REDUCING RISK: MAYA LITHIC PRODUCTION AND ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION AT CALLAR CREEK QUARRY, BELIZE

The role of craft producers in past economies provides information that helps contextualize the role of economies in broader sociopolitical systems. Through this examination of lowland Maya lithic producers in the Late to Terminal Classic period (a.d. 600–890), this article explores the centrality of economic activities in integrating craft producers into larger regional political communities and simultaneously buffering them against regional political conflicts. Through a study of lithic extraction and production at Callar Creek Quarry, Belize, this article examines the relevance of crafting activities in the minimization of economic uncertainty. These data indicate that lithic reduction served to diversify economic activities for lithic producers, and thus minimized economic risk. The use of economic activity to minimize risk provides evidence for the continuity of small-scale householders. This illustrates the independence of economic activities from political frameworks, and suggests that economic diversification serves as a critical stabilizing force for rural Classic-period Maya residents.

SMALL BLADE TECHNOLOGY IN THE EARLY UPPER PALEOLITHIC INDUSTRIES FROM DENISOVA CAVE: DATA FROM ANALYSIS OF A LITHIC REDUCTION SEQUENCE

The paper discusses the results from an analysis of five cores associated with Layer 11 in the Southern Chamber of Denisova Cave, intended to obtain small elongated blanks such as bladelets and small blades. Analysis of a lithic reduction sequence employed in the research has made it possible to clearly recognize the phases in producing flake scars on lithic artifacts through the preparation of core blanks, and in core reduction, as well as to determine stages at which some of these pieces were used as tools. The analysis provided insights into a general flaking pattern for the cores under study. Such artifacts were predominantly made on large massive flake blanks, had a plain striking platform, and the working edge showing traces of reduction associated with detaching the target flakes. These technological characteristics are fully consistent with the technological repertoire of a hominin group, based on cores from the same assemblage, intended to obtain larger target removals such as flakes and blades. A cross section of the flaking surface shows no evidence for a deliberately created and maintained convex relief, while typologically four of the five artifacts were defined as sub-prismatic. The analysis of a lithic reduction sequence shows that artifacts from the examined collection related to the production of blanks in the form of small flake-blades, without using new techniques and the controlled reduction of a flaking surface.

Lithic reduction in the final Middle and Initial Upper Paleolithic industries of the Kara-Bom site as shown by refitting analysis (technology, closest analogies, chronology)

The paper employs the method of refitting to reconstruct the lithic reduction technologies that were used by the Middle Paleolithic and Initial Upper Paleolithic inhabitants of the site of Kara-Bom (Altai Mountains). It is shown that the Middle Paleolithic technology was oriented at the production of points that were mainly struck from convergent single platform (unidirectional) Levallois cores. The Initial Upper Paleolithic industry is characterized by sub-prismatic opposed platform (bidirectional) cores aimed at the production of blades. The author draws many analogies with synchronous industries distributed from the Levant to the east of South Siberia and Central Asia. The available archaeological, chronological and paleogeographic evidence gives grounds to argue that the development of the Paleolithic culture in Northern Asia was strongly affected by climatic fluctuations that took place during the Upper Pleistocene and had a significant impact on human migration routes.

Experimentation preceding innovation in a MIS5 Pre-Still Bay layer from Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa): emerging technologies and symbols

In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort. The Middle Stone Age sequence from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, on the West Coast of the region, preserves archaeological proxies that help unravelling the cultural processes at work. This unit yields one of the oldest abstract engraving so far discovered in Africa, in the form of a rhomboid marking on the cortical surface of an ungulate long bone shaft. The comprehensive analysis of the lithic artefacts and ochre pieces found in association with the engraved bone documents the transport of rocks over long distance (>20km), the heat treatment of silcrete, the coexistence of seven lithic reduction strategies (including the production of bladelets and the manufacture of unifacial and bifacial points), the use of adhesives and the processing of ochre. At Diepkloof, the appearance of engraving practices take place in a context that demonstrates a shift in rock procurement and a diversification in lithic reduction strategies, suggesting that these behavioral practices acted as a cultural answer to cope with new environmental and/or socio-economic circumstances. We argue that the innovations later found during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort were already in the making during the MIS5 pre-Still Bay, though not all the benefits were yet taken advantage of by the populations.

Regional Variability in Lithic Miniaturization and the Organization of Technology in Late Glacial Southern Africa (~18-11 kcal BP)

Miniaturized stone tools made by controlled fracture are reported from nearly every continent where archaeologists have systematically looked for them. While similarities in technology are acknowledged between regions, few detailed inter-regional comparative studies have been conducted. Our paper addresses this gap, presenting results of a comparative lithic technological study between Klipfonteinrand and Sehonghong – two large rock shelters in southern Africa. Both sites contain Late Glacial (~18-11 kcal BP) lithic assemblages, though they are located in regions with different geologies, climates and environments. Results demonstrate that lithic miniaturization manifests differently in these different regions. Both assemblages provide evidence for small blade production, though key differences exist in terms of the specific technological composition of this evidence, the raw materials selected, the role played by bipolar reduction and the manner in which lithic reduction was organized. Patterned variability of this nature demonstrates that humans deployed miniaturized technologies strategically in relation to local conditions.

Platforms of Palaeolithic knappers reveal complex linguistic abilities

Recent studies in cognitive neurosciences have postulated a possible link between manual praxis such as tool-making and human languages. If confirmed, such a link opens significant avenues towards the study of the evolution of natural languages. Yet, archaeologists would need the development of a rigorous methodology to formalize language appearance. We propose a ‘formal grammar of action’ to help formalizing some early aspects of lithic chaînes opératoires, and simultaneously question the link with human cognitive abilities. The approach, based on the foundations of Chomsky’s minimalist program and the grammar of action theory, focuses on the development of components and syntax suggested by some aspects of knapping during early phases and simple (Oldowan and early Acheulean) technologies. In this theoretical study, we rigorously analyse terminals and non-terminals (vocabulary), production rules and syntax (grammar) of idealized stone technologies and then provide possible productions (tools and handaxes). More specifically, issues related to platform preparation and cognitive strategies required during knapping are discussed. Formal grammars proposed here for interpreting knapping contribute to a greater systematization in classifying chaînes opératoires and in exploring complexity in lithic reduction sequences. As a central result, these grammars are theoretically able to rigorously demonstrate syntax presence and central recursion, thus helping us to study early linguistic abilities.