclats primaires sur des galets en quartzite soigneusement sélec-tionnés. La méthode est simple et c'est la sélection rigoureuse du bloc et le soin apporté au détachement de l'éclat qui permet d'obtenir un support parfaitement adapté à la production de bifaces, requérant de ce fait un façonnage minimal. L'emploi de cette méthode est révélé par la forte fréquence de supports d'entame dans les assemblages lithiques acheuléens de Ternifine et de la Péninsule Ibérique. Ces derniers sont en revanche absents des autres sites acheuléens spécialisés dans la production de grands éclats. Il est ici proposé que l'usage fréquent de la méthode par entame, commun à l'Afrique du Nord et à la Péninsule Ibérique, reflète des traditions Afr Archaeol Rev (2011) 28:125-140 lithiques communes entre ces deux espaces. Cela pourrait soutenir l'idée que l'Acheuléen ibérique trouve son origine en Afrique du Nord, au Pléistocène moyen.

The role of edge angle maintenance in explaining technological variation in the production of Late Middle Paleolithic bifacial and unifacial tools

“…All of the necessary technical knowledge for producing LMP tools was there long before their appearance, and most of the morphological features used in classification can be explained as a result of logical technical choices (see Discussion above). As far as the technological know-how is concerned, bifacial working (both plano-and biconvex) had entered the technical repertoire already in the Acheulian (Marks et al, 2002;e.g., Matskevich et al, 2001); dorsal resharpening of a retouched edge (of the tranchet/pradnik-type) is equally known from Lower Paleolithic contexts and on through the entirety of the Middle Paleolithic (e.g., Caton-Thompson, 1952;Bordes, 1967;McBurney et al, 1986) and Upper Paleolithic (Watanabe, 1964) over very large geographic areas; the exploitation of thinned bulbs through the Kombewa technique was also known for hundreds of millennia before the appearance of the Quina Mousterian (for an example see Sharon, 2011). Given the time spans and the nearly global spatial distribution of these technologies, it is very difficult to imagine the strength of the conformist transmission processes that would be required to produce such similarities between them.…”

The Middle Paleolithic site of Cuesta de la Bajada (Teruel, Spain): a perspective on the Acheulean and Middle Paleolithic technocomplexes in Europe

“…If we examine the general scenario from the south of Europe, the intrusive character of the Acheulean technocomplex in the ancient European Paleolithic seems evident, as already suggested by Otte (2001). In this scenario, the Acheulean would have reached Europe through Gibraltar (Santonja and Villa, 2006;Santonja and P erez-Gonz alez, 2010;Sharon, 2011) at a later date than its appearance in Africa, Middle East, India and probably S.E. Asia (BarYosef and Belmaker, 2011).…”

The Acheulean workshop of la Noira (France, 700 ka) in the European technological context

“…In the absence of clearly dated early sites in Spain (i.e., older than 350e400 ka, Jimenez-Arenas et al, 2011), and in spite of periods of low sea level at around 700e650 ka giving rise to a crossing of less than 10 km (Santonja and Villa, 2006), there is little evidence to suggest a transit from Africa to Gibraltar, in spite of the presence of cleavers on large flakes on both sides of the Mediterranean coast and some faunal exchanges throughout the Pleistocene (Sharon, 2011;Garcia et al, 2014).…”