scholarly journals From flint provenance to mobility studies: New raw material determinations from Late Neolithic wetland sites at Lake Biel and Lake Constance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jehanne Affolter ◽  
Lea Emmenegger ◽  
Albert Hafner ◽  
Caroline Heitz ◽  
Martin Hinz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Lake Constance ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Mobility Studies

Bone Industry from the Late Neolithic Site Hotnisa–Orlovka

Epohi ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hristina Markova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Bos Taurus ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Long Bones ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Domesticated Animals ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Neolithic Site

The worked bones from the Late Neolithic site Hotnitsa–Orlovka provide information about production and use of bone objects from Central North Bulgaria in this period. The domesticated animals are the main source of the bone industry (mainly large ungulates like Bos taurus and smaller mammals like ovis/capra). The ancient inhabitants of Hotnitsa–Orlovka prefered the longitudinally split long bones (mainly metapodium) and flat bones (ribs). The finishing of the bone objects is produced by abrision with sandstones. It is observed that some of the types have productive standardization which was planned specifically so that the use of unnecessary labor and the throwing away of raw material are avoided. This in turn leads to the thought of specialized bone industry. Despite the lack on stratigraphy posiotion of the artefacts, paralels can be drawn between the general characteristics of the findings from Hotnitsa– Orlovka and a number of other Late Neolithic sites from the Balkans.

scholarly journals Obsidian from the Site of Piano dei Cardoni, Ustica (Palermo, Italy): Preliminary Results on the First Occupation of the Island

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 273-290
Author(s):  
Claudia Speciale ◽  
Kyle P. Freund ◽  
Sandro de Vita ◽  
Nunzia Larosa ◽  
Vincenza Forgia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
Material Sources ◽  
Southern Side ◽  
Ams Dating ◽  
First Time ◽  
Xrf Analyses

Abstract New investigations on Ustica (Palermo, Sicily) originated from the need to improve our knowledge of the island’s archaeological and environmental heritage. Through field surveys, particular attention was paid to human occupation in the Neolithic phases and focused on the less investigated southern side of the island. The systematic survey of the area of Piano dei Cardoni in 2018 brought to light a new Middle/Late Neolithic site, already partially documented in the literature. The island was settled for the first time during these phases, as also testified from the area of Punta Spalmatore. The presence of Serra d’Alto, incised dark burnished, and Diana styles suggests that the site and the archaeological assemblage dates from the mid to late 5th millennium BC, as confirmed by AMS dating. In addition to pottery, obsidian artifacts were also recovered, and a preliminary study of these materials is presented here. Portable XRF analyses on a sample of 41 obsidian artifacts, representing a high percentage of the lithic assemblage compared to chert tools, show that the provenance of the raw material is Gabellotto Gorge (Lipari) and Balata dei Turchi (Pantelleria). These results provide new insight into broader regional debates about obsidian technology and its exchange during the Neolithic and open an important consideration for sites that are far from the raw material sources.

Fashioning Identities, Forging Inequalities: Late Neolithic/Copper Age Personal Ornaments of the Portuguese Estremadura

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 29-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan T. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Value Added ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Non Local ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Local Materials

From an analysis of over 3,000 beads and pendants from seven contemporary Late Neolithic/Copper Age (3500–2500 BC) sites in the Portuguese Estremadura, two dominant patterns emerge: (1) most beads show a high degree of standardization in terms of size and shape and are made from local materials; and (2) a minority are made from non-local, rare, and visually distinctive materials (e.g.variscite, ivory), and are less standardized and more labour-intensive. The emphasis on a wide-range of materials suggests that uncommon ornaments may have functioned as ‘value added' materials with special significance, enhancing potential design combinations. Material preferences for beads, bracelets, pendants, plaques, and ground stone tools (da Veiga Ferreira 1951; Lillios 1997, 2008) appear to mirror other Western Mediterranean raw material preferences for ornaments and other polished stone objects (Goñi Quinteiro et al. 1999; Harrison and Orozco Köhler 2001; Pascual Benito 1998; Skeates 2010; Teruel Berbell 1986) suggesting that the Estremadura participated in aspects of a wider system of shared symbolic values.

