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This paper presents novel models for the Integrated Procurement and Lot-Sizing Problem with multiple customers and backlogging. Since allowing backlog in a traditional cost minimisation model involves dealing with intangible costs of not fulfilling the demand on time, we propose optimising service-levels while keeping the costs minimal using a budget constraint. The motivation of this study emanates from a manufacturing company that assembles commercial and industrial refrigeration equipment, using both purchased materials and in-house products. Instead of considering an aggregate demand, we consider the specific demand from various customers. This allows us to incorporate demand fulfilment decisions into the model in case of stock-outs by deciding which customers will have their orders backlogged. The fill-rate, or β service-level, is considered both globally and for customers and products individually. Computational experiments show that the service-level-driven models improve service when compared to the traditional cost model and also end up enforcing service equity among different customers at the expense of a deterioration in the global fill-rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeologists can use the provenance of lithic raw materials to examine the movements, territories, and settlement dynamics of hunter-gatherers. Several studies have used macroscopic analyses to propose the long-distance transport of raw material during the Gravettian and the Magdalenian of the Swabian Jura in Central Europe. Until now hypotheses about raw material transport in this region were not based on reproducible analyses. This study aims to test some of the hypotheses about the origins of lithic raw materials during the Gravettian and Magdalenian, using infrared spectroscopic measurements. These analyses are based on differences and similarities in the mineralogy and crystallography of rocks. Using this method, we test for long-distance raw-material transport between the sites of the Swabian Jura and the Freiburg basin, 200 km to the south-west, and the region of the Altmühl Valley, 150 km to the north-east. For this, we created a reference database of 114 lithic raw material outcrops from Southern Germany and compared these specimens with artifacts from eleven archeological sites. Our study reconstructs the raw-material procurement and transport during the Gravettian and Magdalenian and reveals settlement patterns and territories that span over more than 300 km in Central Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of the Neolithic way of life triggered the most profound changes in peoples’ socioeconomic behaviors, including how critical resources for everyday life were managed. Recent research spearheaded by ancient DNA analysis has greatly contributed to our understanding of the main direction of Neolithisation spreading from western Anatolia into central Europe. Due to the diverse processes involved in Neolithisation, which resulted in a high diversity of regional and local phenomena, the underlying mechanisms of these developments are still largely unexplored. One of these mechanisms is economic behavior and resource management. Neolithic economic behavior is the result of social processes involving the physical actions of the procurement, processing, use, discard, and distribution of raw materials as well as finished products for utilitarian needs and to create and maintain social relations. Within this continuum, the key for tracing meaningful behavioral patterns is the identification of raw material procurement. Since stone tools are among the most ubiquitous and stable finds at Neolithic sites, they are ideally suited for this endeavor. Here, we present the results of a case study from the Neolithic site of Çukuriçi Höyük in western Anatolia tracing lithic raw material procurement. We employ a novel approach using geochemical provenance analyses coupled with quantitative technological and econometric methods. The key finding of this diachronic study covering almost 700 years revealed patterns of socioeconomic dynamics undetectable through conventional analytical approaches. We demonstrate that technological concepts fluctuate over time and are subject to innovations, whereas raw material procurement remains a stable element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavations at Ashdod‐Yam exposed a fortification system that features a massive mudbrick wall with large earthen ramparts laid on either side. This fortified horseshoe‐shaped enclosure once surrounded what was likely a human‐made harbor and an adjacent acropolis with complex earthen architecture, constructed and active during Iron Age IIB–C (eighth–seventh centuries B.C.E.). These Iron Age public structures are at the center of the current research. In this paper, we present the geoarchaeological analyses of Ashdod‐Yam's earthen architecture. We applied a multidisciplinary methodology to new evidence for mudbrick manufacture with the goal of understanding the relationship between governing bodies and craftsmen. The analyses combine X‐ray fluorescence, loss on ignition, environmental scanning electron microscopy, and thin‐section petrography to investigate raw material procurement, manufacturing choices, and labor organization at Ashdod‐Yam during Iron IIB–C. Construction techniques and the standardization of the mudbrick recipe point to a local enterprise regarding the site's public earthen architecture. Furthermore, the degree of labor organization must have been closely observed and supervised by a central political power. Thus, it is argued here that construction and maintenance