Lithic Analysis

Considerations of materiality and object-oriented approaches have greatly influenced the development of archaeological theory in recent years. Yet, Palaeolithic archaeology has been slow in incorporating this emerging body of scholarship and exploring its bearing on the human deep past. This paper probes into the potential of materiality theory to clarify the material dynamics of the Plio-Pleistocene and seeks to re-articulate the debate on the evolution of our species with materiality discourses in archaeology and the humanities more broadly. We argue that the signature temporalities and geospatial scales of observation provided by the Palaeolithic record offer unique opportunities to examine the active role of material things, objects, artefacts and technologies in the emergence, stabilisation and transformation of hominin lifeworlds and the accretion of long-term trajectories of material culture change. We map three axes of human-thing relations-ecological, technical and evolutionary-and deploy a range of case studies from the literature to show that a critical re-assessment of material agency not only discloses novel insights and questions, but can also refine what we already know about the human deep past. Our exploration underscores the benefits of de-centring human behaviour and intentionality and demonstrates that materiality lends itself as a productive nexus of exchange and mutual inspiration for diverging schools and research interests in Palaeolithic archaeology. An integrated object-oriented perspective calls attention to the human condition as a product of millennial-scale human-thing co-adaptation, in the course of which hominins, artefacts and technologies continuously influenced and co-created each other.

This paper presents a discussion of Late and Final Gravettian assemblages from Western Slovakia and Moravia (25,500/24,000 – 22,000 uncal BP). Shouldered points and Kostienki knives have historically been widely used as fossiles directeurs for these assemblages and have been seen as the most reliable features for cultural attri-bution. Nevertheless, recent studies of lithics, osseous artifacts (from bone, antler and ivory) and subsistence strategies demonstrate significant variability. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the heterogeneity of the “post-Pavlovian” sites, based on studies of selected localities, namely Milovice I, Petˇrkovice I, Moravany-Lopata II, Moravany-ˇZakovsk ́a and Trenˇcianske Bohuslavice-Pod Tureckom. Additionally, we propose a description of artifacts which might become new lithic fossiles directeurs (Petˇrkovice bi-truncated elements). Finally, we discuss the effectiveness of traditional fossiles directeurs in the description of this period and in studying analogies with Eastern Europe

This paper describes the results of the surveys carried out along Ras Muari (Cape Monze, Karachi, Sindh) by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Lower Sindh and Las Bela in 2013 and 2014. The surveyed area coincides with part of the mythical land of the Ichthyophagoi, mentioned by the classical chroniclers. Many archaeological sites, mainly scatters and spots of fragmented marine and mangrove shells, were discovered and AMS dated along the northern part of the cape facing the Hab River mouth. The surveys have shown that fisher and shell gatherer communities temporarily settled in different parts of the headland. They began to exploit the sea resources during the Neolithic. However, the most important discovery consists of a unique fishers’ settlement with rectangular stone-walled structures located on a limestone terrace near Sonari (SNR-I), the first ever found along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea. The AMS dates show that it was settled mainly during the first half of the third millennium cal BC when the Indus Civilisation flourished in the area. Considering the importance of the discovery, all the material culture remains from the Sonari sites have been described and analysed in detail and, whenever possible, framed into the different phases of environmental changes and human adaptation to the coastal environment that have been interpreted thanks to a good series of AMS dates from marine and mangrove shells.

Bladelets are a common Upper Palaeolithic technological category, often described as a proxy for the Early Upper Palaeolithic. However, bladelet production has already been documented within preceding Initial Upper Palaeolithic techno-complexes, e.g. at Boker Tachtit (Negev Desert, Israel) and Kara-Bom (Altai Republic, Russian Federation). Only isolated bladelets have
been reported from the Central European Bohunician. However, a recently discovered and excavated site, Ořechov IV – Kabáty has yielded a large series (over 1,000 items) of micro-blades and bladelets, documenting a higher degree of technological heterogeneity of the Bohunician techno-complex than previously thought.

Was Sie in diesem essential finden können:
• eine kompakte Übersicht verschiedener Methoden zur Analyse von Steinartefakten
• gut verständliche Erklärungen zur Vorgehensweise
• präzise Begriffserläuterungen und Definitionen
• eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit Vor- und Nachteilen des jeweiligen methodischen Ansatzes
• weiterführende Literatur, falls eine Vertiefung in die Thematik bzw. in Teilaspekte erwünscht ist

The Tiwai Point site in Bluff Harbour, Murihiku (Southland) was occupied early in the first century of New Zealand settlement (∼1300 AD). The site was the largest production center of Bluff argillite adzes that supplied settlements up to 500 km distant. This tough recrystalized mudstone was obtained from sources throughout Bluff Harbour and it presented new opportunities and challenges to pioneering Polynesian adze makers. Although suitable for producing Polynesian adze forms, it is tougher than tropical Polynesian basalts and required the development of novel manufacturing techniques. To understand these technological innovations, we produced 155 3D models of Bluff argillite adzes, preforms and blanks from the 1968 Tiwai Point excavation to model adze manufacture using various forms of the raw material. We found a heavy reliance on hammer-dressing as a practical means of working an unusually tough material with variable grain-size anda high potential risk of breakage.

Aboriginal culturally modified trees are a distinctive feature of the Australian archaeological record, generating insights into Aboriginal interactions with wood and bark, which rarely survive in archaeological contexts. However, they are under-studied, in decline and typically presumed to pre-date the 20th century. Here we investigate the origin of a scar with a stone tool embedded in the scar overgrowth, located in the Central Tablelands, New South Wales, on Wiradjuri Country. We consider three datasets for this purpose: the tree and scar features; macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the embedded stone; and chronology and age of the tree and scar. The origin of the scar and its relationship with the stone tool are unclear. However, the results, together with documentary and oral evidence, suggest that Aboriginal people quarried the stone and probably used it as a wedge to lever bark from the tree, or to make a sign. The results provide a rare glimpse into the continuation of Aboriginal cultural practices and knowledge transmission in the second half of the 20th century.