The Lower Paleolithic of the Arabian Peninsula: Occupations,Adaptations, and Dispersals

To understand major processes of human evolution during the Plio- Pleistocene, it is necessary to consider the available evidence from key regions of the Old World. The Arabian peninsula is often depicted as a key geographic route for hominin dispersals in Out of Africa models, although the available primary evidence is rarely cited. And yet, significant Lower Paleolithic assemblages have been identified in many parts of the peninsula, including in areas near the Strait of Bab al Mandab. The presence of Oldowan-like and Acheulean assemblages may reflect at least two major dispersals outside of Africa. Acheulean localities are particularly abundant on the Arabian peninsula, and variations in stone tool manufacturing techniques and tool-type frequencies may reflect temporal changes in assemblages. Although there is good potential to chronometrically date sites in the Arabian peninsula, absolute dating methods have not been adequately applied, most temporal reconstructions relying on typotechnological change. If the Arabian peninsula is to provide solid evidence for understanding hominin adaptation and dispersal patterns, future fieldwork in secure depositional contexts needs to be conducted to overcome current limits in dating and environmental reconstructions.     

Archaeocyaths from Yorke Peninsula,South Australia and archaeocyathan Early Cambrian zonation

Zhuravlev, A. Yu., & Gravestock, D. I., 1994:03:28. Archaeayaths from Yorke Peninsula, South Australia and archaeocyathan Early Cambrian zonation. Alcheringa 18, 1–54. ISSN 0311-5518.

Two assemblages of archaeocyaths are documented from Lower Cambrian outcrops and drillholes on Yorke Peninsula. South Australia. The older assemblage (11 species) occurs in the uppermost Kulpara Formation and conformably overlying basal Parara Limestone, and is equivalent to Lower Faunal Assemblage II in the Flinders Ranges. The younger assemblage (28 species plus Acanthhcyathus and Rodiocyathus) occurs in the Koolywurtie Member near the top of the Parara Limestone. Equivalent taxa are widespread in the Flinders Ranges, western New South Wales and Antarctica. Archaeocyathan distribution is now sufficiently well known to propose three assemblage zones and two informal assemblages for regional correlation. No new taxa have been added, but Erugatocyathus scutatus (Hill) and Pycnoidocyathus latiloculatus (Hill), hitherto known only from Antarctica, are found in the upper assemblage on Yorke Peninsula. Irregular archaeocyathan systematics are discussed, the ontogeny of Archaeopharetra irregularis (Tylor) clarified, and Kruseicnema Debrenne. Gravestock & Zhuravlev, represented by K. gracilis (Gordon), is fully described.     

Archaeology of middle Pleistocene lacustrine and spring paleoenvironments in the Kapthurin Formation,Kenya

A number of key events occur in Africa during the middle Pleistocene including the disappearance of the Acheulian, the appearance of the Middle Stone Age, and the emergence of modern Homo sapiens. However, little is known about either the fossil or behavioral record for this critical time period. Excavation was undertaken at two middle Pleistocene archaeological sites, GnJh 42 and GnJh 50. These sites are located in close proximity to a large fresh water spring, a focal point on the landscape that supported a diverse plant and animal community. The lithic assemblages are dominated by flakes and cores, and lack all formal tools. However, the oldest evidence for systematic blade production can be found at these sites, indicating that important technological innovations were appearing at this time. Tendency to focus on the presence or absence of formal tools, means that assemblages of this age, lacking diagnostic artifacts, are typically subsumed within the Acheulian technocomplex. This practice disguises actual patterns of innovation and technological evolution. It is critical not to overlook this, as small-scale technological innovation allowed for more behavioral flexibility in response to rapid environmental change in a arid, mosaic environment.     

Middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician faunas from the Chingiz Mountain Range,central Kazakhstan

Tolmacheva, T.JU., Degtyarev, K.E., Samuelsson, J. & Holmer, L.E., December, 2008. Middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician faunas from the Chingiz Mountain Range, central Kazakhstan. Alcheringa 32, 443–463. ISSN 0311-5518.

