Characterization of the Obsidian Used in the Chipped Stone Industry in Kendale Hecala

Kendale Hecala is located on the Ambar River in the Upper Tigris Basin, province of Diyarbakır in Southeast Anatolia. Various raw materials, including obsidian, radiolarite, chert, jasper, chalcedony, and quartzite, were used in the lithic industry. Obsidian artefacts constitute an average of 64% of the chipped stone assemblage. Technological analysis reveals that obsidian was brought to the settlement as nodules and chipped into various tools at the settlement. Understanding the operational sequence of the lithic industry, chaîne opératoire, including the distribution of raw material from source to site, is important to demonstrate the socio-cultural organization of the settlement in Southeastern Anatolia during the Ubaid period. In order to identify source varieties, the obsidian artefacts uncovered from Ubaid layers of Kendale Hecala were analyzed by macro-observations, and the characterization of archaeological samples was performed using a handheld XRF. Multivariate analysis of the data indicates the use of obsidian from different resources at the settlement, including Nemrut Dağ, Bingöl B, and Group 3d.

The Early Paleolithic Go Da Site and the Bifacial Lithic Industries of Southeast Asia

The lithic industry of the stratified site Go Da in Central Vietnam is described, and its place among the contemporaneous Early Paleolithic sites of East and Southeast Asia is determined. Results of a morphological technotypological analysis of the Go Da assemblage are provided. Go Da is attributed to the An Khe-type sites situated in the eponymous area of Vietnam. Cores and tools were made from pebbles, less often from fl akes. Primary reduction focused on simple pebble cores with natural striking-platforms, whereas radial cores were less common. Predom inant among the tools are picks, scrapers of various modifi cations, choppers, and chopping tools, as well as denticulate and notched tools; also, bifaces occur. These tools belong to a single homogeneous industry, showing common features in primary reduction, preparation, and design of key artifacts. On the basis of analysis of the stratigraphic sequence of Go Da and the absolute date of 806 ± 22 ka BP, generated by the potassium-argon analysis of tektites, it is proposed that the site is older than other dated locations with the An Khe industry. Apparently, it resulted from a convergent evolution of the pebble-fl ake industry introduced by the fi rst wave of Homo erectus from Africa. Go Da and other An Khe sites likely belong to a vast habitation zone of Southeast Asian hominins with technologically and typologically similar industries dating to the boundary between the Lower and the Middle Pleistocene.

Quand la pétroarchéologie questionne la notion de site : états de surface et taphonomie des objets lithiques de La Belle-Roche (Sprimont, Prov. de Liège, Belgique)

Petro-archaeological analysis of the lithic industry of the Lower Paleolithic of La Belle-Roche cave (Sprimont, Belgium), according to the grids developed in recent years by various research programs in France, allows a new reading of this industry. Although the anthropic character of certain objects seems well-estabilished, their accumulation in the deposit remains problematic. In this respect, the taphonomic and weathering analysis of the industry raises questions about the origin of the deposit, the age of the industry and the notion of “site”: is the “La Belle-Roche site” as a prehistorian or prehistoric construction?

Made for exchange: the Russian Karelian lithic industry and hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks in prehistoric north-eastern Europe

The hunter-fisher-gatherers of fourth- to third-millennium BC north-eastern Europe shared many characteristics traditionally associated with Neolithic and Chalcolithic agricultural societies. Here, the authors examine north-eastern European hunter-fisher-gatherer exchange networks, focusing on the Russian Karelian lithic industry. The geographically limited, large-scale production of Russian Karelian artefacts for export testifies to the specialised production of lithic material culture that was exchanged over 1000km from the production workshops. Functioning both as everyday tools and objects of social and ritual engagement, and perhaps even constituting a means of long-distance communication, the Russian Karelian industry finds parallels with the exchange systems of contemporaneous European agricultural populations.

Elephant bones for the Middle Pleistocene toolmaker

The use of bone as raw material for implements is documented since the Early Pleistocene. Throughout the Early and Middle Pleistocene bone tool shaping was done by percussion flaking, the same technique used for knapping stone artifacts, although bone shaping was rare compared to stone tool flaking. Until recently the generally accepted idea was that early bone technology was essentially immediate and expedient, based on single-stage operations, using available bone fragments of large to medium size animals. Only Upper Paleolithic bone tools would involve several stages of manufacture with clear evidence of primary flaking or breaking of bone to produce the kind of fragments required for different kinds of tools. Our technological and taphonomic analysis of the bone assemblage of Castel di Guido, a Middle Pleistocene site in Italy, now dated by 40Ar/39Ar to about 400 ka, shows that this general idea is inexact. In spite of the fact that the number of bone bifaces at the site had been largely overestimated in previous publications, the number of verified, human-made bone tools is 98. This is the highest number of flaked bone tools made by pre-modern hominids published so far. Moreover the Castel di Guido bone assemblage is characterized by systematic production of standardized blanks (elephant diaphysis fragments) and clear diversity of tool types. Bone smoothers and intermediate pieces prove that some features of Aurignacian technology have roots that go beyond the late Mousterian, back to the Middle Pleistocene. Clearly the Castel di Guido hominids had done the first step in the process of increasing complexity of bone technology. We discuss the reasons why this innovation was not developed. The analysis of the lithic industry is done for comparison with the bone industry.