of the site was carried out by the kingdom of Ashdod, either as a part of its own local initiative or on behalf of the Neo‐Assyrian empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Upper Palaeolithic Solutrean culture that coincided with the last glacial maximum has become famous for documenting an increasing investment of time and effort in the production of tools. However, Solutrean lithic assemblages predominantly document local procurement of flint and only in rare cases, stones were transported over distances above 100 km. The perhaps most remarkable Solutrean artefacts are the large bifacial laurel-leaf points of Volgu. Some studies on the points suggested long-distance transport, proposing multiple raw material locations in the > 170 km distant Paris Basin. These findings were not based on physical or chemical measurements but rather on evaluations of macro- and microscopically visible features at the surface of the flint. In this study, we aim to verify previously made propositions on the Volgu points’ origin with an archaeometric technique. For this, we apply reflectance infrared spectroscopy, a method that relies on identifying differences in the crystallographic properties of flint. We compare eight of the Volgu laurel-leaf points with five regions of Upper Cretaceous flint deposits in France and Belgium. We found that the Volgu points’ flint is most similar to flint from the south-eastern Paris Basin in terms of its crystallography (identifying a region between 170 and 250 km from Volgu). Our findings provide a reproducible line of evidence for the long-distance procurement of flint to produce exceptional artefacts in the Solutrean. Our study is the first application of this method to flint sourcing in a European context. It has therefore also implications for future provenance studies on other archaeological sites in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kammern-Grubgraben is among the few stratified Upper Palaeolithic sites in Central Europe dating to the Last Glacial Maximum which provided not only substantial amounts of archaeological materials but also extensive preserved occupational structures. Although the site has been known since the last quarter of the 19th century, systematic excavations didn't start until the 1980's. These were carried out subsequently by two different teams providing partly incongruent observations and interpretations. Renewed field investigations commenced in 2015 and aim at reassessing stratigraphy and chronology, settlement structures and occupational sequence, as well as mobility and economy. First results provide a robust multi-method chrono-stratigraphic bracket for occupation between Greenland Stadials GS-3 and GS-2.1. Artefact technology and typology point at supra-regional contacts to both the west and east on a more general scale while a high degree of mobility is specifically demonstrated for the hunter-gatherer groups occupying the site by displaying procurement patterns for various raw materials targeting not only local, but also regional and far-distance sources. Furthermore, the new investigations have been able to almost double the previously established site extent, and targeted excavations show that the diversity and complexity of stone constructions considerably exceeds what has previously been observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raw material characterization in Paleolithic archaeology has widened our knowledge of Middle Paleolithic societies. Procurement of raw material, specifically flint, has allowed the tracing of the mobility of both stones and people, as well as selective processes to obtain specific types or even extraction activities. The analysis of quartzite has also developed in recent years, providing an opportunity to better understand prehistoric societies. This study characterizes the procurement strategies implemented by Middle Paleolithic people in the mountainous region of the Picos de Europa. To this end, we present a comprehensive characterization of potential catchment areas: massive outcrops, conglomerates, and river deposits. The exploitation of quartzite at the sites of El Habario and El Arteu allows us to understand the territorial management of this mountainous area through the combination of selective processes and mobility mechanisms in lower and middle altitudes. These perspectives enable us to view the mountainous region not as a barrier but as an environmental mosaic managed by Middle Paleolithic groups. This study shows strategies that bring together direct and embedded procurement based on both intensive and extensive searches. These discourses are more closely related to the daily life of people than those only considering the mobility of people and objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent archaeological work at the Neolithic site of Hacı Hüseyin (also Hüsrev), located in the southern part of the Gelibolu (Gallipoli) peninsula, reveals clear evidence of the presence of a Neolithic settlement that played an important role on the Neolithization of the Thrace region. Discovered during a systematic field survey in the autumn of 2007, Hacı Hüseyin höyük is one of four important Neolithic sites on the Gelibolu Peninsula. Owing to earlier destruction by modern buildings and highway construction along the coast there may originally have been more than these four Neolithic sites in the region. Today the Neolithic settlement of Hacı Hüseyin has the form of a nearly flat settlement divided into two by the road to the village of Bigalı. The intensive fieldwork projects on the peninsula were focused mainly on pre-Neolithic and Neolithic settlements and were undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geologists. A large number of lithics were collected during 2007–2011 field surveys. This paper presents the preliminary results of a techno-typological analysis of the lithic assemblages from the site.