The middle Cambrian to Lower Ordovician back-arc sedimentary succession studied in the Kol'denen River and in the Zerbkyzyl Mountains of the central Chingiz Mountain Range is composed predominantly of siltstones, sandstones and volcaniclastic rocks with rare beds of micritic carbonates, black shales and cherts. Fossil assemblages including conodonts, lingulate brachiopods, arthropods, sponges and probable Tasmanites cysts were recorded both from the carbonate and chert beds showing that richly diverse marine environments existed directly adjacent to the volcanic arcs. The Kol'denen River localities contain a diverse upper Cambrian paraconodont assemblage of the open-sea affinity. The representatives of Rossodus, Cordylodus, Drepanodus and Variabiloconus, having an almost pandemic distribution and characteristic of basinal facies, dominate the Lower Ordovician conodont fauna. The Cambrian–Ordovician boundary transition is characterized by chert production that was more likely caused by a local productivity increase than by general changes in palaeooceanographic and palaeogeographical conditions.     

The Paleolithic of Central Asia

The Lower Paleolithic of Central Asia is represented by several sealed and more or less firmly dated Lower–Middle Pleistocene cave and open-air sites in the southeastern part and by more numerous surface occurrences throughout the region. The assemblages assigned to the Lower Paleolithic form two rather distinct groups, one remarkable for well-made handaxes and the other characterized by cores and flakes with no handaxes. The distribution map of pebble industries and industries with handaxes shows that while the latter originate from the western regions of Central Asia, the former are concentrated in the eastern part of the area. The Middle Paleolithic assemblages of Central Asia do not form a single technocomplex. Their variability in time is difficult to assess, but variation in space is obvious. Very few Upper Paleolithic sites in this region are known. At the same time, their stone industries are very diverse and most of them differ sharply from each other and from sites in adjacent regions.     

The Muddle in the Middle Pleistocene: The Lower–Middle Paleolithic Transition from the Levantine Perspective

The terms Lower Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic represent research constructs within which cultural evolution and prehistoric hominin behaviours can be studied, with the transition usually understood as marking a watershed in our evolution: an adaptation with a million-year record of success that gives way to something new. The interpretation of the Lower Palaeolithic Acheulian technocomplex is usually understood as a period of cultural stasis that extends over much of Africa and Eurasia, principally associated with Homo erectus. Those innovations that can be observed occur widely separated from one another in space and time. Yet a closer and more detailed examination of the Middle Pleistocene records from East Africa, southern Africa, Europe and the Levant reveals significant variation in cultural repertoires. A kind of paradox emerges, in which an Old World Lower Palaeolithic, apparently lacking an overall dynamic of distinctive and directed change in terms of cumulative variation over time, nevertheless culminates in a transition which sees the universal appearance of the Middle Palaeolithic. The two main hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the global transition, which happens essentially synchronously, appear mutually exclusive and contradictory. One view is that altered climatic-environmental constraints enabled and encouraged an ‘Out-of-Africa’ dispersal (or dispersals) of a new type of genus Homo. This cultural replacement model has been challenged more recently by the alternative hypothesis of accumulating but unrelated and temporally non-linked regional, and in fact potentially autochthonous, processes. The Levant, by virtue of its position bridging Africa and Eurasia (thus being the region into which any out-of-Africa groups would have had first to disperse into), must be seen as a critical region for assessing the relative merits of these competing hypotheses. This paper deals with the Lower–Middle Paleolithic boundary in the Levant within a long temporal perspective. The Middle Pleistocene record in the Levant enables us to examine the amplitude of variation within each techno-complex, as well as to question whether there are diachronic changes in the amplitude of techno-typological variations as well as changes in the manner by which they appear in the record. The results carry significant implications for understandings of demographic and societal processes during the Lower–Middle Paleolithic transition in the Levant.     

Radialimbricatus,a new ichnogenus from the lacustrine sandstone facies of the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation,South Korea

Lee, D.-C. February 2017. Radialimbricatus, a new ichnogenus from the lacustrine sandstone facies of the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation, South Korea. Alcheringa XX, XXX–XXX.

