The Mousterian lithic assemblage of the Ciota Ciara cave (Piedmont, Northern Italy): exploitation and conditioning of raw materials

At North Barr River, Morvern, inspection of forestry planting mounds on a raised beach terrace identified a chipped stone assemblage associated with upcast deposits containing charcoal. An archaeological evaluation of the site, funded by Forestry Commission Scotland, sought to better understand the extent and character of this Mesolithic and later prehistoric lithic scatter. The lithic assemblage is predominantly debitage with some microliths and scrapers. The range of raw materials including flint, Rùm bloodstone and baked mudstone highlights wider regional networks. Other elements, including a barbed and tanged arrowhead, belong to later depositional episodes. Two mid-second millennium bc radiocarbon dates were obtained from soil associated with some lithics recovered from a mixed soil beneath colluvial deposits. The chronology of a putative stone bank or revetment is uncertain but the arrangement of stone may also date to the second millennium bc.

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Percussive-Abrasive Stone Tools from Chagyrskaya Cave: Results of Functional Analysis

Archaeology Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia ◽

10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.2.023-031 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 23-31

Author(s):

M. V. Seletsky ◽

A. Y. Fedorchenko ◽

P. V. Chistyakov ◽

S. V. Markin ◽

K. A. Kolobova

Keyword(s):

Raw Materials ◽

Stone Tools ◽

Lithic Assemblage ◽

Wear Analysis ◽

Use Wear ◽

Experimental Use ◽

Abrasive Stone ◽

Source Of Information ◽

Reference Samples ◽

Comprehensive Study

This article presents a comprehensive study of percussive-abrasive active stone tools from Chagyrskaya Cave, using experimental use-wear and statistical methods, supplemented by 3D-modeling. Experiments combined with use- wear analysis allowed us to determine the functions of these tools by comparing the working surfaces and use-wear traces in the Chagyrskaya samples with those in the reference samples. As a result, we identified 19 retouchers, four hammerstones for processing mineral raw materials, and one hammer for splitting bone, which indicates the dominance of secondary processing over primary knapping in the Chagyrskaya lithic assemblage. Using statistical analysis, we traced the differences in the dimensions of the manuports and lithics under study. These artifacts are a promising and underestimated source of information for identifying working operations associated with stone- and bone-processing; moreover, they can provide new data on the functional attribution of sites and the mobility of early hominins.

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Archaic semisedentary foragers and analytical nodule analysis: The Aught-Six site of Northwestern Colorado

North American Archaeologist ◽

10.1177/0197693118793792 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 171-197

Author(s):

Matthew J Landt ◽

Justin P Williams

Keyword(s):

Analytical Method ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Primary Objective ◽

Stone Tool ◽

Piceance Basin ◽

Technological Systems ◽

Projectile Point ◽

Lithic Assemblage

Nodule analysis is designed to highlight the ways in which different lithic sources were utilized and incorporated into the stone tool industries of past societies. In 2008 and 2009, excavations in the Piceance Basin of Northwestern Colorado, an area with local chert and quartzite quarries, provided an opportunity to use a nodule analyses for a Section 106-driven project. The Aught-Six site lithic assemblage suggests that Archaic tool kits in Northwestern Colorado are likely to be heavily reliant on a variety of raw materials found across the region, though Bridger chert nodules were the primary objective pieces for the new tools during the basin house occupation. The results of the analyses not only highlight specific areas of projectile point production, but they also indicate that nodule analysis remains a powerful analytical method for understanding how raw materials are incorporated into the technological systems of semisedentary Archaic foragers.