Quartzite was the second most‐often used lithic raw material in Europe in the Palaeolithic. However, this rock has not been characterized fully from the geo‐archaeological point of view. This study characterizes, defines and determines types of quartzite in northern Spain through a methodology that integrates petrography, digital image processing and X‐ray fluorescence. As a methodological foundation for the characterization of the material, it aims to open the possibility of discovering mechanisms of mobility, selection and management of quartzite by prehistoric societies. The types determined, based on the petrogenesis of the material, enable a better understanding of the archaeological sites of El Arteu and El Habario in the context of northern Spain in the Middle Palaeolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Jointly optimizes procurement, production and shipping decisions for a two-stage closed-loop supply chain system. • Presents two mathematical models for two different raw material (RM) replenishment strategies. • Proposes an efficient iterative search algorithm that guarantees convergence to near optimal solutions. • The Incorporation of RM replenishment strategy greatly impacts production sequencing, lot sizing and shipping decisions. Abstract This paper seeks to jointly optimize the raw material (RM) procurement and shipping decisions as well as those pertaining to the lot sizing and the production sequencing of manufactured and remanufactured products for a centralized two stage closed loop supply chain, wherein the vendor and the buyer operate under consignment stock partnership. Most of the existing closed loop models have overlooked the tradeoffs involved in optimizing RM replenishment strategy in conjunction with the production sequence, and assumed the predetermined sequence of (R, P) where R remanufactured batches are produced first followed by P manufactured batches as this sequence prioritizes the clearance of the accumulated inventory of returned items. As such, we jointly optimize the aforementioned interrelated decisions, alongside others as well, under two RM replenishment strategies; multi-to-one (MTO) and one-to-multi (OTM) where a mathematical model is developed for each strategy. In essence, this work seeks to assess what impact would the incorporation of RM procurement decisions have on the shipping and production policy downstream. Extensive computational experiments, carried out under different settings of the problem parameters, indicate that accounting for RM procurement strategy greatly impacts not only the production sequence, but extends to include the lot sizing and shipping decisions as well. Furthermore, the computational study suggests that it is economically advantageous to synchronize RM orders such that they take place right at the time needed for the production of newly manufactured products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent archaeological work at the Neolithic site of Hacı Hüseyin (also Hüsrev), located in the southern part of the Gelibolu (Gallipoli) peninsula, reveals clear evidence of the presence of a Neolithic settlement that played an important role on the Neolithization of the Thrace region. Discovered during a systematic field survey in the autumn of 2007, Hacı Hüseyin höyük is one of four important Neolithic sites on the Gelibolu Peninsula. Owing to earlier destruction by modern buildings and highway construction along the coast there may originally have been more than these four Neolithic sites in the region. Today the Neolithic settlement of Hacı Hüseyin has the form of a nearly flat settlement divided into two by the road to the village of Bigalı. The intensive fieldwork projects on the peninsula were focused mainly on pre-Neolithic and Neolithic settlements and were undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and geologists. A large number of lithics were collected during 2007-2011 field surveys. This paper presents the preliminary results of a techno-typological analysis of the lithic assemblages from the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic re-evaluation of Brantingham's ( American Antiquity, 68(3), 487-509, 2003) neutral model of raw material procurement. I demonstrate that, in its original form, the model is ill-suited to the identification of archaeologically visible patterns, as it can only simulate processes governing the composition of toolkits and these differ substantially from those influencing the composition of discard records. I discuss and implement a series of modifications, and provide a detailed analysis of discard records produced under revised model definitions. On this basis, I argue that qualitative similarities in patterns generated by the neutral model and those evidenced in archaeological contexts cannot be used to prove, or disprove, the adaptive or functional significance of raw material variability (cf. Brantingham 2003). However, I show that the revised model can be used to detect deviations from neutral expectations quantitatively and within well-defined error ranges. I outline a new set of predictions for what archaeological variability should look like under the simplest procurement, transport, and discard behaviors, and argue that deviations from each of these may be traceable to specific behavioral domains (e.g., biased mobility, raw material selectivity). I also demonstrate that (a) archaeological sites or assemblages