Evolution of the Lithic Industry in Central Dagestan During the Early Pleistocene: The Rising Occurrence of Flake Blanks

Archaeological data from stratified Early Pleistocene sites in Central Dagestan are arranged in a direct stratigraphic sequence, making it possible to reconstruct the changes in lithic industry over a span of 1.2 mln years, from ~2.0 to 0.8 Ma BP, and to separate the principal stages in the Early Paleolithic culture of the Caucasus. This study examines blanks found at sites of the Ainikab-Mukhkay group, such as Ainikab-1, and Mukhkay-1, -2, and -2a. Occurrences of large flake blanks (>10 cm) at the Oldowan and the Oldowan to Acheulean transitional stage are provided. Such blanks appear at the beginning of the Jaramillo paleomagnetic episode (~1.07 Ma BP). By the end of the Early Pleistocene, their share attains 25.77 % of the total number of blanks for morphologically distinct tools. They are absent in Oldowan deposits (~2 Ma BP). The totality of statistical data justifies the separation of the transitional Oldowan to Acheulean stage in the region, dating to 1.0–0.8 Ma BP.

Lithic industry of two Linearbandkeramik sites in Moldova (Nicolaevca V and Ţâra II)

The two Linear Pottery culture lithic complexes presented in this paper came from northern Moldova. The Nicolaevca V assemblage was gathered from excavations of a small LBK dwelling, while the Ţâra II collection came from an eight-shaped pit. There was a “deposit” of objects suitable for knapping found in Nicolaevca V. This complex reflects flake-oriented expedient knapping. The Ţâra II complex represents a complicated sequence for obtaining regular blades. The interpretation of their differences is sought in the social organization of Neolithic flint-knapping, in which the Nicolaevca V lithic assemblage supposedly reflects domestic production in a household context, while Ţâra II products could have been involved in the exchange network.

Evolution of the Lithic Industry in Central Dagestan During the Early Pleistocene: The Rising Occurrence of Flake Blanks

Археологические материалы многослойных раннеплейстоценовых памятников Центрального Дагестана представлены в виде прямой стратиграфической последовательности. Это дает возможность проследить здесь изменения каменной индустрии на протяжении 1,2 млн лет, от примерно 2,0 до 0,8 млн л.н., и выделить значимые рубежи периодизации культуры ранней первобытности Кавказа. В работе рассматриваются заготовки для орудий, обнаруженные в отложениях стоянок айникабско-мухкайской группы: Айникаб-1, Мухкай-1, Мухкай-2, Мухкай-2а. Приводятся статистические данные по представленности заготовок каменных орудий в виде крупных отщепов (>10 см) в слоях как типичного олдована, так и переходной к ашелю стадии. Появление заготовок указанного типа отмечается с начала па-леомагнитного эпизода Харамильо (~ 1,07 млн л.н.). К концу раннего плейстоцена доля таких артефактов составляла 25,77 % от общего количества сколов, которые использовались для изготовления морфологически выраженных орудий. При этом указанный показатель для находок из слоев олдована, датируемых временем ок. 2 млн л.н., никогда не превышал нулевого значения. Все статистические данные в целом подтверждают правомерность выделения в схеме периодизации раннего палеолита изучаемой территории стадии перехода от олдована к ашелю на хронологическом отрезке примерно от 1,0 до 0,8 млн л.н.

New data on flint processing of East Trypillia tribes of the Bug-Dnieper interfluve

For the first time, materials of such settlements of the East Trypillia culture as Trostyanchyk, Onopriyivka І are published. Despite approximately the same quantitative ratio, even at first glance, the materials of these two leaflets differ significantly from each other. The Trostyanchyk complex is actually blade-type: blades prevail both among production waste and among the tool kit. Flakes and tools on them dominate in Onopriyivka. If the Trostyanchyk complex can be regarded as "classic" in terms of the tool kit: retouched blades, end-scrapers, sickle inserts, perforators on blades, etc., then the Onopriyivka complex looks more primitive: retouched flakes, notched tools and scrapers on flakes, and others. In Onopriyivka, unlike Trostyanchyk, finds of weapons are completely absent. Products from Onopriyivka are made mainly of local raw materials, while in Trostyanchyk there are approximately equal parts of products from local and imported raw materials, and products from local flint are made as carefully as products from Volyn flint. At the same time, in both cases we can confidently speak of the local nature of production. This is evidenced by both the use of local flint raw material and the specific items present in both collections. In Trostyanchyk, as already mentioned, a hammerstone was found, in Onopriyivka — core-like fragments and chips of modify of cores. Such differences can be explained by both territorial and chronological discrepancies. Onopriyivka I is earlier, refers to the end of stage ВІ, Trostyanchyk — to the end of stage ВІІ. Trostyanchyk is located on the Southern Bug, Onopriyivka — in the Bugo-Dnieper interfluve. Although, perhaps, this situation is explained by the unevenness of the study of these sites. In addition, materials from the Vladyslavchyk settlement are published for the first time. Based on their analysis, using analogies from related and synchronous sites, the author tried to identify the features of the East Trypillia lithic industry in the Bug-Dnieper rivers interfluve. As it turned out, at the modern level, the identification of such features is not possible. The materials of the East Trypillia culture of the region are, on the whole, more similar to the materials of the settlements of the West Trypillia culture, than to related sites on the Southern Bug. Keywords: East Trypillia culture, Kukutenʹ-Trypillya, production, flint processing, Bug-Dnieper interfluve