La gestion du quartz au Pléistocène moyen et supérieur. Trois exemples d’Europe Méridionale

Evidence of a Neanderthal-Made Quartz-Based Technology at Navalmaíllo Rockshelter (Pinilla Del Valle, Madrid Region, Spain)

“…Our work describes a preliminary study of the site's lithic industry, thus paving the way for the archaeological work necessary for its complete scientifi c interpretation. We focus on quartz technology, which has received increased interest in recent years, particularly as concerns sites where this material was preferentially used (e.g., Driscoll 2011aDriscoll , 2011bLombera-Hermida et al 2011;Mourre 1993Mourre -1994Mourre , 1996Tallavaara et al 2010). This study contributes to the growing body of evidence for Neanderthal adaptive fl exibility, in contrast to earlier characterizations of the cultural limitations of this (sub)species.…”

“…Mourre (1996) and Jaubert (1997) indicate that quartz is used whenever available, despite the presence of other materials of better quality. However, at some European sites, such as Payre (dated to MIS 7 and 5 [Moncel et al 2008;Lombera-Hermida et al 2011]) in the central part of the Rhône Valley, the locally abundant quartz appears to have been less used than semi-local chert. At that site, the sources of the chert are at distances of 8-50 km.…”

The lithic assemblage from Pont-de-Lavaud (Indre, France) and the role of the bipolar-on-anvil technique in the Lower and Early Middle Pleistocene technology

“…The "split fracture" produced pieces with several shattered sides and polygonal section 8 (e.g. Mourre, 1996;Jarry, 2009-2010;Faivre et al, 2010;de Lombera et al, 2011;Garcia et al, 2013;Zaidner, 2013;Gurtov and Eren, 2014) that were reproduced during our own experiments on the same type of quartz. Nevertheless, the predominantly grainy texture of the Pont-de-Lavaud quartz may prevent recognizable knapping stigmas on the artifacts (de Lombera, 2009).…”

“…Although quartz is the only raw material used at the site, artifacts are defined by their morpho-structural varieties in terms of quartz texture and homogeneity in order to identify the raw material supply at the site and the technical strategies used there (Martínez & Llana, 1996;de Lombera, 2009). Grain or crystal size as well as any internal flaws or cleavage planes in the quartz blanks are considered the main factor limiting control of knapping sequences (de Lombera et al, 2011;Mourre, 1996). Quartz artifacts were therefore placed into four Morpho-structural Groups on the basis of the presence/absence of grainy texture and of internal flaws or cleavage planes: NN (no grain, no plane), NY (no grain, plane), YN (grainy, no plane) and YY (grainy, plane).…”

La anisotropía y el clivaje del cuarzo automorfo y sus posibles efectos sobre la talla: Una revisión bibliográfica [Anisotropy and cleavage of automorphic quartz and their potential effects on the knapping: A literature review]

“…Cabe decir que existen diferencias significativas entre el cuarzo xenomorfo y el automorfo en cuanto a la presencia de estos defectos: mientras los planos y discontinuidades internas son muy frecuentes en la variedad xenomorfa, dando lugar a fracturas frecuentes y a un cierto grado de descontrol durante la talla (de Lombera-Hermida et al 2011;Driscoll 2011;Mourre 1996;Tallavaara et al 2010); el cuarzo automorfo suele estar -en comparación -mucho menos afectado por esta problemática y los planos internos tienden a limitarse a la parte basal de los cristales (Rodríguez-Rellán, en prensa). Dicha circunstancia se debe, fundamentalmente, al hecho de que los prismas se forman en el interior de huecos dejados por el fluido magmático, por lo que no están tan sujetos a las presiones generadas por los materiales circundantes.…”