The trace fossil Radialimbricatus igen. nov. with type species of R. bitoensis isp. nov. occurs in river-mouth-bar sandstone beds of a lacustrine sequence of the Lower Cretaceous Jinju Formation in South Korea. Radialimbricatus is a horseshoe-shaped or elliptical, convex hyporelief structure characterized by imbrication of traces with radial ridges and a median furrow. These features differentiate Radialimbricatus from arthropod ichnofossils such as Rusophycus and Cruziana, possibly cnidarian ichnofossils such as Astropolichnus and vermiform organism ichnofossils such as Oldhamia. Cross-sectional features of R. bitoensis, including upward mud protrusions at lateral margins, demonstrate that R. bitoensis can be formed as an open epigenic furrow at the water/mud interface or an endogenic burrow along the sand/mud interface at the same time. Analysis of discrete and imbricating horseshoe-shaped traces indicates that the tracemaker maintained an obligate inclined posture even when forming trails. The radial ridges and pit along the median furrow are interpreted to reflect feeding behaviour, and the imbrication to result from unidirectional and more or less regular movements to next feeding sites. The tracemaker is thought to have been an organism with an elliptical body outline, radially arranged body parts at the base of or around the body (probably for collecting and transporting foods and moving to feeding sites) and a mouth near the centre of the body, which is consistent with body plan features of arthropods, cnidarians and annelids.

Dong-Chan Lee [dclee@chungbuk.ac.kr], Department of Earth Sciences Education, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, 28644, South Korea.     

A sea scorpion claw from the Lower Devonian of China (Chelicerata: Eurypterida)

Wang, B. & Gai, Z.K., 2014. A sea scorpion claw from the Lower Devonian of China (Chelicerata: Eurypterida). Alcheringa 38, XX–XX. ISSN 0311–5518.

An isolated chelicera (claw) of a pterygotid eurypterid is described from the Lower Devonian Xitun Formation of Yunnan Province, China. It is different from chelicerae of other pterygotids in having four principal denticles and at least four intermediate denticles between the principal denticles on both rami. This Chinese pterygotid, estimated at about 70 cm long, was a top predator that probably hunted small, primitive fishes, such as galeaspids. This discovery represents the first record of Pterygotidae from Asia and the third fossil eurypterid from China.

Bo Wang (corresponding author) [savantwang@gmail.com], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China; Steinmann Institute, University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany; Zhikun Gai [gaizhikun@ivpp.ac.cn], Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China. Received 22.10.2013, revised 15.11.2013, accepted 20.11.2013.     

Rodent-based age appraisal of the Lower Siwalik Subgroup of Kalaunta,Ramnagar, Jammu,India

Parmar, V., Magotra, R., Norboo, R. & Prasad, G.V.R., July 2016. Rodent-based age appraisal of the Lower Siwalik Subgroup of Kalaunta, Ramnagar, Jammu, India. Alcheringa 41, xx-xx. ISSN 0311-5518.

Rocks of the Lower Siwalik Subgroup exposed around Ramnagar town in Jammu, India, have been known for more than 90 years to yield Chinji-equivalent (14.2–11.2 Ma) hominoid fossils. In 1997, the fossil ape Sivapithecus reported near Kalaunta village in the vicinity of Ramnagar was argued to be about 18 Ma old by its discoverers. This had implications for hominoid evolutionary studies, as molecular clock calibrations are commonly based on Sivapithecus first appearance datum (FAD). In a paper published in 2010, the identification of this hominoid tooth was questioned and reassigned to a suid. Recently, based upon the discovery of an indeterminate fossil bovid from the supposedly hominoid-yielding site near Kalaunta, an age estimate between ca 13.9 and 10.8 Ma was provided. As rodent biochronology has proven to be useful in age assignment of upper Cenozoic terrestrial sequences, the age of the fossil-bearing Lower Siwalik Subgroup of Kalaunta is re-assessed based upon newly recovered cricetid taxa. The cricetid rodents from this site comprise Punjabemys downsi and P. mikros. These two species are known to exist in the well-dated Potwar Siwalik Group succession between 14.3 and 12.6 Ma and between 16.3 and 13.0 Ma, respectively. Based on the overlapping temporal ranges of the cricetid taxa and an indeterminate Bovidae (ca 13.9–10.8 Ma) reported previously from this area, an age of 13.9–13.0 Ma is inferred for rocks occurring in the vicinity of Kalaunta. The new finds refute earlier claims of rocks in the area extending back to ca 18 Ma or as young as 10.8 Ma.

