There can be no confidence that the “first marine” and “in situ” artefact scatters in the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia are in their primary archaeological context.

The absence of known prehistoric underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites on the inner continental shelf of Australia stands in stark contrast to the thousands of sites revealed elsewhere in the world. Two recent claims – Dortch et al. (D2019) and Benjamin et al. (B2020) – put forward the first in situ (i.e., primary context) marine UCH sites in the shallow waters of the Dampier Archipelago, NW Australia, each arguing the stone artefact scatters are at least 7000 years old and are now submerged because of post-glacial sea-level rise. From the data published in D2019 and B2020, we assess the explicit and implicit assumptions and uncertainties of these claims. We include new results of hydrodynamic modelling, new data on coastal erosion and new bathymetric data of northern Flying Foam Passage, leading to a reinterpretation of the archaeology and the sites' sedimentary settings.Whilst the presented lithic material of D2019 and B2020 clearly includes cultural artefacts, we find that the arguments for the sites being of primary context and reflecting early Holocene land surfaces do not stand up to scrutiny and that the available evidence is insufficient to establish the facts. In describing the assumptions and uncertainties in D2019 and B2020, we include example tests to help resolve them. On balance, it appears that these sites are intertidal, and many or all artefacts are likely to have been reworked. These and similar sites would benefit from a thorough appraisal of past and present coastal processes to produce a defensible understanding of site formation processes before it is possible to determine their true nature and significance, noting that, even as secondary sites, they would still inform our understanding of process and change. Such work would support more powerful contributions to submerged prehistory than attempts to seek the first, the earliest, the oldest or deepest.

24.0 kyr cal BP stone artefact from Vale da Pedra Furada, Piauí, Brazil: Techno-functional analysis

Current archaeological paradigm proposes that the first peopling of the Americas does not exceed the Last Glacial Maximum period. In this context, the acceptance of the anthropogenic character of the earliest stone artefacts generally rests on the presence of projectile points considered no more as typocentric but as typognomonic, since it allows, by itself, to certify the human character of the other associated artefacts. In other words, without this presence, nothing is certain. Archaeological research at Piauí (Brazil) attests to a Pleistocene human presence between 41 and 14 cal kyr BP, without any record of lithic projectile points. Here, we report the discovery and interpretation of an unusual stone artefact in the Vale da Pedra Furada site, in a context dating back to 24 cal kyr BP. The knapping stigmata and macroscopic use-wear traces reveal a conception centred on the configuration of double bevels and the production in the same specimen of at least two successive artefacts with probably different functions. This piece unambiguously presents an anthropic character and reveals a technical novelty during the Pleistocene occupation of South America.

Tool-use experiments to determine the function of an incised ground stone artefact with potential symbolic significance

Ground stone implements are found across most Australian landscapes and are often regarded as Aboriginal tools that were used for processing or modifying other items such as plant foods, plant fibres, resins, bone points, pigments and ground-stone axes and knives. Less common are ground stones modified for non-utilitarian, symbolic purposes; for example, polished and carved stone ornaments; ritual implements such as cylcons and tjuringa sacred stones; and unused, well-crafted ground-stone axes. In this paper, we report on the function and potential significance of an unusual ground stone artefact from a site near Bannockburn, southwestern Australia. A set of regularly spaced, shallow grooves has been cut into the surface of each side of the stone. Use-wear, residues and experimental replica tools indicate that the grooves were probably made with a stone flake and then used to shape or sharpen wooden implements such as spear points or the edges of boomerangs or other weapons. The microscopic wear outside the grooves indicates contact with soft wood or other plant material, possibly a soft plant fibre bag. We suggest that the Bannockburn artefact primarily functioned as a woodworking tool, but the even spacing of the incisions suggests that they were intentionally placed, perhaps to convey a special meaning, perhaps as a tally system or other form of communication.

Carrying capacity, population density and the later Pleistocene expression of backed artefact manufacturing traditions in Africa

As is the case today, both climate variability and population density influenced human behavioural change in the past. The mechanisms underpinning later Pleistocene human behavioural evolution, however, remain contested. Many complex behaviours evolved in Africa, but early evidence for these behaviours varies both spatially and temporally. Scientists have not been able to explain this flickering pattern, which is present even in sites and regions clearly occupied by Homo sapiens . To explore this pattern, here the presence and frequency of evidence for backed stone artefact production are modelled against climate-driven, time-series population density estimates (Timmermann and Friedrich. 2016 Nature 538 , 92. ( doi:10.1038/nature19365 )), in all known African Late Pleistocene archaeological sites ( n = 116 sites, n = 409 assemblages, n = 893 dates). In addition, a moving-window, site density population estimate is included at the scale of southern Africa. Backed stone artefacts are argued in many archaeological contexts to have functioned in elaborate technologies like composite weapons and, in the African Pleistocene, are accepted proxies for cultural complexity. They show a broad but sporadic distribution in Africa, prior to their association with Homo sapiens dispersing into Europe 45–40 ka. Two independent population estimates explain this pattern and potentially implicate the interaction of climate change and demography in the expression of cultural complexity in African Pleistocene Homo sapiens . This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’.

