Recent developments in the analysis of lithic artifacts

A review of recent research on lithic technology and functional analysis is presented. Our perception of the state of the art is based on a review of the literature published during the past three years and on the topics that were covered at conferences and workshops on lithic analysis. While the goals have essentially remained the same since the turn of the century, concerns with chronology and the classification of lithic artifacts have given way to studies that treat stone implements as products of a dynamic system of human behavior. In order to understand stone artifacts and the people that made and used them, archaeologists must understand theprocesses involved in the acquisition, production, exchange, and consumption of lithic artifacts. In the past ten years, experimental studies involving the manufacturing and use of stone tools have been integrated with studies of refitted or conjoined lithic artifacts and microwear analysis. The result is a much more dynamic view of the variability in assemblages of lithic artifacts. In this review, we focus on replication and technological analysis of chipped stone artifacts and microwear analysis, and consider the implications of this research.     

Technological Change and Economy in the Epipalaeolithic: Assessing the Shift from Early to Middle Epipalaeolithic at Kharaneh IV

Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing landscape.     

Stone Tool Research at the End of the Millennium: Procurement and Technology

The literature of stone tool procurement and technology published in the past decade is reviewed in this article. The presentation attempts to be geographically comprehensive but, because of where it was written, it provides fuller coverage of New World publications, particularly those from North America, than of literature from the rest of the world. Topics covered include raw materials and procurement, flake experimentation, technology, and specific tool types. An article in a subsequent issue of this journal will discuss issues of function, behavior, and classification in lithic analysis.     

High-Tech Foragers? Folsom and Later Paleoindian Technology on the Great Plains

Archaeologists generally argue that early (ca. 11,000–8000 B.P. populations on the North American Great Plains moved over very large areas, relying on sophisticated, biface-based flaked stone technology and on extensive resharpening and recycling of tools to cope with unpredictable access to raw material sources. This paper reviews the development of this reconstruction and considers the degree to which data from assemblages of Paleoindian flaked stone tools support it. Published information implies that patterns of raw material use vary greatly over the Plains, that bifaces were not the centerpiece of Paleoindian technology, that there are no published efforts to document an unusual degree of resharpening or recycling, and that the data that are available on these topics do not suggest that either was important. Detailed analysis of one assemblage, from the Allen site in southwestern Nebraska, carried out with these issues in mind, shows similar patterns. The great difference between what the literature says about Paleoindian technology and the documented character of that technology suggests that Paleoindian lifeways were far more variable than current discussions suggest.     

A New Methodology and Classification System for Describing Three‐Dimensional Particle Formats: Application to Clastic Lithic Products of Archaeological and Geological Origin

A new classification system is proposed to describe the volumetric formats of clastic lithic products of geological and archaeological origin. In order to build this operative classification, the rectangular block or cuboid is established as the standard geometric format to represent their three‐dimensional format (the X‐axis being length or long diameter, the Y‐axis being the width or intermediate diameter, and the Z‐axis being the thickness or short diameter) on a two‐dimensional diagram. To obtain this graph, each absolute coordinate (X, Y, Z) defining the prisms is projected on to an auxiliary plane with a new set of relative coordinates (x, y, z), expressed as the percentage of their sum. The projection generates a triangular diagram on which the indices of elongation and flatness are represented. A geometric transformation converting the triangular diagram into a quadrangular diagram has been produced in order to better represent the scatter points. Then, a double scale is necessary: (i) an absolute scale to quantify the indices, and (ii) a relative scale to calculate where the graphic locus is projected. This new graph also allows us to work with statistical parameters. Finally, two classic examples of applications selected from the literature are shown.     

A Russian Before and After the Revolution: P. P. Efimenko,a Pioneer of Levantine Prehistoric Research

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a reappraisal of the Levantine prehistoric chronological sequence constructed by Pyotr Petrovich Efimenko (1884–1969). As a young Russian prehistorian, Efimenko visited Palestine in 1913, collected material from several sites and, in 1915, published a synthesis in which he compared the prehistory of Europe with that of the Near East. This was part of his comprehensive monograph on the Prehistory of Eurasia which was also based on his work at the sites of Mezin and Kostenki and the Palaeolithic of Russia. The current paper also attempts to evaluate the career of Efimenko particularly in light of the unfamiliarity of his work among prehistorians working in the southern Levant.     