Varun Parmar [varunparmarvp@gmail.com], Rahul Magotra [rahulmagotra01@gmail.com] and Rigzin Norboo [norboo04@gmail.com], Post Graduate Department of Geology, University of Jammu, Jammu, 180 006, India; Guntupalli Veera Raghavendra Prasad [guntupalli.vrprasad@gmail.com], Department of Geology, Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110 007, India.     

Finding the message in intricacy: The association of lithics and fauna on Lower Paleolithic Multiple Carcass Sites

This paper examines alternative models for the interpretation of Lower Paleolithic Multiple Carcass Sites based on analysis of the site of Holon, Israel. The nature of the lithic and faunal assemblages found at Holon are most consistent with a palimpsest site that represents repeated occupations of a marsh edge location by both hominids and carnivores, the remains of which have been moderated by natural agencies. It is argued that ambush hunting by hominids was likely to have been one of the activities involved in the accumulation of lithic and faunal remains on the site. A comparison of the lithic assemblage found at Holon with the lithic assemblages from Lower Paleolithic Single Carcass Sites suggest differences between the activities that took place on these sites and the type of activities that took place at Holon.     

Coastal eolian sands, paleosols, and Pleistocene geoarchaeology of the Southwestern Cape, South Africa

Narratives of Pleistocene prehistory for MIS 4 to 9 are primarily constructed on the basis of what appear to be subcontinuous archaeological records in cave sites, with subsidiary geo- and bioarchaeological research attempting to determine the nature of external environments and biotic resources from the inside, rather than the outside. The present study seeks to establish a detailed chronostratigraphy for faunal and archaeological sites linked with coastal sediments in the Southwestern Cape province. Accelerated shore deflation during glacio-eustatic oscillations of sea level deposited multiple eolianites, and textural changes of such calcified sands identify both transgressive and regressive sea level trends. These provide a proxy for local shore proximity, sometimes directly linked to ‘high’ sea level stands. Such sediments are subdivided into lithostratigraphic sequences by multiple paleosols, that range from ABC-soils to calcretes or plinthite/ferricrete horizons. Repeated intervals of solution or karstic activity created underground cavities that allowed fossil bone to collect in or below hyena lairs. Such fills further connect sedimentary units with pedogenic events, to integrate local stratigraphies into a regional lithostratigraphy that can be readily correlated with global chronostratigraphies (MIS stages and Dansgaard-Oeschger events), derived from polar ice and deep sea cores, as well as long stalagmite and pollen records. The faunal assemblages (see Table 9) of MIS 5 and early 4 were penecontemporaneous with pedogenic phases that record greater moisture during intervals when sea level oscillated a little below that of today. Dominated by larger grazers, such assemblages argue for a more open environment than the modern fynbos (sclerophyllous heath/brush) and specifically a land cover of higher productivity and nutritional status. Such conditions probably affected only a fraction of MIS 5 time. Middle Stone Age (MSA) assemblages are limited to late MIS 4 cave/overhang sites, also linked to such pedogenic phases, although an MSA-like site dates to MIS 5d. Older littoral sands, modified by plinthite development, include the Acheulian and faunal site of Duinefontein 2 that may represent MIS 9. Visible evidence for human occupation (including cave/overhang sites) during MIS 4 to 9 (see Table 9) was strikingly discontinuous in the Southwestern Cape begging questions about the number of prehistoric groups, demography, spatial patterning, and ecological context.     

Contours of the Past: LiDAR Data Expands the Limits of Late Pre-Columbian Human Settlement in the Santarém Region,Lower Amazon

Recent studies have shown that pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon undertook significant landscape modifications, including earthworks. Our fieldwork has revealed that pre-Columbian settlements in the Santarém Region, Lower Amazon, were not limited to the vicinities of permanent water courses, as formerly often assumed. Instead, numerous archaeological sites, dating from ca. a.d. 1300 up to the time of European colonization in the seventeenth century, have been found in an upland area known as the Belterra Plateau, south of the present-day city of Santarém. These upland sites have been found to be associated with particular features in the landscape: cavities or depressions, known locally as “Poços de Água”. LiDAR data shows that a pattern of non-randomly distributed depressions extends far into the densely forested Tapajós National Forest (Flona-Tapajós), allowing us to suggest that the expansion of inland settlement extended considerably farther to the south than what has previously been established through conventional archaeological fieldwork.     

