L’industrie microlithique du Paléolithique inférieur de Bizat Ruhama, Israël

Bizat Ruhama is a lower Palaeolithic site in the southern coastal plain of Israel. The site was recently dated to ca. 1ma. In terms of lithic industry, Bizat Ruhama is a unique phenomenon amongst the Lower Palaeolithic sites in the Levant. The lithic assemblage of the site is characterized by the production of small (ca. 25mm) tools, flakes and cores. An in-depth technotypological study was made in attempt to reconstruct the production mode of these artifacts. The results presented here reveal a well-developed cognitive production process, which includes selection of special-sized raw material, production of desired blanks and their subsequent shaping into tools. The implications of this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the phenomenon of lower Palaeolithic microlithic industries in Eurasia.     

陕西洋县绿豆梁旧石器遗址出土的石制品

洋县绿豆梁遗址位于汉水北部一级支流金水河左岸的第四级阶地上。为了配合国家重点工程项目——南水北调西线“引汉济渭”工程的建设,2014～2015年对该地点进行了发掘,揭露面积126 m2,出土和采集不同类型的石制品656件。研究显示,早期人类加工石制品的原料来自于河漫滩或阶地古老砾石层中的砾石,岩性包括石英、石英岩、硅质灰岩、石英砂岩、花岗岩等。硬锤打击法是最主要的剥片方式。石制品包含石锤、石核、石片、石器、断块和碎屑等类型。遗址石器组合中既包括刮削器、尖状器、石钻等尺寸较小的轻型石器,也包含重型刮削器、砍砸器等重型石器。通过与位于相同阶地部位、相距2 km的金水河口遗址的测年数据和地层堆积序列对比,绿豆梁遗址的年代属于中更新世时期或更早的时段。     

Quantifying Oldowan Stone Tool Production at Olduvai Gorge,Tanzania

Recent research suggests that variation exists among and between Oldowan stone tool assemblages. Oldowan variation might represent differential constraints on raw materials used to produce these stone implements. Alternatively, variation among Oldowan assemblages could represent different methods that Oldowan producing hominins utilized to produce these lithic implements. Identifying differential patterns of stone tool production within the Oldowan has implications for assessing how stone tool technology evolved, how traditions of lithic production might have been culturally transmitted, and for defining the timing and scope of these evolutionary events. At present there is no null model to predict what morphological variation in the Oldowan should look like. Without such a model, quantifying whether Oldowan assemblages vary due to raw material constraints or whether they vary due to differences in production technique is not possible. This research establishes a null model for Oldowan lithic artifact morphological variation. To establish these expectations this research 1) models the expected range of variation through large scale reduction experiments, 2) develops an algorithm to categorize archaeological flakes based on how they are produced, and 3) statistically assesses the methods of production behavior used by Oldowan producing hominins at the site of DK from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania via the experimental model. Results indicate that a subset of quartzite flakes deviate from the null expectations in a manner that demonstrates efficiency in flake manufacture, while some basalt flakes deviate from null expectations in a manner that demonstrates inefficiency in flake manufacture. The simultaneous presence of efficiency in stone tool production for one raw material (quartzite) and inefficiency in stone tool production for another raw material (basalt) suggests that Oldowan producing hominins at DK were able to mediate the economic costs associated with stone tool procurement by utilizing high-cost materials more efficiently than is expected and low-cost materials in an inefficient manner.     

Hominin occupations at the Dmanisi site, Georgia, Southern Caucasus: raw materials and technical behaviours of Europe's first hominins

Dmanisi is the oldest site outside of Africa that records unquestioned hominin occupations as well as the dispersal of hominins in Europe and Asia. The site has yielded large numbers of artefacts from several periods of hominin occupation. This analysis of Dmanisi stone tool technology includes a review of all the pieces recovered during the last 15 years of excavations. This lithic assemblage gives insights into the hominin behaviour at 1.7-1.8 Ma in Eurasia. Dmanisi hominins exploited local rocks derived from either nearby riverbeds or outcrops, and petrographic study provides data on patterns of stone procurement. Recent geological surveys and technological studies of the artefacts illustrate the roles of hominins in composing the assemblage. Dmanisi hominins selected two types of blanks, including cobbles and angular blocks, of basalt, andesite, and tuffs. Many complete cobbles, pebbles, and rolled blocks in basalt were unmodified, and geological analyses and surveys indicate that hominins brought manuports back to the site, suggesting a complex procurement strategy. Cores, flakes and debris show that all stages of flaking activity took place at the site. Numerous unifacial cores suggest that knapping was not very elaborate. Centripetal knapping is observed on some flake-cores. Knapping was influenced by the blank shape and natural angles. Most flaked objects were either cores or chopper-cores. Flakes predominate while flake tools are rare. The Dmanisi lithic assemblage is comparable to Oldowan sites in Africa in terms of reduction sequence, organisation of the removals, platform types, and the lack of retouched flakes. Dmanisi artefacts and may have been produced by the original hominins in Europe and Asia.     

The TD6 level lithic industry from Gran Dolina, Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain): production and use.