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Towards Sustainable Mining: Exploiting Raw Materials from Extractive Waste Facilities

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12062383 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 2383 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Giovanna Antonella Dino ◽

Alessandro Cavallo ◽

Piergiorgio Rossetti ◽

Ernő Garamvölgyi ◽

Renáta Sándor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impacts ◽

Ceramic Industry ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Building Industry ◽

Economic Factors ◽

Waste Facility ◽

Waste Characteristics ◽

By Products

The focus of the present research is on the exploitation of extractive waste to recover raw materials, considering the technological and economic factors, together with the environmental impacts, associated with extractive waste quarrying and dressing activities. The present study, based on a case history from Northern Italy (Montorfano and Baveno granite quarrying area), was intended to validate the presented interdisciplinary approach for evaluating economic and environmental impacts associated with extractive waste facility exploitation (from granite waste to products for the ceramic industry and by-products for the building industry). A shared methodology was applied to determine extractive waste characteristics (geochemistry, petrography, and mineralogy), waste volume (geophysical, topographic, and morphologic 3D characterization) and potential exploitable products and by-products. Meanwhile, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to determine the environmental impacts associated with the extraction and processing phases.

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Raw materials supply: Kaolin and quartz from ore deposits and recycling activities. The example of the Monte Bracco area (Piedmont, Northern Italy)

Resources Policy ◽

10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102413 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 74 ◽

pp. 102413

Author(s):

Giovanna Antonella Dino ◽

Alessandro Cavallo ◽

Alessandra Faraudello ◽

Rossi Piercarlo ◽

Susanna Mancini

Keyword(s):

Raw Materials ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Ore Deposits

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Siliceous raw material consumption during the late Upper Palaeolithic in “El Pirulejo”, South of Iberia (Priego, Córdoba)

Journal of Lithic Studies ◽

10.2218/jls.v3i2.1872 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Isabel Cánovas Calle ◽

María Dolores Simón Vallejo ◽

Lydia Calle Román ◽

Victoria Aranda Sanchez ◽

Rubén Parrilla Giraldez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Raw Materials ◽

Late Glacial ◽

Raw Material ◽

Petrographic Analysis ◽

Material Consumption ◽

Lithic Assemblage ◽

First Results ◽

Lithic Industry ◽

Late Upper Palaeolithic ◽

Technological Analysis

This work presents the first results about the use of siliceous raw materials by the hunter-gatherer societies during the Late Glacial in the level 5 of El Pirulejo. El Pirulejo is located within the municipality of Priego de Córdoba (Córdoba, Spain).The archaeological level P/5 is classified as a Solutrean, according to the technological analysis of the lithic assemblage. The methodology used about the raw material is divided into four phases. During this first phase, we carried out a sampling analysis of local primary and secondary outcrops in the proximity of the site, over an area of 20 km from the site. We also performed a macroscopic and petrographic analysis of selected samples. In these phase, we describe the Veleta Formation, wich represents the main siliceous outcrop closest to the site. Once the local flint was characterized, it was compared to the lithic industry assemblage of level P/5, with the intention of observing the management and exploitation of local flint associated to knapping activities. As a result of the assemblage analysed so far, we have ruled out local operations on these chert samples and propose an area of exploitation of lithic resources that will exceed 20 kilometres around the site. We ruled out that the Veleta Formation provided a source of lithic supply for the hunter-gatherer societies.

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Advanced Modelling Tools to Support Planning for Sand/Gravel Quarries

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13116380 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 6380

Author(s):

Filippo Carlo Pavesi ◽

Anna Richiedei ◽

Michele Pezzagno

Keyword(s):

Public Interest ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Planning Process ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Decision Makers ◽

The Public ◽

Planning Support ◽

Planning Support System ◽

Sand And Gravel

Sand and gravel quarry planning must guarantee the public interest in the procurement of raw materials while ensuring environmental sustainability. An Analyzing Planning Support System for sand and gravel quarry plan can assist decision-makers during the planning process. The proposed Analyzing PSS uses integrating geologic, economic, environmental, and geographic information to quantify raw materials and the size of quarries. This kind of tool is useful to support public authority decisions. The study provides the results of an experience conducted in the province of Brescia (NUT 3 in Northern Italy).