Lives of Stone, Lives of People: Re-Viewing the Engraved Plaques of Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katina Lillios
Keyword(s):  
Local Group ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Social Difference ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Chaine Operatoire ◽  
Mother Goddess ◽  
Group Identities ◽  
On Line ◽  
Over Time

For over a century prehistorians have approached the engraved stone plaques of the Iberian late Neolithic and Copper Age (3000–2500 BC) from a monolithic and idealist perspective, viewing the plaques as representations of the Mother Goddess. Most have not addressed the plaques' variability, their method of manufacture, the organization of their production, or their biographies. This article presents new interpretations of the Iberian plaques based on the first comprehensive on-line catalogue of the plaques – theEngraved Stone Plaque Registry and Inquiry Tool (ESPRIT)(Lillios 2004) – which holds records for over 1100 plaques, each unique, from over 200 sites in Portugal and Spain. Analyses of the plaques' raw material, style,chaîne opératoire, and distribution over space suggest that different plaque types had different functions and meanings, which shifted over time. Two plaque types: the Classic plaques and the Biomorphic Simple plaques are considered in this article. In their diverse forms, the Iberian plaques appear to have been durable records of regional and local group identities and could have contributed toward legitimating and perpetuating an ideology of inherited social difference in the Iberian late Neolithic and Copper Age.

scholarly journals The Neolithic Site of San Martino — Sicily: Working and Circulation of Obsidian from Lipari

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Tania Quero ◽  
Maria Clara Martinelli ◽  
Letterio Giordano
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Northern Coast ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Neolithic Site ◽  
Lithic Assemblage ◽  
Hill Slope ◽  
Strategic Location ◽  
The City

AbstractThe settlement of San Martino was found in 2008 on the Northern coast of Sicily (near the city of Spadafora — Messina). It is located on a hill slope about 4 km from the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, near an ancient river which is no longer present today. The stratigraphy included two Neolithic levels: the oldest one belonged to the Stentinello culture (middle Neolithic — 6th-5th millennium BC cal) and the later one belonged to the Diana culture (Late Neolithic — 4th millennium BC cal). The San Martino lithic assemblage consists of a very significant amount of obsidian knapping products that have allowed us to examine the procurement, exploitation and circulation of this raw material, from the source on the island off the coast of Sicily, during the Neolithic period. Considering its strategic location and some analogies with other settlements nearby, the site of San Martino was probably part of the Lipari obsidian networks of exchange.

scholarly journals New data concerning “large blades” in Catalonia: Apt-Forcalquier chert in the Penedès (south of Barcelona) during the Late Neolithic - Chalcolithic

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Mangado Llach ◽  
Jean Vaquer ◽  
Juan Francisco Gibaja Bao ◽  
F. Xavier Oms Arias ◽  
Artur Cebrià Escuer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
The North ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
North Eastern

The study of large chert blades documented in funerary contexts from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in the north-eastern part of Iberia has been addressed in recent works by the authors, in which 49 burial sites have been registered with more than 200 large chert blades. In this paper the recent data obtained from the study of seven archaeological sites located in the region of the Penedès (southwest of Barcelona) is presented.The macroscopic characterization of the knapped stone industries shows their great variety regarding the origin of the siliceous raw material, often coming from outside the analysed region. In some cases their macroscopic features link them to Apt-Forcalquier chert (Haut Provence, France), which was widely distributed in the form of large blades during these phases of Late Catalan prehistory.The absence of evidence of the chaîne opératoire production of this type of foreign chert in the lithic assemblages in Catalonia lead to the supposition that the dispersion of the blades was done as trade items, and only in a few cases were highly complex technological tools of this kind of raw material distributed (e.g., daggers). Use-wear analysis reveals that these blades were not merely luxury items in grave goods. Far from this idea, they have to be considered as functional, even multifunctional, items. All the same, it is thought that they must have had an important value because they moved from the domestic sphere to the graves. In fact, the pieces that usually remain are not small fragments, but whole or almost whole, large blades that normally remain effective. 