do not offer an adequate proxy for the average composition of ancient forager toolkits; (b) assemblage richness is, by itself, a very poor predictor of occupational histories; and (c) that the common practice of calculating expected frequencies from distances to sources is flawed, regardless of how such distances are measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilises geochemical provenancing of silcrete raw materials, in combination with chaîne opératoire analyses, to explore lithic procurement and behavioural patterns in the northern Kalahari Desert during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). New data from the sites of Rhino Cave, Corner Cave, and ≠Gi in northwest Botswana, combined with earlier results from White Paintings Shelter, reveal that the long distance transport of silcrete for stone tool manufacture was a repeated and extensively used behaviour in this region. Silcrete was imported over distances of up to 295 km to all four sites, from locations along the Boteti River and around Lake Ngami. Significantly, closer known sources of silcrete of equivalent quality were largely bypassed. Silcrete artefacts were transported at various stages of production (as partially and fully prepared cores, blanks, and finished tools) and, with the exception of ≠Gi, in large volumes. The import occurred despite the abundance of locally available raw materials, which were also used to manufacture the same tool types. On the basis of regional palaeoenvironmental data, the timing of the majority of silcrete import from the Boteti River and Lake Ngami is constrained to regionally drier periods of the MSA. The results of our investigation challenge key assumptions underlying predictive models of human mobility that use distance-decay curves and drop-off rates. Middle Stone Age peoples in the Kalahari appear to have been more mobile than anticipated, and repeatedly made costly choices with regard to both raw material selection and items to be transported. We conclude that (i) base transport cost has been overemphasised as a restrictive factor in predictive models, and (ii) factors such as source availability and preference, raw material quality, and potential sociocultural influences significantly shaped prehistoric landscape use choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 1980s, the sourcing of lithic raw materials has become central to studies of the territorial range and mobility strategies of Pleistocene foraging societies. Results have been fruitful but somehow repetitive. We will discuss the embedded procurement strategy, which presumes that raw material acquisition was part of other subsistence activities rather than an autonomous technological task. We argue that this theoretical assumption, when taken as dogma, restricts the role of technology in human history and also underestimates the way some lithic resources may have affected the organization of past hunter-gatherers. We base our discussion on the Upper Paleolithic (UP) from the Liguro-Provençal arc, with examples from the Proto-Aurignacian and the Epigravettian. Our regional record shows that in this context the movement of rocks over distances greater than 100 km was the norm rather than the exception. We argue that these long-distance procurements mirror technical needs that were oriented toward the selection of high-quality flints. We support the hypothesis that indirect procurement was an important component of regional socio-economic networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of the distance over which lithic raw materials were transported for use in stone tool production provide important insights into early human mobility through prehistoric landscapes. This study combines the use of geochemical provenancing, chaîne opératoire analysis and geochronology to examine patterns of lithic raw material procurement at five single-use open-air Middle Stone Age (MSA) archaeological sites in Ntwetwe Pan, part of the Makgadikgadi Pans complex in north-central Botswana. Maximum ages of the five sites ranged from 106 ± 3 to 69 ± 7 ka, with site formation thought to have occurred before and after a lake high stand dated to c. 72-57 ka. Tool manufacture at all sites was largely confined to the production of MSA points, with silcrete used exclusively as the raw material. Geochemical provenancing investigations aimed to identify the specific silcrete outcrops used as lithic raw material sources. Analysis of contemporary pan floor deposits show that sediment (and hence silcrete) geochemistry in Ntwetwe is determined by the proportional sediment input into the pan from fluvial systems with different catchment geologies. Immobile trace element signatures for 46 waste manufacturing flakes were compared against equivalent data for 321 silcrete samples collected at outcrops within and beyond Ntwetwe Pan. Waste flakes were chosen to be representative of the main silcrete raw material types present within the artefact assemblage at each site. Fifteen waste flakes were shown to match specific outcrops on the basis of their geochemical signatures and petrographic properties; all matching outcrops were within Ntwetwe Pan, at distances ranging from 7 to 55 km from individual sites. Multi-site analysis of procurement patterns identifies common silcrete source areas, revealing a preference for silcrete from particular locations within Ntwetwe Pan. Given that the five archaeological sites were likely occupied at different times, this resource preference may have been a longer-term behavioural feature of MSA populations in the Ntwetwe region. The distances over which silcrete was transported in Ntwetwe Pan are smaller than identified