Search

This article presents the results of research carried out at two previously unreported Eastern Desert Atbara River project (EDAR) Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites—EDAR 134 and EDAR 155. Luminescence dating results indicate human activity in this area during the Marine Isotope Stage 5 period (MIS 5), approximately 90 kya. Discussion concerning the affiliation of both analyzed inventories will be provided, including another MSA site from the EDAR area, where an assemblage dated to MIS 6/5e does not have technological features known from other technocomplexes in the eastern Sahara region (EDAR 135). Microscopic analysis of traces of tool use for the EDAR 155 assemblage shows the high impact of post-depositional (aeolian) processes on the state of preservation of lithic material. Sites EDAR 134 and 155 provide evidence for hominin activity during the late Pleistocene within an area only episodically accessible, due to arid conditions prevailing in the Saharan deserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kiva is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Atacameños is the property of Estudios Atacamenos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburgian tradition reflects the earliest known human presence in northern Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum. We report here on the open-air site of Jels 3 (Denmark) and its associated stone tool assemblage, which can be unambiguously attributed to this period. Along with only a handful of other sites, Jels 3 represents the northernmost limits of human expansion in Europe at this time. We conduct a technological analysis of the lithic material from Jels 3 and other relevant sites to shed new light on the behavioral processes that likely underwrote this expansion. Given that sites dating to this initial dispersal remain few, are restricted to certain geographic regions, and represent an overall lack of a well-developed settlement hierarchy, we suggest that this dispersal process is most commensurable with the earlier stages of a leap-frogging colonization targeting specific landscape elements and that it was quite possibly very short-lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the analysis of a late Acheulean horizon from the EDAR 135 site, which was discovered in the Eastern Desert, Sudan, in an area heavily transformed by modern mining activity. A lithic assemblage was discovered there, within a layer of gravel sediments formed by a paleostream in a humid period of the Middle Pleistocene. This layer is OSL dated between 220 ± 12 and 145 ± 20 ka (MIS 7a/6). These dates indicate that the assemblage could be the youngest trace of the Acheulean in northeastern Africa. Technological analysis of the lithics reveals different core reduction strategies, including not only ad hoc ones based on multiplatform cores, but also discoidal and prepared cores. The use of prepared core reduction methods has already been confirmed at other Late Acheulean sites in Africa and the Middle East. Microwear traces observed on lithic artifacts could relate to on-site butchering activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archaeologia Baltica is the property of Archaeologia Baltica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archaeologia Baltica is the property of Archaeologia Baltica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Kiva is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ciencia y Sociedad is the property of Ciencia y Sociedad and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archaeologia Baltica is the property of Archaeologia Baltica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Études Inuit Studies is the property of Centre interuniversitaire d'etudes et de recherches autochtones (CIERA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Atacameños is the property of Estudios Atacamenos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

At the site of Steenbokfontein 9KR, virtually 80% of the lithic blanks presented retouch—an extreme proportion for Middle Stone Age assemblages. The high percentage of putative retouch led us to investigate whether post-depositional processes played a role in the preservation of the lithic assemblage. We designed and performed an experiment that reproduced all the archaeological conditions inferred from the site formation analyses to determine if the archaeological assemblage was trampled or retouched. We defined several qualitative attributes and studied both trampled and retouched experimental samples, and compared them to the archaeological material. We subsequently performed different statistical analyses and a correspondence analysis with all the macro qualitative attributes that we defined. We were then able to discern which attributes were the most eloquent variables and assess the usefulness of a multivariate analysis in discriminating between trampling and retouch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archaeologia Baltica is the property of Archaeologia Baltica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios Atacameños is the property of Estudios Atacamenos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Heat treatment of silicate toolstone was performed prehistorically, which we assume was to improve characteristics desired in flintknapping, such as increased brittleness and more predictable and controlled conchoidal fracture. However, despite research into heat treatment spanning 50 years, the mechanisms by which stone was improved, and the reasons why people did it, remain unclear. In this study, experiments were designed to test two potential outcomes of heat treatment for Pennsylvania jasper. First, does heating reduce the disruptive effect of macroscopic impurities and flaws on controlled flaking? Second, does heating increase the stone’s brittleness as suggested by Crabtree and