Lower, Middle or Upper Palaeolithic? A Classification Analysis of the Bársony House Hand Axes from the North Carpathian Basin

Biface Distributions And The Movius Line: A Southeast Asian Perspective

“…From the Himalayas it traverses a somewhat uncertain course through Central Asia (Dennell 2009), before extending down into western Asia through the Taurus and Caucasus Mountains between the Caspian and Black Seas (Kozlowski 2003). In continental Europe a demarcation line runs along the Rhine River and the Alps, and the northern margin of the Rhopode Mountains (Adams 1999), separating the Acheulean industries of western and southwestern Europe from the non-biface industries of central and eastern Europe. This is sometimes referred to as the 'Movius Line in Europe' (Kozlowski 2003:149), although it is not often considered in models of artefact variation and hominin evolution in eastern Asia (but see Svoboda 1987).…”

“…For example, artefacts from surface scatters on gravel-covered terraces in Green River Valley, Wyoming -once interpreted as Acheulean handaxes -are 'actually bifacial blanks or preforms for points or other bifacial tools' (Ebert 1992:78). In the early years of prehistoric studies in Europe it was also common for preforms of bifacial tools dating to the late Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age to be erroneously identified as Acheulean (Stapert 1981; see also Adams 1999;Saville 1997). As Johansen and Stapert (1995:1) remarked, for instance: 'In the Netherlands and elsewhere, rough-outs of Neolithic axes have repeatedly been interpreted as handaxes … In Denmark, preforms of bifacial tools such as daggers, spearheads and sickles may resemble Palaeolithic handaxes' .…”