Non-flint raw materials in the european middle palaeolithic: variability of levallois and discoid knapping methods and study of the supply areas
- Autores: Sara Daffara
- Directores de la Tesis: Marta Arzarello (dir. tes.), Manuel Vaquero Rodríguez (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Rovira i Virgili ( España ) en 2018
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Robert Sala Ramos (presid.), Xavier Terradas Batlle (secret.), Vincent Mourre (voc.)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
The proposed research focuses on the exploitation strategies of non-flint raw materials during Middle Palaeolithic in different European contexts. It is mainly aimed to observe how the Levallois and the discoid knapping methods have been applied and adapted to low quality raw materials.
Lithologies like vein quartz, quartzite, jasper, porphyry and other volcanoc, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks have always been considered as second-choice raw materials, used to produce lithic tools only where flint was missing or difficult to collect. Lithic industries realized on these kinds of raw materials have often been described as “primitive”, ascribing to a supposed technical inability of the knappers the results of a technological behaviour extremely adapted to the mechanical and petrographic characteristics of the lithic raw materials.
The research especially aims to point out any sort of adaptation to the physical and mechanical characteristics of the raw materials during the employment of the Levallois knapping method, both the lineal and the recurrent modalities, or of the discoid knapping method: i.e. the choice of pebbles with convexities suitable for this kind of exploitation or limited phases of shaping of the cores surfaces. The technological studies performed, also allow to make some considerations about the technological criteria defining Levallois and discoid knapping methods and the features that it is useful to consider distinguishing recurrent centripetal Levallois from discoid exploitation strategies.
To achieve the objectives of the present research, four Middle Palaeolithic European sites have been selected. All the sites share the presence in their lithic assemblages of vein quartz as main or complementary raw material and a significant presence of discoid and Levallois reduction sequences applied on different lithologies (vein quartz, quartzite, porphyry, syenite, flint and chert).
The first considered site is the Ciota Ciara cave, located in Piedmont, north-western Italy that present a huge lithic assemblage coming from four stratigraphic units (S.U. 13 – 892 artefacts; S.U. 103 – 430 artefacts; S.U. 14 – 4001 artefacts; S.U. 15 – 1787artefacts). The main lithic raw material employed is vein quartz followed by a local variety of chert (spongolite) and by allochthonous good quality raw materials present just in some units and represented in the site mainly by finished tools. The upper level has already been subject to a technological analysis and to the study of the supply areas of lithic raw materials. In the proposed research the entire lithic assemblage is considered both for the technological study and for the identification of the supply areas of raw materials not yet objects of the previous study. At today, the Ciota Ciara cave is the only Palaeolithic site of the region systematically excavated through a multidisciplinary approach while all the other evidence of a Middle Palaeolithic frequentation of the region come from unauthorized excavations and sporadic findings. For these reasons, the study of the lithic assemblage of the Ciota Ciara cave and the determination of the supply areas of lithic raw materials represents a fundamental starting point to understand the economic behaviour, the technical capabilities, and the modalities of land mobility of the Neanderthal groups that occupy the region during Middle Palaeolithic. Considering the lithic assemblage, the intense use of vein quartz not only for opportunistic reduction sequences but also to produce predetermined tools through Levallois and discoid methods, gives the chance to deeply analyse which adaptation strategies have been adopted for the exploitation of this raw material and also which technological criteria can be used to distinguish and identify these two knapping methods.
The second considered site is Payre, located in the middle Rhône valley and with a lithic assemblage that has been subject to several technological analyses which defined different aspects of the economic behaviour of the human groups that inhabited the site between MIS 8 and MIS 5. The present research focuses on the discoid reduction sequences on flint and vein quartz present in stratigraphic unit D (2315 artefacts), corresponding to the last phase of frequentation of the site. This is the only considered lithic assemblage where flint is the dominant raw material and vein quartz is the complementary one. In this way, we can not only make a comparison between the different raw materials at an intra-site level, but Payre level D also gives the chance to compare the discoid reduction sequences on flint to those of the lithic raw materials present in the other considered sites. Even if chronologically and geographically the considered sites are quite far from each other, a pure technological comparison can be made, and it is useful to better appreciate the technological variability caused by the employment of raw materials with so different petrographic and mechanical features.
Pedra Dreta and Can Garriga are two Middle Palaeolithic sites located in the Ter river valley, close to Girona and dated through the 230Th/U method to OIS 5. Their lithic assemblages were studied through the Logical Analytical System soon after the end of the excavations, in the 90s. In this study we consider the lithic assemblages recovered during the systematic excavations that took place in 1991 (PD: 550 artefacts; CG: 283 artefacts) because the archaeological materials belonging to previous interventions lack a precise stratigraphic reference. In Can Garriga, the lithic assemblage analyzed corresponds to the artefacts coming from the archaeological Level 1. Level 2 and 3 are not considered since the lithic artefacts clearly referable to these archaeological levels are respectively 33 and 32. As for Payre level D, the focus of this new technological analysis are the Levallois and discoid reduction sequences that in Pedra Dreta and Can Garriga are applied on different lithologies: vein quartz, quartzite, porphyry and syenite. These lithic assemblages also give the chance to make some consideration on the concept of predetermination and on the technological criteria useful to identify the intention to produce predetermined tools in a context dominated by an opportunistic behaviour.
The technological analysis of the lithic assemblages from the Ciota Ciara cave (Italy), Payre – level D (France), Pedra Dreta and Can Garriga (Spain) is based on the concept of chaîne operatoire. For the technological analysis of each considered lithic assemblage an Access 2016 database has been realized, where, beside the general references of each piece (site name, stratigraphic unit, square, number), different technological features are considered. Concerning vein quartz, the subdivision in morpho-structural groups has been applied to see if a preferential choice was made for particular petrographic characteristics.
The study of the supply areas of lithic raw materials of the Ciota Ciara cave was performed in different phases: characterization of the lithologies present in the archaeological record through stereomicroscope observation, geological sampling, comparison between the geological samples and the archaeological materials through stereomicroscope observations and µ-XRF analysis. The results obtained for the Ciota Ciara cave allowed to determine the land mobility and the technological behaviour of the Middle Palaeolithic human groups that frequented the region. Beside an intense exploitation of local resources located few hundred meters from the site, lithic raw materials were collected in a range of at least 30 km in a straight line from Monte Fenera.
The technological study performed on the considered lithic assemblages led to achieve interesting results concerning each context, the exploitation of non-flint raw materials and to general observations about the technological criteria useful for the identification of Levallois and discoid reduction sequences.
In the end of this study clearly appears that if it is undeniable that the quality of the raw materials and the morphologies of the natural blanks available strongly affect the choice of the knapping methods, it is evident that Middle Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers adapt technological concepts proper of their background to the resources available, showing great technological skills and the capability to practice complex adaptation strategies.