in investigations at similar-aged MSA sites in northwest Botswana. The reasons for the different silcrete procurement ranges in the two regions are likely related to silcrete availability and/or raw material preference, but this requires further investigation. • Silcrete artefacts from 5 open-air MSA sites in Ntwetwe Pan are matched against potential source outcrops using immobile trace element signatures. • Procurement sites are identified at distances ranging from 7–55 km from individual MSA sites, suggesting local raw material acquisition. • Common silcrete source areas are identified, suggesting a preference for silcrete from particular locations by MSA populations. • Combined geochemical and chaîne opératoire analyses confirm that silcrete transport from specific outcrops was an inherent feature of MSA tool production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method was proposed to determine the proportion between long-term and short-term procurement for raw material based on similar case analysis. Firstly， the current problems of determining the proportion between long-term and short-term procurement are regarded as the target case， and some collected problems of proportion determination and the adopted procurement proportion programs in history are taken as the historical cases. Then， the similar historical cases are extracted by calculating the similarities between the target case and the historical cases. Furthermore， the utility of implementation effects for the procurement proportion program with regard to each similar historical case is calculated， and the better similar historical cases are screened by setting the utility threshold. On this basis， the current proportion program can be determined according to the screened similar historical cases. Finally， an empirical analysis is given to illustrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological assemblages are fundamentally records of discard behavior. Lewis Binford’s pioneering ethnoarchaeological research focused attention on the differing pathways that lead to artifacts being abandoned in different locations on the landscape. Recurring relationships between artifact density and assemblage content at Middle and Upper Paleolithic sites reflect simple behavioral dynamics pertaining to artifact production and discard. In the very long archaeological sequence from A. Jelinek’s excavations at Tabun Cave, Mousterian assemblages show the expected pattern, but earlier Acheulean, Amudian and Yabrudian assemblages do not. In combination with evidence that different classes of artifacts were discarded at different rates, these results suggest that land use and raw material provisioning in the later Middle Pleistocene were organized differently than they were among later populations of Neanderthals and modern humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the evidence of a recently excavated, sealed site, situated at Ruien “Rosalinde” in the Belgian Scheldt valley, the response of hunter-gatherers to changing climate at the transition from the temperate Allerød to the cold Younger Dryas is discussed. Radiocarbon dated to the end of the Allerød or the very beginning of the Younger Dryas, the site of Ruien provides the earliest evidence of a refined lithic technology characterized by the use of a soft stone hammer and the production of straight and regular blade(let)s from intensively prepared cores with two opposite platforms and sharp striking angles. In the course of the Younger Dryas and Early Pre-boreal this knapping method will become standard all over Europe, from the Tanged Point Technocomplex in the North to the (Epi)Laborian in the South. It contrasts sharply with the knapping style of previous lithic traditions, such as the late Federmesser/Azilian and Bromme Technocomplexes, which was much less elaborated and mainly oriented towards the knapping of short irregular blades with a hard stone hammer. This apparently abrupt technological change was also accompanied by increased raw material procurement networks, extending over up to 250 km, and a marked microlithisation of the hunting equipment. Finally, the site of Ruien is also important as it demonstrates the limited archaeological visibility of Younger Dryas sites, explaining the scarcity of such sites within western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature on global commodity chains (GCCs) the organization of global clothing production has been largely described as a production system of a buyer-driven governance structure. However, despite the fact that buyer-driven commodity chains have been described as relatively loose and short-term, the commitment of buyers towards their individual producers can vary significantly. This largely depends on the way in which buyers are linked to their external production networks by intermediaries such as representative offices or agents. The integration of these intermediaries has a high potential to influence the ways in which the required raw materials inputs are procured and the individual production processes are organised. In addition, the analysis of labor relations and labor recruitment has been largely ignored in previous studies on GCCs. However, cultural and historic setting have a strong influence how intermediaries organize labor recruitment. Therefore, this paper aims to unravel the role of intermediaries on clothing production in terms of raw material procurement, industrial upgrading and labor recruitment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Petrochemical industry is one of the major sectors contributing to the world-wide economy and the digital transformation is urgent to enhance core