A Leaf Point Documents Hunting with Spears in the Middle Paleolithic at Hohle Fels, Germany

During the 2020 season at Hohle Fels Cave in the Ach Valley of southwestern Germany the excavation team from the University of Tübingen recovered a bifacial leaf point in archaeological horizon (AH) X. This horizon is the fifth deepest of the Middle Paleolithic horizons at the site and is located roughly 120 cm beneath the base of the rich Aurignacian layers of the cave. The new leaf point, or Blattspitze in German, is the first artifact of its kind found in situ in the Swabian caves since Gustav Riek’s excavation at Haldenstein Cave near the source of the Lone River recovered two leaf points in excellent preservation in 1936. The new find allowed our team to conduct the first techno-functional study of a freshly recovered leaf point from the European Middle Paleolithic. This study demonstrates that the leaf point was hafted at the less pointy end of the artifact. The leaf point bears clear damage to the pointed end of the artifact that occurred during a hunting episode. A Neanderthal knapper further damaged the tool during an attempt to resharpen and rejuvenate the tool. This damage was likely the reason the knapper discarded the leaf point at Hohle Fels. This result and a re-examination of the two leaf points from Haldenstein Cave indicate that late Neanderthals used Blattspitzen for hunting large game. The current results do not explicitly prove that spears with hafted leaf points were always thrown or used as thrusting spears, and one can easily imagine scenarios in which a weapon of this kind could be used in both ways. Ideally, the ongoing excavation at Hohle Fels will recover more leaf points, which will give us the opportunity to document the technological variability of this kind of tool with regard to their manufacture, function and life history. We also view the current research at Hohle Fels as an excellent opportunity to gain a better and more strongly contextualized understanding of the technological system linking lithic, botanical and osseous technologies during this phase of the Middle Paleolithic. This paper also considers the place that hafted leaf points have within the broader evolutionary development of hunting and projectile technology.

Investigating the 1930s Kohl-Larsen collection from the Lake Eyasi Basin, Tanzania

Since more than 80 years, the University of Tübingen hosts the archaeological collections excavated by Margit and Ludwig Kohl-Larsen between 1934 and 1939 in modern-day Tanzania. Despite the great scientific relevance of these collections, most of them were never published on an international scale and were thus unavailable for the broader Africanist archaeological community. In the light of new excavations around Lake Eyasi, conducted jointly by the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Tübingen and the Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, we decided to under­take a new inventory of the Kohl-Larsen collection, to analyze the assemblages using state of the art methods, link them with new excavation data and make them internationally available. As a first step, here we want to introduce the project by reporting on some preliminary observations from Njarasa Cave. Ultimately this research will help to create a coherent reconstruction of human cultural change and behavioral adaptions over the last ~200.000 years in this important archaeological landscape.

Molluscs of the Genus Glycymeris from Vogelherd Cave near Niederstotzingen (Lonetal, Southwestern Germany)

The site of Vogelherd in the Lone Valley of southwestern Germany has become world famous for its many unique artworks made from mammoth ivory, personal ornaments, flute fragments, lithic artifacts, and antler and bone artifacts. In the study below, the molluscs from Vogelherd are presented, offering us new insights on the mobility and social behavior of Aurignacian groups in the Lone Valley. Some of the mollusc finds come from the 1931 excavation of Gustav Riek; however, most of them were uncovered during the later re-excavations of the site between 2005 and 2012. In order to provide context for these finds, we compare the molluscs from Vogelherd with those from across Central Europe. The identifiable fragments from Vogelherd belong to the genus Glycymeris. The Glycymeris molluscs originated from the Mainz Basin. This determination makes it possible to reconstruct one of the farthest long-distance connections known for the Upper Paleolithic in Germany. In addition to the Glycymeris finds, we present a tool that was also made from a mollusc. This mollusc-tool, coming from the excavation of 1931 and attributed to the Aurignacian, is a unique find for this time period of southern Germany. With this piece, along with microscopic examinations and discussions of the Glycymeris molluscs, we present a wide range of possible uses for these finds. For example, we discuss the possible use of the molluscs as ochre containers. To test this, we used EDX-analysis and a raster electron microscope. We compare the Glycymeris molluscs of Vogelherd with those from Gravettian and Magdalenian contexts at Hohle Fels, Geißenklösterle, Petersfels, and Gnirshöhle, and we provide a list of all sites from Germany, Switzerland, Eastern France, and Belgium with Glycymeris finds. We use size comparisons to show differences as well among the Glycymeris finds of Vogelherd and other Upper Paleolithic sites in southwestern Germany. In conclusion, we demonstrate that the Glycymeris molluscs of Vogelherd best fit into the Aurignacian, and we provide other Aurignacian sites that contained similar finds. By discussing other long-distance connections in the Aurignacian of southern Germany, it becomes evident that Glycymeris molluscs are not specific only to the Swabian Aurignacian.