Morphological analysis of Ozarkodina prolata Mawson and Ozarkodina midundenta (Wang & Ziegler) (Emsian conodonts) from South China

Lu, J.-F., November 2015. Morphological analysis of Ozarkodina prolata Mawson and Ozarkodina midundenta (Wang & Ziegler) (Emsian conodonts) from South China. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

Investigations of conodonts from Emsian (Lower Devonian) strata at Bahe, Liujing and Daliantang in Guangxi and Yunnan, South China, provide new data on the morphological variability and phylogenetic affinity of Ozarkodina midundenta, a species initially assigned to Pandorinellina but transferred to Ozarkodina herein. Morphological analysis suggests that O. midundenta probably developed from O. prolata by progressive fusion of denticles in the middle third of the blade above the basal cavity in the Pa element.

Jian-feng Lu [lujfivan@sina.cn], Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China. Also affiliated with University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.     

The Palaeolithic of the Middle Son valley, north-central India: Changes in hominin lithic technology and behaviour during the Upper Pleistocene

The Middle Son valley in north-central India preserves extensive Quaternary alluvial deposits. A long history of archaeological and geological research in the valley has resulted in the discovery of lithic assemblages ranging from Lower Palaeolithic to microlithic, a rich corpus of fossilised faunal remains, and ash deposits from the 74,000 year-old Toba supereruption. This paper reviews the chronology and stratigraphy of the valley’s Quaternary sediments, and presents a model that hypothesizes the temporal sequence of important lithic assemblages from excavated and surface contexts. Artefacts in these assemblages are analysed and changes in lithic technology through time are described; this evidence is used to propose shifts in hominin behaviour and demographic structure in this region during the Upper Pleistocene. Recognising gaps in our understanding of the Middle Son record, future avenues of research are recommended that will build upon previous research and address questions of palaeoanthropological significance. The Middle Son valley preserves a long and rich record of hominin occupation from all periods of the Palaeolithic that is rarely paralleled by other sites in India.     

Building a tephrostratigraphic framework for the Paleolithic of Central Anatolia,Turkey

The Central Anatolian Volcanic Province (CAVP) in Turkey preserves widespread deposits of Quaternary tephra, presently associated with a small but growing number of Paleolithic archaeological sites. We use multivariate analyses of the abundances of a suite of nine major and minor element oxides determined by electron probe microanalysis. From these data, we construct a classificatory model for correlating distal tephra to one of five volcanic edifices or eruptive phases within the CAVP. Application of this model to distal deposits of primary tephra-fall and reworked tuffaceous sediments from the archaeological sites of Körkuyu and Kaletepe Deresi 3 indicates Late to possibly Early Pleistocene ages for the artifact assemblages there, and provides a fundamental tephrostratigraphic framework to examine spatial and temporal variation in hominin behavior comparable to that of other regions, such as eastern Africa.     

夏家店下层文化遗址出土铜器的矿料来源分析

为进一步了解夏家店下层文化铜器的物料信息,探讨其矿料来源,采用多接收电感耦合等离子体质谱仪(MC-ICP-MS)对4处夏家店下层文化遗址和1处高台山文化遗址出土的部分铜器进行了铅同位素比值测定,并将测定结果同辽西地区几处金属矿的铅同位素数据进行了对比。结果表明:这4处夏家店下层文化遗址出土铜器的原料可能是使用辽西当地的大井多金属矿的矿石冶炼而成,而大山前遗址出土铜器的铅料有可能来自辽宁桓仁的多金属矿,二道井子遗址所出红铜器的铜料则可能另有来源。所属高台山文化的湾柳遗址铜器的铅同位素数据具有高放射性成因铅特征,表明其与同期其他考古学文化存在某种联系。     

Mecochirus Germar (Decapoda: Glypheoidea) in the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland

JELL, P.A., WOODS, J.T. & COOK, A.G., May 2017. Mecochirus Germar (Decapoda: Glypheoidea) in the Lower Cretaceous of Queensland. Alcheringa 41, 514–523 ISSN 0311-5518.