competence. In general, ethylene, propylene and butadiene, which are associated with synthetic chemicals, are the main raw materials of this industry with around 70–80% cost structure. In particular, butadiene is one of the key materials for producing synthetic rubber and used for several daily commodities. However, the price of butadiene fluctuates along with the demand–supply mismatch or by the international economy and political events. This study proposes two-stage data science framework to predict the weekly price of butadiene and optimize the procurement decision. The first stage suggests several the price prediction models with a comprehensive information including contract price, supply rate, demand rate, and upstream and downstream information. The second stage applies the analytic hierarchy process and reinforcement learning technique to derive an optimal policy of procurement decision and reduce the total procurement cost. An empirical study is conducted to validate the proposed framework, and the results improve the accuracy of price forecasts and the procurement cost reduction of the raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Norse Greenlanders were dependent on wood for making houses, boats, utensils, tools and as fuel. Due to Greenland's northerly latitude and short, cool summers, the local woody taxa include relatively few species, most of which are low-growing shrubs. Consequently, it has been argued that import of timber was necessary to meet the wood requirements of the Norse Greenlanders. The taxa of archaeological wood assemblages from five Norse sites in Greenland, the episcopal manor Garðar/Igaliku (Ø47) , Tatsip Ataa Killeq (Ø172) , Tasilikulooq (Ø171) , Narsaq (Ø17a) and Gården under Sandet (GUS) were analysed to determine whether the wood was native, import or driftwood. This paper demonstrates that farmers in Greenland used mainly driftwood and native wood, while high-status sites like Igaliku had access to sporadic timber imports from mainland Europe and North America. Furthermore, the proportions of driftwood taxa from the Norse settlements are more or less the same as of Inuit and pre-Inuit cultures in Greenland and the Smith Sound. These results suggest that the Norse Greenlanders were not reliant on imported wood but were in fact mostly self-sufficient in regard to their timber resources. • Wood was used for various vital purposes like house construction, transport, for furniture, tools and household items. • Wood taxa analysis has proven to be a successful method to provenance wood in archaeological wood assemblages in the North Atlantic. • The native woodland was an important resource at the middle-sized farms, while at the a higher status farm, the proportions are far lower. • The Norse Greenlanders relied primarily on driftwood and native woodland. • Import of timber to Norse Greenland did not have a major impact on the wood procurement strategy as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the ways Paleolithic foragers exploited raw material sources are linked to mobility, the demands of production, and investment in quarrying. Here, we analyze the use of raw materials in a long series of superimposed layers from Tabun Cave dating to the Middle Pleistocene, attributed to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic periods. Using the cortex preserved on the surfaces of artifacts, including blanks, tools and cores, we distinguished between flints obtained from primary and secondary geological contexts. The results from Tabun Cave indicate that the exploitation of secondary sources was fairly common during the earlier part of the Lower Paleolithic sequence. It decreased during the later part of the Acheulo-Yabrudian complex of the Lower Paleolithic, coinciding with growing use of predetermined technological strategies, which demand high-quality raw materials. By the Middle Paleolithic, primary and secondary raw materials are generally designated for different reduction trajectories, suggesting a growing distinction and formalization of technological strategies. The need for the 'best' stone for Middle Paleolithic laminar and Levallois production may have necessitated increased investment in raw material procurement. During most of the Lower Paleolithic, raw material needs could have been met easily through a purely embedded strategy, in which raw material was collected while focusing on other activities. Starting in the late Acheulo-Yabrudian and especially during the Middle Paleolithic, the focus on primary geological contexts may have demanded greater planning of visits to raw material outcrops. In other words, in the Middle Paleolithic and possibly already during the very end of the Lower Paleolithic, raw material procurement had greater influence on patterns of movement through the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Harald Floss surveys the evolution of the supply strategies for raw minerals in the Rhineland Late Glacial (Germany). In this perspective, following the presentation of the various Rhine valley raw materials and their use throughout the Palaeolithic, the author compares the lithic industries of the Magdalenian, the Federmesser (Azilian) groups, and the Arhensburgian. First, the different ways in which raw materials were acquired and transported are examined. Then, the evolution of raw material procurement processes is interpreted in terms of changes in mobility patterns by reference to L. Binford's model. Lastly, the author proposes explaining the changes in mobility patterns in relation to the climate and environmental modifications characterising the Late Glacial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]