Butler in 1964? Such physical alterations would improve the quality of lithic material but may not always occur in high quality stone. The results of these experiments are used to hypothesize the expected heat treatment outcomes sought after by prehistoric flintknappers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the Natufian lithic component at Hayonim, both in the cave and the terrace, numerous artifacts of pink/red color may be recognized. Cherts with similar appearance are not present in the geological environment surrounding the site in Northern Israel. Pink chert available in Jordan is shown to be of different nature. Thus this leaves us with the hypothesis of intentional heat treatment of locally available iron-rich yellow chert, of Cenomanian age. Based on experimental replication of chert firing and SEM analysis, we argue that a well-mastered and controlled use of fire was practiced by some skilled craftsmen at Hayonim throughtout the Late Epipalaeolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Badger Springs site (AZ D:5:13; NA10924) is a late Paleoindian occupation located on the Kaibito Plateau in northeastern Arizona, just northwest of Black Mesa. The site was discovered and surface-collected in the 1970s. Quantitative analyses conducted as part of this research revealed that the Badger Springs projectile points are morphologically consistent with projectile points of the Angostura type. Previous archaeological investigations have failed to identify late Paleoindian campsites, especially Angostura occupations, on the southwestern Colorado Plateau. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we present a morphological analysis of projectile points from the Badger Springs site in northeastern Arizona using quantitative methods developed by Pitblado [Pitblado, Bonnie L. 2007 Angostura, Jimmy Allen, Foothills-Mountain: Clarifying Terminology for Late Paleoindian Southern Rocky Mountain Spear Points. In Frontiers in Colorado Paleoindian Archaeology, edited by R. H. Brunswig and B. L. Pitblado. University Press of Colorado, Boulder] to determine point type and, therefore, probable adaptive strategy. Second, we discuss the implications of the presence of a late Paleoindian Angostura occupation on the southwestern Colorado Plateau and the Badger Springs assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Kiva is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The organization of production and exchange of everyday lithic items is important in defining Classic period lowland Maya economic organization, but the current debate relies on the study of a few lithic workshops, whereas little is known about the consumers' quotidian acquisition of everyday tools. I suggest looking at the problem from the point of view of the household and distinguishing local from nonlocal production by comparing experimental and quantitative data. Examination of the chert collections from households at Rio Bee and Calakmul enabled me to distinguish two different types of chert biface production and distribution during the Late Classic period (A.D. 650-800), namely by means of markets and itinerant craftsmen. Both sites had very different political organizations, but households from both cities acquired lithics through similar networks, showing that this particular aspect of the domestic economy probably had little to do with political power and centralization in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina is the property of Museu de Prehistoria de Valencia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina is the property of Museu de Prehistoria de Valencia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina is the property of Museu de Prehistoria de Valencia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Temas de Historia Argentina y Americana is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present thesis focused on the study of the prehistoric populations that occupied the region of Diamantina, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in chronological horizons established as Old (Pleistocene / Lower Holocene) and Recent (Upper Holocene). Based on horizons of occupations separated by a minimum time gap of 6.000 years, this study proposed to analyze diachronically the management of the lithic material in three archeological sites of this region, regarding its interface with specific elements recognized in the area, in order to advance in the comprehension of the interaction of these diachronic populations with the landscape and their perceptions about raw materials, and to identify potential changes reflected in the lithic industries and their meanings. To this purpose, we use a theoretical-methodological framework derived from lithic technology studies, and from interdisciplinary processes that relate Archeology and some specialties of Geosciences in two of its main segments: Landscape Archeology and Geoarchaeology. Research findings of the diachronic analysis of the management of the main raw materials, hyaline quartz and quartzite, as well as of the other raw materials observed in the archaeological sites in interface with the landscape and the territories - understood from the characterization of the space - pointed out similar and dissimilar elements in the comparison of the horizons analyzed, which gave rise to interpretations of the management of the raw materials, of the operative chains and technological organization, and of the function of the archaeological sites. In addition, the results allowed, opportunely, to improve the understanding of potential elements in the landscape that could have contributed to the choice of the sites analyzed, as well as the possible predilection of the prehistoric occupations in the geological formation Galho do Miguel. Finally, in exploring the relationships between the archaeological sites, their lithic industries and the space in which they are located, we provided contributions to the knowledge on the populations that occupied the Old and Recent horizons in the region of Diamantina, and to the development of knowledge about the prehistory of Serra do Espinhaço. