Geochemical Sourcing of Flint Artifacts from Western Belgium and the German Rhineland: Testing Hypotheses on Gravettian Period Mobility and Raw Material Economy

Abstract

Identifying the geological and geographical origin of lithic raw materials is critical to effectively address prehistoric forager raw material economies and mobility strategies. Currently, Paleolithic archaeology in Belgium lacks a systematic sourcing strategy to effectively substantiate detailed interpretations of prehistoric hunter‐gatherer behavioral change across time and space. This pilot study evaluates the potential to “fingerprint” flint from the Mons Basin, western Belgium, using the laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) technique and a multivariate statistical analysis of 87 geological samples and 39 Gravettian period chipped stone artifacts. We reappraise two hypotheses raised by previous scholars based on visual raw material identification: (1) the Gravettian occupants of Maisières‐Canal supplied themselves with “black flint” from one single source; (2) the sites Rhens and Koblenz‐Metternich yielded artifacts indicative of long‐distance transfer of western Belgian flint into the German Rhineland, ca. 260 km from the primary source area. Our results demonstrate the validity of LA‐ICP‐MS data with flint and compositional data analysis for fingerprinting discrete geological formations from the Mons Basin. We suggest multiple source provisioning for Maisières‐Canal. Geochemical characterization of other potential flint sources is required to validate the long‐distance transfer hypothesis of western Belgian “black flint” into the German Rhineland.

Trace element mapping of two Pyrenean chert deposits (SW Europe) by PIXE

“…The use of geochemical studies to characterise chert have increased in the last few years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Results show that these analyses are essential for better determining the relationship prehistoric human populations had with their environment.…”

A moderate microsampling in Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry analysis of cultural heritage objects: a review

“…The results of sensitive LA-ICP-MS elemental/isotopic measurements can be used to support the use of other instrumental meth- ods such as Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry (SEM-EDS) [12,31,38,74,79,112,118,130,135,166,170,181,182], Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) [75, 80, 81, 97, 112, 167, 183 -185], X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) [16,31,35,44,93,94,98,119,120], Proton Induced X-Ray Emission [22,41,95,114,186,187] or Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) [23, 36, 99, 100, 107, 108, 114, 146, 188 -192]. Leroy et al [193] reported the first application of confocal Synchrotron Radiation micro X-Ray Fluorescence (SR-m-XRF) with LA-ICP-MS.…”

Preliminary characterization of flint raw material used on prehistoric sites in NW Belgium

“…Whereas archaeological studies mostly focus on typological classification, lithic technology, and functional analysis of flint artifacts (Andrefsky, ; Odell, ), geological research focusses on the petrological and geochemical aspects as well as the formation process of flint (Bustillo et al, ; Madsen & Stemmerik, ; L. Moreau et al, ; Zijlstra, ). The combination of both disciplines is necessary to have a full understanding and an integrated approach which will lead to novel results and insights.…”

“…To determine the geochemistry of flint, researchers commonly use X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) for elemental analysis (e.g., Gauthier & Burke, ; Gauthier, Burke, & Leclerc, ; L. Moreau et al, ; Olivares et al, ). The sample size is limited by the sample chamber in the case of benchtop XRF, therefore, sample preparation could be required.…”

“…By analyzing geochemical diagrams and performing principal component analysis, one is able to establish artifact‐source geological location relationships (Gauthier et al, ). Furthermore, laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA‐ICP‐MS) has been increasingly applied in flint characterization and source provenance studies (e.g., Brandl et al, , ; L. Moreau et al, ; Moroni & Petrelli, ; Neff, ). Because LA‐ICP‐MS requires minimal sample preparation, this nearly nondestructive method is very suitable for sensitive archaeological materials (Brandl, ).…”