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Raw material study of the Mousterian lithic assemblage of Navalmaíllo Rockshelter (Pinilla del Valle, Spain): preliminary results

Estudos do Quaternário / Quaternary Studies ◽

10.30893/eq.v0i11.87 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 19-25

Author(s):

Ana Abrunhosa ◽

B. Márquez ◽

E. Baquedano ◽

N. Bicho ◽

A. Pérez-González ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Raw Materials ◽

Raw Material ◽

Preliminary Results ◽

Lithic Assemblage ◽

Material Study

This article presents the PhD project under the supervision of Nuno Bicho and Enrique Baquedano, which aims to study the origin of raw materials from the Mousterian lithic sets of the Calvero de la Higuera sites. At this first stage of the project the main objective is the determination and characterization of the raw materials present at the sites.

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Bronze Age Textile & Wool Economy: The Case of the Terramare Site of Montale, Italy

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society ◽

10.1017/ppr.2018.11 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 84 ◽

pp. 359-385 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Serena Sabatini ◽

Timothy Earle ◽

Andrea Cardarelli

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Large Scale ◽

Raw Materials ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Northern Italy ◽

Social Constraints ◽

Detailed Knowledge ◽

Community Based ◽

Local Elites ◽

Yarn Production

At the onset of the 2nd millenniumbc, a wool economy emerged across continental Europe. Archaeological, iconographical, and written sources from the Near East and the Aegean show that a Bronze Age wool economy involved considerable specialised labour and large scale animal husbandry. Resting only on archaeological evidence, detailed knowledge of wool economies in Bronze Age Europe has been limited, but recent investigations at the Terramare site of Montale, in northern Italy, document a high density of spindle whorls that strongly supports the existence of village-level specialised manufacture of yarn. Production does not appear to have been attached to an emerging elite nor was it fully independent of social constraints. We propose that, although probably managed by local elites, wool production was a community-based endeavour oriented towards exports aimed at obtaining locally unavailable raw materials and goods.

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Camas Daraich:a Mesolithic site at the Point of Sleat, Skye

Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports ◽

10.9750/issn.1473-3803.2004.12 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Caroline Wickham-Jones ◽

Karen Hardy ◽

Ann Clarke ◽

Michael Cressey ◽

Kevin Edwards ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Raw Materials ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Well Being ◽

Conclusive Evidence ◽

Stone Tool ◽

Small Scale ◽

Lithic Assemblage ◽

The North ◽

Archaeological Work

The archaeological site of Camas Daraich (on the peninsula of the Point of Sleat, in south-west Skye) was revealed in November 1999 when stone tools were discovered in the upcast from a newly bulldozed track. Excavation took place in May 2000, directed by the authors and under the auspices of Historic Scotland, the Centre for Field Archaeology and the Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh. The excavations were small-scale and brief, but they demonstrated the survival of stratified features (scoops and a possible hearth) as well as an assemblage of nearly 5000 flaked lithics, comprising both tools and debris. There was no organic preservation, with the exception of burnt hazelnut shell. The composition of the lithic assemblage suggested that the excavated site was Mesolithic and this was confirmed by the radiocarbon determinations, which place it securely in the mid 7th millennium BC. Surface material suggested that there was evidence for more recent prehistoric (stone-tool-using) activity in the vicinity. Although the archaeological work at Camas Daraich was limited, the site is interesting for several reasons. First, it is one of a growing number of sites in the area with early dates for human settlement (until the mid 1980s dated Mesolithic evidence was lacking in the north of Scotland). Second, the lithic raw materials in use at Camas Daraich connect it firmly to a wider network of sites and provide conclusive evidence for human mobility. Third, further Mesolithic material is likely to survive at Camas Daraich so that the future well-being of the site is an important issue. Fourth, though there was no organic preservation, used pumice was recovered and this is rare on Mesolithic sites. Fifth, the lithics include both narrow-blade tools and conventionally broader/larger pieces and the relationship between these two traditions is still poorly understood in Scottish archaeology. Camas Daraich suggests that they may not be as clearly separated as previously thought.

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