Arenas of Action? Enclosure Entrances in Neolithic Western Francec. 3500–2500 BC

1998 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 115-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Scarre
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Social Competition ◽  
Phase Structures ◽  
Defensive Role ◽  
Multi Phase ◽  
Material Exchange

Recent research has led to a re-evaluation of the defensive role formerly assigned to the Late Neolithic enclosures of western France. Excavation of the distinctive pince de crabe entrances which are a feature of many of these enclosures has suggested that these were not single but multi-phase structures, with a purpose which must have been monumental or ceremonial rather than protective. Human remains in the enclosure ditches underline their significance as symbolic as well as physical boundaries. The chronology of the elaborated entrances indicates that they belong to a period of social competition in which decorated pottery had a particular importance. This phase came to an end early in the 3rd millennium BC when the enclosure ditches were backfilled, and western France became integrated into a wider world of social and raw material exchange.

scholarly journals Lithic Raw Material Procurement in the Late Neolithic Southern-Transdanubian Region: A Case Study From the Site of Alsónyék-Bátaszék

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 127-140
Author(s):  
Kata Szilágyi
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Selection Strategy ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Neolithic Site ◽  
Current State ◽  
Material Procurement ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Lithic Raw Material

This article summarizes the current state of research on the flaked stone assemblages from the Late Neolithic site Alsónyék‒Bátaszék, Tolna district. The raw material distribution of the nearly 6100 pieces that make up the stone tool assemblage is the focus of this paper, with a particular emphasis placed on the dominance of the local raw material. The research addresses the question of the method of procurement of the lithic raw material in the case of this enormous, extended Neolithic site. To supply an answer, basic geoarchaeological research was necessary. To that end, a field survey aimed at detecting those geological formations and lithic variations convenient for knapping was undertaken. The results of the survey reported in the second part of this paper help in our understanding of the selection strategy of the ancient knapping specialists. From these strategies, it is possible to recognize the cultural tradition and raw material manipulation of this Late Neolithic community and, in a wider sense, the southeastern group of the Lengyel culture

scholarly journals Stone Industries of Baraba “Flat-Bottomed Neolithic” Settlements

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 176-190
Author(s):  
Alena Yu. Yurakova ◽  
Alexey G. Marochkin
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Ceramic Ware ◽  
Forest Steppe ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Mineralogical Study ◽  
Clear Predominance

Purpose. The article presents the results of a study of technological and morphological characteristics of stone tool collections from the Early Neolithic settlement assemblages of Barabinsk forest-steppe containing flat-bottomed ware – Avtodrom-2, Avtodrom-2/2, Staryi Moskovsky Trakt-5 settlements. The results of a mineralogical study of the raw materials has been used. The objects of all considered collections have been proven to be identical (lithic cores, flakes, blades, perforators, sandstone abrasives, polished axes; in the absence of primary flakes and arrow points). Similarities of three sites have been found in preferable raw material (silty sandstone and other metamorphic rocks, flint, opal) in primary technology (prismatic lithic core), big amount of microblades, predominance of regular end-scrapers made from flakes, big abrasives. Results. A difference in the predominant retouch location in a special work of blades: ventral (Avtodrom-2/2, SMT-5 – up to 60 %) and dorsal (Avtodrom-1 – 61 %). The specifics of the stone industries in Baraba Neolithic settlements with flat-bottomed ceramic ware can be clearly seen in comparison with local assemblages of Artynskaya culture (late Neolithic). In comparison with considered industries, Artynsksya culture (Avtodrom-2/1 settlement) preferred another type of raw material (gray silicified sandstone), bigger role of counterstrike knapping, larger blades, clear predominance of dorsal retouch in treatment of blade tools, and differences in object classification (series of arrow points, scrapers of occasional forms, knives on large blades, stone club knobs). Conclusion. The obtained results do not contradict the idea of cultural and chronological unity of all settlements in Barabinsk forest-steppe with flat-bottomed Neolithic ware. Comparative and typological analysis of stone industries of all Neolithic assemblages with flat-bottomed ceramic ware in the Ural-West Siberian region is still advantageous, yet an undeveloped approach taking into account their polemical cultural and chronological attribution.

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