Mobility patterns and core technologies in the Middle Paleolithic of the Levant

Mobility is thought to be a significant source of Middle Paleolithic archaeological variability in the East Mediterranean Levant. However, models of Levantine Middle Paleolithic land-use have historically been based on rare and taphonomically sensitive evidence from a limited number of sites. Because lithic artifacts are the most ubiquitous archaeological remains available to the prehistorian, relationships between stone tool technology and mobility patterns can improve tests of hypotheses about prehistoric land-use strategies. This paper examines variation in Middle Paleolithic mobility strategies in the Levant from the perspective of core technology. A model linking expedient core reduction techniques and decreased mobility is adapted from one developed for late prehistoric contexts in the New World. Incorporating core data from numerous Levantine Middle Paleolithic assemblages, this study tests hypotheses about diachronic change, synchronic geographic variation, and possible hominin behavioral differences in mobility strategies.     

Assessing the distribution of Asian Palaeolithic sites: a predictive model of collagen degradation

Having previously shown that there is a statistically significant relationship between areas of low collagen degradation and the location of archaeological sites in Africa [K.M. Holmes, K.A. Robson Brown, W.P. Oates, M.J. Collins, Assessing the distribution of African Palaeolithic sites: a predictive model of collagen degradation, Journal of Archaeological Science 32 (2005) 157–166], we here test the applicability of the same model on Palaeolithic archaeological remains from Asia.     

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.     

Bladelet cores as weapon tips? Hafting residue identification and micro-wear analysis of three carinated burins from the late Aurignacian of Les Vachons,France

The interpretation of Upper Palaeolithic carinated lithic forms as discarded cores from the production of bladelets is now well established and the weight of evidence to support this indisputable. However, it is also clear that the relationships between lithic typology, technology and function are complex. Presented here are micro-wear analyses of three carinated burins from the late Aurignacian level of Les Vachons, France. The remains of birch pitch adhering to the artefacts are clear evidence that they were hafted; the first time this material has been identified on Aurignacian artefacts. Thus, while the techno-morphology of the artefacts is consistent with their role as bladelet cores our results indicate that they functioned as hafted tools. Unlike other Middle and Upper Palaeolithic industries the Aurignacian is not thought to include (non-bladelet) lithic weapon tips. However, due to patterns of use-wear present on two of the artefacts we suggest that this was their most plausible hafted function.     

Introducing a new experimental design for controlled studies of flake formation: results for exterior platform angle,platform depth,angle of blow,velocity, and force

Potential variables that underlie variation in flake size, and in some instances shape, are investigated in a newly designed experiment. This new design, which utilizes glass cores molded to a specific shape, results in flakes that are identical to archaeological ones. Variation in exterior platform angle, platform depth and angle of blow all directly affect flake size, and in the case of exterior platform angle, flake shape as well (in spite of constant core surface morphology). In treating velocity and force independently, neither is found to affect flake size or shape. These results have implications for understanding different strategies that flintknappers may employ to control the size of their flake products.     

Measuring prehistoric mobility strategies based on obsidian geochemical and technological signatures in the Owens Valley,California

We compare the organization of obsidian flaked stone technologies in two different time periods at CA-INY-30, a village site in southern Owens Valley, eastern California. Previous archaeological studies suggest a reorganization in settlement patterns between the Newberry (ca. 3500–1500 BP) and Marana (ca. 650-contact) periods, from a highly mobile to a more residentially sedentary one. New geochemical data, based on laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses of obsidian artifacts associated with discrete house floors, support this basic settlement model, but reveal new detail in how people moved across the landscape and accessed, extracted, reduced and used obsidian resources. In the earlier Newberry period, there is no relationship between flake size and distance-to-source, and the falloff curve relating frequency of obsidian against distance is more gradual, as expected, but contrary to our expectations, source diversity is not higher. These factors suggest extremely high mobility, but also selective extraction of particular sources. Newberry obsidian may have been acquired by groups of hunters who embedded quarrying within long-distance trips to distant hunting grounds, and subsequently transported bifacial cores to base camps. By contrast, Marana patterns show strong relationships between flake size and distance from source and steeper fall-off curves, suggesting groups acquired their obsidian primarily from closer sources, likely via exchange networks. At the same time, geochemical diversity, especially among smaller resharpening flakes, is higher in the Marana period, highlighting the wide-ranging conveyance systems through which obsidian moved.     

Oldowan reduction sequences: methodological considerations

Transport of resources is a major feature of Oldowan hominin technological adaptations. Comparisons between different Oldowan localities often employ measures of transport that are based on artefact attributes as proxies for the intensity of raw material utilization. The Technological Flake Category system [Toth, N., 1985. Oldowan reassessed: a close look at early stone artifacts, Journal of Archaeological Science 12, pp. 101–120] has been used extensively to infer the relative intensity of lithic reduction within Oldowan assemblages. Here we use a large experimental sample to test the relationship between a flake's stage in a reduction sequence and various quantitative attributes. We demonstrate how many previously described attributes are affected by initial core size. We then develop a multiple linear regression model that incorporates several variables to predict the placement of a flake within a generalized reduction sequence. The model is then applied to Oldowan assemblages in the Koobi Fora Formation which explores the strengths and weaknesses of different methods of investigating reduction intensity on an assemblage level.     

Prepared core reduction at the site of Kudu Koppie in northern South Africa: temporal patterns across the Earlier and Middle Stone Age boundary

Kudu Koppie is a stratified late Earlier Stone Age and Middle Stone Age archaeological site located in the northern Limpopo Province of South Africa. The prepared core reduction strategies are described and temporal trends across the ESA–MSA boundary are presented. The prepared cores and endproducts of Kudu Koppie suggest that both the late ESA and MSA toolmakers employed the Levallois Volumetric Concept, but they often exploited a nodule's natural convexities and form. The MSA toolmakers used a greater variety of prepared core methods and more intensively exploited cryptocrystalline and microcrystalline nodules, the scarcity of which may have resulted in a more “formalized” application of the Levallois Volumetric Concept. These observations are considered within the context of human behavioural evolution.     

The relative effects of core surface morphology on flake shape and other attributes

It is long been thought that many flake attributes, including both size and shape, are largely due to the morphology of a core’s flaking surface, yet this has never been tested under strictly controlled conditions. Using molded glass cores with surface morphologies that highly resemble prehistoric ones, this experiment demonstrates that while core surface morphology does exhibit some influence on flake size and shape, a high degree of variation in flakes produced with the same core surface morphology shows that the effects of other independent variables, such as exterior platform angle and platform depth, have an even stronger effect. A major implication of these results is that current approaches to reconstruct prehistoric knapping strategies are overlooking significant sources of variation.     

Vein quartz in lithic traditions: an analysis based on experimental archaeology

Worldwide, vein quartz was a commonly used raw material for stone tools but this material has proved difficult for archaeologists to analyse because many quartz assemblages appear to be comprised of amorphous pieces, not easily recognised as humanly modified or forming ‘tools’. This paper discusses the analysis of the debitage – focusing on the debitage fragmentation rate, the debitage, break, and fragment types, and the quantitative analysis of the complete flakes – resulting from experimental knapping of quartz, which formed part of a project which investigated the use of quartz in Irish prehistoric lithic traditions. The results have highlighted the complexity involved in analysing quartz assemblages, and the significant differences between the debitage products of quartz and chert knapping assemblages. While bipolar knapping is generally easy to differentiate from direct percussion, it is harder to differentiate between soft and hard hammer percussion.