A Lacustrine Revolution: Adaptive Shifts in the Late Glacial of South Central Europe

The environmental changes in Europe at the end of the last ice age had profound effects on human populations. One of these changes, the development of numerous lakes in the region north of the Alps, created new habitats and niches that were rapidly exploited, with significant effects on many aspects of behavior. The record of environmental and archaeological changes in southern Germany and Switzerland are examined with an emphasis on some of the implications of the resulting change in settlement patterns.

A Swiss Army Knife from the Upper Paleolithic? Experiments on Non-Projectile Uses of Backed Pieces

Backed lithic artifacts are an important part of the Upper Paleolithic tool kit, and are often among the most abundant categories of lithic tools found at Magdalenian and Gravettian sites. Often these tools are exclusively referred to as projectiles, and indeed many – if not most – backed pieces may have been parts of composite projectile heads, mounted laterally onto organic points (e.g., Allain and Descouts 1957; Allain 1979; Abramova 1982; Bergman and Newcomer 1983; Leroi­ Gourhan 1983; Plisson 1985; Nuzhnyi 1993; Christensen and Valentin 2004; Sano 2009; Langlais 2010; Araujo­Igreja 2011; Tomasso et al. 2018). Experiments of varying comprehensiveness concerned with the use of (Magdalenian) backed pieces as projectile inserts have confirmed the effectivity of this setup (e.g., Moss and Newcomer 1982; Pétillon et al. 2011; Gauvrit Roux et al. 2020). However, backed pieces sometimes also served other purposes like cutting, sawing, shaving, scraping or perforating (Moss and Newcomer 1982; Moss 1983; Owen 1988; Piel­Desruisseaux 1998; Christensen and Valentin 2004; Taller et al. 2012). The modular technological system involving these lithic artifacts is highly versatile, mobile and dynamic as there are numerous possibilities of use and as the small lithic inserts are easy to transport and the composite tools themselves are easy to maintain and repair. Here, we present the results of an experiment where different tasks were carried out using backed pieces hafted in a wooden handle or operated handheld. The design of the handles loosely follows examples found at Canadian Dorset sites where bladelets comparable in size to Magdalenian backed pieces were hafted and used as knives (Owen 1988, 88ff.). We tried out the tools in various activities (cutting, perforating and carving/whittling) on a set of worked materials (wood, antler, marine shell, smoked meat, dried, semi­tanned hide, and tanned leather). After the completion of these tasks, the applicability, durability and usefulness of the setup were evaluated and the lithic inserts were checked microscopically for use­wear traces.

Functional Study of an Archaeological Tool of Mammoth Ivory with Four Spiral Holes

In an archaeological experiment, the hypothesis was tested whether the replica of a perforated bâton percé with four spiral holes made from mammoth ivory, which was excavated in 2015 at Hohle Fels Cave in Schelklingen, is suitable for making ropes. For this purpose, the author has experimentally carved the object with tools based on corresponding devices from the Upper Paleolithic. Leather cords were used to make the rope, which were fed through the four holes as a bundle of fibers. The four strands were twisted individually and finally twisted into a four-strand rope. At least six participants are required to successfully conduct the experiment. As a result, it is shown that rope production is possible using the bâton percé.