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This dissertation presents the results of a study on the technological variability of the lithic industries from a set of Solutrean sites located along the coastal strip that connects the region of the Spanish Levante and the Portuguese Estremadura. Previous studies have pointed out that this would be a relatively wide cultural territory, defined by the presence of symbolic markers (arrowheads and ornaments), shared through contact networks over long distances, as evidences of a common ethnic identity. The aim of this study was precisely to test the degree of relationship between the various regions in order to better define the influence and operating mode of those contact networks. This goal could only be accomplished through the analysis of the basic elements of the adaptive system of these communities, in this case the technological organization of the lithic industries. Thus, through the analysis of a broad range of technological attributes and their comparison with the use of multivariate statistical methods, some similarities and dissimilarities between the contexts were identified which showed that: (1) when present, the similarity across regions is mostly visible in the size and type of the lithic blanks produced and, very rarely, in the specific technological attributes of their production; (2) some of these associations are supported by a solid chronometric framework, which shows on one hand, that the industries that are similar from a typological point of view are contemporary and, secondly, that the traditional subdivision of the Mediterranean Solutrean in phases cannot be proven with the currently available data. From a paleoanthropological standpoint, the results obtained show that the human adaptive system to the Last Glacial Maximum worked at two different, but complementary, scales. One that is essentially local, formed by several, well established eco-cultural niches, where communities have shared, and maintained in the form of cultural traditions, techno-economic schemes that are best adapted to the particularities of the respective ecological contexts. The other, suprarregional, related mainly with broad geographical social ties, maintained as an extra factor of the adaptive response to the impact of climate and landscape modifications, and functioning through sharing behaviors of stylistic concepts and typological elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand how quartzite was managed during the Upper Paleolithic in the Atlantic Iberia, especially in its Southwestern sector. Estremadura, Alentejo and Algarve were the regions considered. Lithic sets were studied by attribute analyzes and Refitting. Results were compared not only with existing models for the exploitation of this raw materials, but also with previous ones related to the behavior of hunter-gatherer communities in the time and the territory concerned. It was concluded that, given the physical characteristics of the Iberian Peninsula and the demographic pressure from Neanderthal populations occupying the Southwest, the new comers groups of Anatomically Modern Humans had the need to change their technological tradition from an essentially flint-based one to other based on local raw materials. This change was possible given the extensive knowledge that these people had from the surrounding territory. The success of this abiotic ethology allowed it to remain until the Iron age. In this context, quartzite was a key pillar, with unique strategies of exploitation, including that for its transport on the landscape. Its physical characteristics did not, however, conditioned these patterns since there was a significant chronological variation not only when compared with previous periods, but also between the pre, pleni and post-Last Glacial Maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This doctoral thesis focuses on the study of the technological aspects of stone artifacts and is based on the analysis of archeological evidence from two "conchíferos" camps: Tapera and Base Aérea, located on the island of Santa Catarina, along Santa Catarina's coast line, Brazil. To begin with the aspects related to a Holocene lithic set of artifacts belonging to sites dating around 1140 AP and 550 AP, associated with the second and third settlements who populated the Santa Catarina's region, are examined. The Tapera and Base Aérea sites were excavated by Father João Alfredo Rohr between 1958 and 1966, and the remains analyzed here are under the auspices of the Father João Alfredo Rohr" S.J's Museum of the man of the Sambaqui (Museum Homem do Sambaqui) in the "Catarinense" College, Santa Catarina's Island. As pottery fragments were the main source of evidence, the Tapera site was associated with Taquara - Itararé and Guarani traditions, while the site Base Aérea, for which pottery fragments were also used as a reference, was associated with the Taquara - Itararé tradition. The selection of these archaeological sites was based on the representativeness of the Tapera site as one characterized as "conchífero" camp, as well as its vast sampling of lithic artifacts, and its possible link to the Base Aérea site, whose territorial proximity and material correlation, a priori, could generate a rich comparative analysis. In total 3557 lithic artifacts in the archaeological site Tapera and 303 in the archaeological site Base Aérea were examined. The conceptual tool used to evaluate the analysis of the lithic set was that of "chaîne opératoire", especially when considering macroscopic analysis approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]