Archaeological survey,paleogeography, and the search for Late Pleistocene Paleocoastal peoples of Santa Rosa Island,California

Abstract

The northern Pacific Coast is an important area for understanding human colonization of the Americas, but Late Pleistocene coastal sites are rare and interglacial sea level rise has inundated the continental shelf and the primary areas where Paleocoastal archaeological sites are likely to occur. Here we outline a terrestrial archaeological survey project designed to identify Paleocoastal sites on Santa Rosa Island, California. Using reconstructions of ancient shorelines and paleogeography, we predicted that sites might be found where lithic resources, freshwater springs, caves or rockshelters, and strategic vistas drew Paleocoastal peoples into the island interior. We identified nine new Paleocoastal sites, including four radiocarbon dated to >11,000 cal b.p. that are among the oldest sites on North America’s Pacific coast. Our targeted survey demonstrates an important technique for investigating island and coastal settings where sea level rise remains a significant challenge for locating early sites.     

Settlers,Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession

This article offers a critique of the Wolfe-an model, which has become so dominant within contemporary Settler Colonial Studies (SCS). It focuses particularly on the central claim made by Patrick Wolfe, and others after him, that settler colonialism is categorically differentiated from other forms of colonialism by its drive to “eliminate the native”, instead of exploiting them. This paper builds on the literature that shows how settler colonies have used elimination as well as exploitation in their relations with indigenous peoples—even transitioning from one to the other. Instead, the paper argues that focusing on accumulation by dispossession allows for an analysis of the specificity of settler social relations to emerge. It highlights the specific ways in which settlers collectively expropriate indigenous peoples and struggle amongst different settler classes over the distribution of the colonial loot.     

龙虬庄遗址墓葬统计学分析尝试

使用统计学的方法对龙虬庄墓地的随葬品数量是与性别、年龄的关系,生产工具与男女分工关系,墓葬布局与社会结构关系进行检验,可作出更为科学的结论。     

The Paleolithic of Dzungaria (Xinjiang,Northwest China) Based on Materials from the Luotuoshi Site

The paper reports the results of an analysis of surface collections of artifacts made at the Luotuoshi site in Dzungaria, Xinjiang, northwest China. The site was discovered in 2004 by a joint Chinese-Russian-American archaeological expedition. A techno-typological analysis of the artifacts was carried out noting aeolian abrasion of the artifacts’ surfaces. This technocomplex is quite homogenous and is characterized by a combination of Levallois-like and subprismatic blade-based reduction techniques. Analogs of the Luotuoshi assemblage have been identified within the lithic industries of the Altai, the Orkhon-1 and Tolbor-4 sites in Mongolia, and at Shuidonggou in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China, all of which have been attributed to the Early Upper Paleolithic. Luotuoshi is the first site associated with the blade-based Early Upper Paleolithic discovered in northwest China and its particular features make it possible to correlate this technocomplex with those from southern Siberia and northern Central Asia.     

From Crafting to Caching: Technological and Iconographic Analyses of Blue Creek Cache 37

This paper presents technological and iconographic analyses of a Late Classic (a.d. 600–830) lithics cache recovered from the ancient Maya site of Blue Creek, Belize. The cache consisted of 21 obsidian prismatic blades and a number of chert artifacts, including 21 stemmed bifaces, a large laurel leaf biface, and a tridentate eccentric. The technological analysis of the stemmed bifaces identified three distinct stem production techniques that may be attributable to a combination of idiosyncratic knapping gestures and laterality, or handedness. A survey of Maya iconography demonstrated that large laurel-leaf bifaces and tridentate eccentrics occur in scenes depicting sacrifice and the burning of human remains, often by ritual specialists titled ch’ajoom, or “person of incense.” It is suggested that the presence of a large laurel-leaf biface and tridentate eccentric in the cache may indicate that Blue Creek was the residence of ch’ajoom at some point during the Late Classic period.     

Technological and Cultural Change Among the Last Hunter-Gatherers of the Maghreb: The Capsian (10,000–6000 B.P.)

This paper focuses on the controversy surrounding the chronological interpretation of two subdivisions of a North African Epipaleolithic culture: Typical Capsian and Upper Capsian. Although originally defined as two evolutionary phases on the basis of stratigraphy, since the development of absolute dating methods they have been considered as contemporaneous. A new approach to the lithic technology of collections from the classic sites of Bortal Fakher, El-Mekta, Relilaï, and Aïn Dokkara allows us to redefine the industry and the traditional chronology. A wide-reaching comparison including major Capsian sites, and based on cultural attribution, chronology, and lithic technology, supports our preliminary results. Around 8000 B.P., a technological change occurred, corresponding with an environmental shift, and calls into question the contemporaneity of Typical and Upper Capsian. The causes, mechanisms, and implications of this technological change are integrated into a broader discussion leading to more questions about the way of life of the makers of the Capsian, their cultural evolution, and their persistence as hunter-gatherers in a Neolithic world.     