Three new species of glypheoid decapod crustaceans, Mecochirus mcclymontorum, M. bartholomaii and M. lanceolatus, are described from the late Aptian of the Eromanga, Carpentaria and Maryborough basins, respectively. The first two occur in the Doncaster Member of the Wallumbilla Formation and the last in the Maryborough Formation. This is the first record of Mecochirus Germar, 1827 or the Mecochiridae Van Straelen, 1925 in Australia and one of only a few Cretaceous occurrences of this largely Jurassic genus.

Peter A. Jell [amjell@bigpond.com], Jack T. Woods and Alex G. Cook [alex.cook@y7mail.com], School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia Queensland 4072, Australia.     

The Lower Paleolithic of Spain and Portugal

To most English readers the Lower Paleolithic of the Iberian peninsula is known mainly through a few sites such as Torralba and Ambrona, whose age and behavioral significance remain controversial. In fact, the archaeological data base for this period and region is much larger and more varied than is generally appreciated and includes primary-context sites such as Aridos that have provided unique combinations of evidence on hominid exploitation of elephant carcasses. This paper is both a comprehensive synthesis of our current knowledge and a first attempt to see patterns in the data. Every major occurrence is presented in its regional and geochronological framework; each is critically assessed for data quality and behavioral significance. Major issues addressed in this paper include the working out of regional sequences and intersite correlation, the age and significance of the oldest occurrences, the density and preferred areas of settlement within each region, temporal variation within the Acheulean, and the strength and weaknesses of the data and of our approaches to it.M.S. is responsible for the research and form of this paper; P.V. is responsible for translating, editing, and revising certain sections in consultation with the senior author.     

Didymograptellus kremastus n. sp., a new name for the Chewtonian (mid-Floian,Lower Ordovician) graptolite D. protobifidus sensu Benson & Keble, 1935, non Elles, 1933

Vandenberg, A.H.M., December 2017. Didymograptellus kremastus n. sp., a new name for the Chewtonian (mid-Floian, Lower Ordovician) graptolite D. protobifidus sensu, non. Alcheringa 42, 259–268. ISSN 0311-5518.

The ‘tuning-fork’ didymograptid previously referred to as Didymograpt(ell)us protobifidus is common in Victoria where it is confined to the Chewtonian (mid-Floian). Biometric differences indicate that the mid-Floian form is not conspecific with the holotype of the Darriwilian Didymograptus protobifidus Elles, 1933 and the Floian form is thus renamed Didymograptellus kremastus n. sp. Study of the Valhallfonna Formation faunas on Spitsbergen indicated that the Floian form of D. ‘protobifidus’ differs from Didymograptellus bifidus (Hall) in both its morphology and stratigraphic distribution but a later study of the Cow Head Group on Newfoundland concluded that they are one species. My study, of more than 50 specimens of Didymograptellus from the Floian of Victoria, Australia, shows that the two are different and that similar differences exist in the Cow Head Group populations of Didymograptellus. The Chewtonian (Ch1) Didymograptellus protobifidus Biozone is renamed D. kremastus Biozone.

Alfons H.M. Vandenberg, [lanceolatus@hotmail.vic.gov.au], [avandenberg@museum.vic.gov.au] Museums Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne 3001, Victoria, Australia.     

The Lower Palaeolithic on the northern plateau of the Iberian Peninsula (Sierra de Atapuerca,Ambrona and La Maya I): a technological analysis of the cutting edge and weight of artefacts. Developing an hypothetical model

This article analyses the relationship between the weight and cutting edge of lithic artefacts from the main Lower Palaeolithic sites on the northern plateau (Meseta) of the Iberian Peninsula. The weight and cutting edge of a tool determine its cutting ability and the amount of force it is capable of, making them extremely important aspects of study to further our understanding of the potential capacity for human intervention in the environment. However, the analysis of these features has not received much attention in the ongoing debate on the Palaeolithic era in Europe. This study argues that the quantitative and qualitative technological analysis of these two aspects is of fundamental importance in determining the potential of lithic assemblages.