The fragmented character of Middle Palaeolithic stone tool technology

Turq, Alain; Roebroeks, Wil; Bourguignon, Laurence; Faivre, Jean-Philippe

doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.07.014

Cited by 191 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Some rock shelter sites show the reuse of already patinated blanks or the introduction of naturally broken pieces of flint, geofacts picked up en route and used as blanks for tool production. This relaxed attitude toward tool blanks is comparable to what has been documented in the Australian record (85), whereas also earlier phases of the Upper Paleolithic-including the Aurignacian-show strong similarities to Middle Paleolithic raw material strategies, at least in the wellstudied Aquitaine basin in southwestern France (84).…”

Section: Neandertal Ways Of Lifesupporting

confidence: 79%

“…One of the striking features of the Middle Paleolithic record is the ubiquitous transport of stone artifacts of a wide variety of forms, selected by Neandertals using criteria that were sometimes far removed from what archeologists consider to be desired end products of knapping activities, including small irregular flakes and, in a few cases, even chunks, accidental byproducts of flaking (84). Some rock shelter sites show the reuse of already patinated blanks or the introduction of naturally broken pieces of flint, geofacts picked up en route and used as blanks for tool production.…”

Section: Neandertal Ways Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

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Neandertals revised

Roebroeks

Soressi

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The last decade has seen a significant growth of our knowledge of the Neandertals, a population of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers who lived in (western) Eurasia between ∼400,000 and 40,000 y ago. Starting from a source population deep in the Middle Pleistocene, the hundreds of thousands of years of relative separation between African and Eurasian groups led to the emergence of different phenotypes in Late Pleistocene Europe and Africa. Both recently obtained genetic evidence and archeological data show that the biological and cultural gaps between these populations were probably smaller than previously thought. These data, reviewed here, falsify inferences to the effect that, compared with their near-modern contemporaries in Africa, Neandertals were outliers in terms of behavioral complexity. It is only around 40,000 y ago, tens of thousands of years after anatomically modern humans first left Africa and thousands of years after documented interbreeding between modern humans, Neandertals and Denisovans, that we see major changes in the archeological record, from western Eurasia to Southeast Asia, e.g., the emergence of representational imagery and the colonization of arctic areas and of greater Australia (Sahul).

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Section: Neandertal Ways Of Lifesupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Neandertal Ways Of Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Neandertals revised

Roebroeks

Soressi

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Also, other lines of evidence suggest that neandertals did not have a "low level of technological elaboration" as suggested by Kuhn and Stiner (2006). This can be seen in lithic technology organization (Turq et al, 2013), in the introduction of bone tools for manufacturing activities (Soressi et al, 2013;Mozota, 2014), in the use of pigments and minerals (Soressi and D'Errico, 2007), in the utilization of mastics and colles (Pawlik and Thissen, 2011), and the regular use of stone tipped hunting weapons (Villa and Lenoir, 2006;Villa et al, 2009;Rios-Garaizar, 2012b). The evidence of habitat structuring suggests that neandertals organized space to fulfill different kind of activities (Bourguignon et al, 2002;Conard and Adler, 1997;Vaquero et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ramification of lithic production and the search of small tools in Iberian Peninsula Middle Paleolithic

Garaizar

Eixea

Bonilla

2015

Quaternary International

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a b s t r a c tThe notion of recycling and it relationship with ramified productions and small tool production in Late Middle Paleolithic from the Iberian Peninsula are investigated. Results from Amalda, Axlor, Peña Miel, and Quebrada show that the production of small tools is one of the principal objectives of lithic provisioning in these sites. Whereas in Axlor and Amalda, this is achieved through the ramification of production, due to the remoteness of flint sources, in Quebrada, where raw material sources are closer, small flakes are obtained at the end of Levallois production. The implications for Neandertal society organization of this small tool production is discussed, and its evolution is observed from a diachronic perspective.

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“…Analysing the assemblage as a whole, we obtained an "average behaviour" (Vaquero 2008). Several works have shown that archaeological assemblages were the result of a series of independent import, export, use, and discard events, and knowledge of the fragmented characteristics of production in the landscape is needed to understand and interpret site function, occupation length, planned behaviour, handling costs, and more in general techno-economic strategies (Machado et al 2016;Turq et al 2013;Vallverdú et al 2005;Vaquero 2008). …”

Section: Geological Context and Time Resolution Set Of Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing a hypothesis about the importance of the quality of raw material on technological changes at Abric Romaní (Capellades, Spain): Some considerations using a high-resolution techno-economic perspective

Romagnoli

Bargalló

Chacón

et al. 2016

JLS

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Abstract:Technological changes have been identified in several European Middle Palaeolithic sites. Specifically, the turnover in discoid and Levallois knapping methods has traditionally been explained by raw material constraints that are usually related to foraging areas and mobility strategies of Neanderthal groups. While Levallois production requires high homogeneous blocks, predominant discoid techno-complexes have generally been interpreted as better adapted to the scarcity of high quality raw material, not only for the lowest degree of control in products morphology, but also for their multitask characteristics. Nevertheless, the impact of the quality of raw material has never been systematically studied. Furthermore, technological analyses usually consider the lithic assemblage as a whole and do not dissect assemblages to identify single events, which are units that are needed to interpret relationships between technological organisation, human mobility, economic strategies, and settlement patterns. Here, we present an application of technological analysis with a high-resolution approach to investigate, in detail, how raw material quality affected production and how Neanderthals managed the low quality of Sant Martí de Tous chert within Levallois and discoid concepts. We used Raw Material Units and refits as units of analysis with a diacritical approach. The results suggested that the Levallois organisation of the reduction sequence in layer O included a phase of selection of the block and its systematic cutting-down, as well as quite standardised productive procedures and a high fragmentation of the productive sequence within the landscape. In layer M discoid sequences showed a high internal variability as a response to raw material constraints, and most of the production was usually manufactured at the site. Data implied that factors others than the quality of raw material determined the technological turnover at Abric Romaní, suggesting that social organisation and settlement patterns have most probably played a more significant role than foraging area.

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The fragmented character of Middle Palaeolithic stone tool technology

Cited by 191 publications

References 39 publications

Neandertals revised

Neandertals revised

Ramification of lithic production and the search of small tools in Iberian Peninsula Middle Paleolithic

Testing a hypothesis about the importance of the quality of raw material on technological changes at Abric Romaní (Capellades, Spain): Some considerations using a high-resolution techno-economic perspective

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