An experimental ethnoarchaeological approach to understanding the development of use wear associated with the processing of river cane for split-cane technology

Southeastern Indians have been using cane (Arundinaria spp.) for basketry and matting for thousands of years. Unfortunately, it is only under extraordinary preservation conditions that such items survive archaeologically. Inferring the production of split-cane technology requires an understanding of prehistoric manufacturing and processing techniques. It is hypothesized that stone tools were once used to process cane for use in split-cane technologies. In the Southeast, it is not uncommon to find stone tools with traces of plant use; however attributing wear to specific plants has been problematic. Pilot experiments, grounded on ethnoarchaeological observations, were conducted with river cane (Arundinaria gigantea) in collaboration with expert basket weavers in the Cherokee Nation. The experimental ethnoarchaeological program was designed to test the efficiency of stone tools in cane processing and document use wear through microscopic observations. The results found that non-retouched flakes were efficient for processing river cane and that the different stages of splint preparation resulted in the differential development of use-related wear. Additional experimentation with river cane is necessary to better define use wear and establish criteria for identification in archaeological contexts. Nonetheless, the collaborative and experimental approach undertaken demonstrated the utility of combining traditional archaeological methods with experimentation, ethnoarchaeology, and tribal knowledge.     

Taqiyya as Polemic,Law and Knowledge: Following an Islamic Legal Term through the Worlds of Islamic Scholars,Ethnographers, Polemicists and Military Men

Taqiyya is an Islamic juridical term whose shifting meaning relates to when a Muslim is allowed, under Sharia law, to lie. A concept whose meaning has varied significantly among Islamic sects, scholars, countries, and political regimes, it nevertheless is one of the key terms used by recent anti‐Muslim polemicists such as Robert Spencer or Daniel Pipes, and has been used by US Prosecutors to explain terrorist behavior. This paper seeks to summarize the complex uses of the term and show how a specific concept in a legal system can be used and interpreted by both adherents of that system and enemies in a wide variety of ways, taking on different meanings while referring to effectively the same set of practices. The term is debated in a scholarly way in the scholarly literature, as an ethnographic term, and finally, as an operational concept used as a tactic in a war and demanding countertactics tailored to it. The paper will discuss the social purpose of having such ambiguous concepts available within one's society, and the idea that making the ambiguous specific can be a valuable weapon in polemical attack.     

Earliest hunters and gatherers of South America

Traditional syntheses of the archaeology of the late Pleistocene period in South America have focused primarily on the peopling of the continent by North American cultural groups and on identifying associations among regional sites. This focus has tended to ignore the widespread culture diversity of the period and the possible effects of different paleolandscapes on human migration and colonization, such as the presence of unglaciated tropical and temperate environments in the northern lowlands, the gateway to the interior. The earliest known cultural assemblages are characterized by various unifacial and bifacial lithic industries that may represent regional processes reminiscent of an Archaic lifeway. The major archaeological sites and associated artifact assemblages are examined in terms of regional and continental patterns of environmental and cultural change. Results suggest that the Pleistocene archaeological record of South America must be explained in its own terms and that the events and processes producing this record either occurred earlier than previously thought or are very different from those in North America.     

Migrants,civil society and the New Europe: The challenge for planners

International migration into European cities has stirred a great deal of debate about appropriate national policies. But the planning literature has been remarkably silent on the issues involved, particularly as immigration affects urban conditions. This paper is a first attempt to delineate the problems and to suggest ways that planners can contribute to the economic, socio‐cultural and political integration of international migrants at the local level.     

Discoveries of Neolithic prehistoric sites at Pleistocene carbonate rock shelters on the east coast of the UAE

Three newly discovered prehistoric sites on the east coast of the United Emirates (UAE) are described. All are located on surfaces of Pleistocene carbonates or rock shelters that are generally rare along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Oman. Aqqah 1 (Le Meridien al Aqqah Beach Resort), the most important and best preserved of these sites, is a partially collapsed rock shelter with an exposed section, lithic finds and marine molluscs. Deriving an exact date from the material present is difficult because of a lack of comparanda. A bifacial fletched arrowhead made of yellow jasper and the lithic debris of five different raw materials as well as an undecorated ceramic fragment might suggest a date in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. The presence of many marine bivalves and snails with operculae, which differ from recent coastal species, indicates the collection and consumption of living molluscs by the prehistoric population of Aqqah. Nearby burials may be related to the rock shelters.