Artefact Categories, Artefact Assemblages and Ontological Alterity

Joan Gero argued that archaeological interpretation is not the accumulation of truth but rather an ideological construct. Post-colonial studies building on Gero's work critique notions of universal value, that aspects of human cultural heritage hold value for all peoples. However, these studies are not specific about what a post-colonial analysis of the archaeological record might look like, particularly involving material culture categories. What appear as fundamental artefact classes remain and so appeal to a form of universal value. Here we employ a novel application of the ontological turn, specifically Holbraad's method of ontography, to break away from conventional approaches to stone artefact categorization and interpretation. We use Lucas’ discussion of materialization to develop an alternative approach to artefact categories considering two assemblages of artefacts from the North Island of Aotearoa. Both feature large numbers of obsidian artefacts. The obsidian provides the means to investigate levels of historical use, since the material is identifiable to geological source, analysable technologically and retains traces of use. Using the results of obsidian analyses, we investigate the concepts on which archaeologists have based assessments of the relationships among material culture items, suggesting ways in which archaeologists might consider creating space for post-colonial ontologies.

EXCAVATION REPORT FOR LEANG RAKKOE: A NEW TOALEAN SITE WITH ENGRAVED ART IN THE BOMBORO VALLEY, MAROS REGENCY, SOUTH SULAWESI

Kumpulan pra-Neolitik di Sulawesi Selatan didominasi oleh endapan dari periode Toala, namun demikian sifat dan luas teknokultur Toala masih mengandung teka-teki. Hingga saat ini, kronologi dari teknologi Toala masih belum jelas dan belum ada karya seni yang bisa dikaitkan dengan periode ini, meskipun terdapat seni gua dengan gambar cadas di wilayah Karst Kabupaten Maros dan Pangkep. Ekskavasi dilakukan di ceruk Leang Rakkoe, di Lembah Bomboro Maros, dengan tujuan untuk membantu mengklarifikasi masalah ini. Sementara itu, endapan tersebut terbukti tidak stabil dan tidak bisa dilakukan penanggalan, penggalian ini memberikan wawasan baru tentang teknik pembuatan artefak batu Toala pada situs dengan contoh-contoh seni pahat yang sebelumnya tidak didokumentasikan. South Sulawesi's pre-Neolithic assemblages are dominated by Toalean-period cultural deposits, however the nature and extent of the Toalean technoculture continues to be enigmatic. To date, the chronology of Toalean technology remains unclear, and no art has yet been attributed to this period despite the rich cave art of the karst region of the Maros and Pangkep regencies. An excavation was conducted at Leang Rakkoe rockshelter, in the Bomboro Valley of Maros, in the hope that it could help clarify these issues. While the deposits proved unstable and could not be directly dated, the excavation did provide new insights into Toalean stone artefact manufacture techniques at a site containing previously-undocumented examples of engraved art.

AKMENINIAI GLUDINTI KIRVIAI LIETUVOJE. TIPOLOGIJOS IR TERMINOLOGIJOS PROBLEMOS / GROUND STONE AXES IN LITHUANIA. PROBLEMS OF TYPOLOGY AND TERMINOLOGY

During 1974–1978, the Lithuanian Institute of History published four volumes of the Lietuvos archeologijos atlasas (Atlas of Lithuanian Archaeology). The atlas’s first book, which was edited by Dr habil. Rimutė Rimantienė, was devoted to Stone and Bronze Age sites and stray finds from this period (Atlasas 1974). The separate article of this book (Bagušienė, Rimantienė 1974) encompassed all of the ground stone artefacts that had been mapped and were preserved at that time in Lithuanian museums. The work listed 2560 ground stone artefacts from 1420 find spots and created distribution maps, an index of the main types, and a typology scheme, which Lithuanian archaeologists and museologists have used for almost half a century. The typological scheme of ground stone artefacts created by Ona Bagušienė and Rimutė Rimantienė is seen not as an unalterable constant, but as a dynamic, modifiable classification structure. The article presents insights and thoughts that arose in creating a ground stone artefact database for SW Lithuania (Užnemunė). And examines the most abundant ground artefact ypological group, perforated stone axes. Keywords: perforated ground stone axes, typology, terminology.

Combined organic biomarker and use-wear analyses of stone artefacts from Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia

Organic biomarker and lithic use-wear analyses of archaeological implements manufactured and/or used by hominins in the past offers a means of assessing how prehistoric peoples utilised natural resources. Currently, most studies focus on one of these techniques, rather than using both in sequence. This study aims to assess the potential of combining both methods to analyse stone artefacts, using a set of 69 stones excavated from the cave site of Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia). Prior to chemical analysis, an initial inspection of the artefacts revealed potential use-wear traces but no visible residues. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, including the targeting of 86 lipids, terpenes, terpenoids, alkanes and their analogues, found compounds with plant or animal origin on 27 of the 69 stones. The artefacts were subsequently cleaned, and use-wear analysis identified traces of use on 43 artefacts. Use-wear analysis confirmed traces of use on 23 of the 27 artefacts with potential use-residues that were determined by GC-MS. The GC-MS results were broadly consistent with the functional classes identified in the later use-wear analysis. This inclusive approach for stone artefact analysis strengthens the identifications made through multiple lines of enquiry. There remain conflicts and uncertainties in specific cases, suggesting the need for further refinement and analyses of the relationships between use-wear and residues.

Galisonian logic devices and data availability: revitalising Upper Palaeolithic cultural taxonomies

Reynolds and Riede’s (2019) call for caution in the use of cultural taxonomies in the study of stone artefact assemblages is welcome. In my contribution to this debate, I draw on work in the philosophy of science to explore the implications for archaeology should researchers adopt Reynolds and Riede’s proposals—particularly those concerning data types and data availability.