Technological analysis of lithic artefacts recovered at the Aurora stratum of Atapuerca-TD6 shows that this Lower Pleistocene assemblage is similar to Mode I Technology (=Oldowan tradition) documented at many African sites. Diachronic comparison of the different levels of Gran Dolina allows us to conclude that this particular form of early European technology lacks the production of big flakes to manufacture large tools such as bifaces and cleavers. Rather, it is characterized by the presence of small artefacts, including flakes, denticulates, notches, and side-scrapers, many of which bear use-wear traces of butchery and woodworking. The dominant production technique is orthogonal, which is also reflected in the core recovered at the slightly older level of TD4. The raw materials also found in the Middle Pleistocene occupations at Atapuerca, though with significant proportion differences, have a local origin and include varieties of flint, quartzite and sandstone as well as limestone and quartz. TD6 small artefacts were made from most of these, although the retouched pieces seem to have been preferentially made of the best quality flint, i.e., Cretaceous flint, pointing to the existence of differential use of lithic material, and therefore, some degree of planned knapping behaviour. Most of the "cha?nes opératoires" or reduction sequences took place inside the cave, although some artefacts, elaborated on Cretaceous flint, seem to have been retouched off site, possibly near the supply sources.     

四川汉源富林遗址石制品再研究

富林遗址出土的细小石器在20世纪发现之初便引起了广泛关注,是南方小型石制品组合的典型代表且具有特殊的研究价值。本文结合已有报告对石制品进行再研究,认为富林遗址石器工业整体仍以石核-石片技术为主导,包含小型石片产品和似石叶产品,未见细石叶技术相关产品。在石器修理与使用方面,除较为常见的刃部正向修理之外,对石片未加工刃缘的直接使用也较为突出;并观察到对装柄部位修理的例子,指示了复合工具的使用。富林遗址的石制品技术反映的是青藏高原边缘地带人群在更新世末-全新世初对气候环境、原料条件及人口规模变化作出的适应。在更新世末-全新世中期,中国南方的小型石制品组合远不止富林遗址这一例,各地人群为适应生态环境而发展出了多样的石制品组合,形成了较为多元化的格局。     

The Unknown Oldowan: ~1.7-Million-Year-Old Standardized Obsidian Small Tools from Garba IV,Melka Kunture,Ethiopia

The Oldowan Industrial Complex has long been thought to have been static, with limited internal variability, embracing techno-complexes essentially focused on small-to-medium flake production. The flakes were rarely modified by retouch to produce small tools, which do not show any standardized pattern. Usually, the manufacture of small standardized tools has been interpreted as a more complex behavior emerging with the Acheulean technology. Here we report on the ~1.7 Ma Oldowan assemblages from Garba IVE-F at Melka Kunture in the Ethiopian highland. This industry is structured by technical criteria shared by the other East African Oldowan assemblages. However, there is also evidence of a specific technical process never recorded before, i.e. the systematic production of standardized small pointed tools strictly linked to the obsidian exploitation. Standardization and raw material selection in the manufacture of small tools disappear at Melka Kunture during the Lower Pleistocene Acheulean. This proves that 1) the emergence of a certain degree of standardization in tool-kits does not reflect in itself a major step in cultural evolution; and that 2) the Oldowan knappers, when driven by functional needs and supported by a highly suitable raw material, were occasionally able to develop specific technical solutions. The small tool production at ~1.7 Ma, at a time when the Acheulean was already emerging elsewhere in East Africa, adds to the growing amount of evidence of Oldowan techno-economic variability and flexibility, further challenging the view that early stone knapping was static over hundreds of thousands of years.     

Oldowayen archaïque et Oldowayen classique de l’Afrique à l’Europe méditerranéenne

Analyzing lithic industries of Lower Pleistocene and beginning of Middle Pleistocene times allows to define three groups not clearly chronological but which reflect the cognitive evolution of prehistoric Men who knapped them and the constraints of the environment: - “Archaic Oldowan” industries in which raw flakes are dominant and no small tools retouched on flakes or debris are present; - “Classical Oldowan” industries in which raw flakes are dominant and small tools retouched on flakes and debris – especially scrapers – are present; - “Acheulean industries”, in which bifaces are present – generally in small proportions – and small retouched tools are increasingly standardized.     

Insights into early lithic technologies from ethnography

Oldowan lithic assemblages are often portrayed as a product of the need to obtain sharp flakes for cutting into animal carcases. However, ethnographic and experimental research indicates that the optimal way to produce flakes for such butchering purposes is via bipolar reduction of small cryptocrystalline pebbles rather than from larger crystalline cores resembling choppers. Ethnographic observations of stone tool-using hunter-gatherers in environments comparable with early hominins indicate that most stone tools (particularly chopper forms and flake tools) were used for making simple shaft tools including spears, digging sticks and throwing sticks. These tools bear strong resemblances to Oldowan stone tools. Bipolar reduction for butchering probably preceded chopper-like core reduction and provides a key link between primate nut-cracking technologies and the emergence of more sophisticated lithic technologies leading to the Oldowan.     

Caractéristiques techno-économiques de l’industrie lithique d’un site acheuléen de surface : Aïn Dfali,Ouazzane, Maroc

The site of Aïn Dfali is located in the south of Ouazzane city of, in the Northwest of the village Aïn Defali. This area is situated at the western end of the Gharb plain in the southern area of pre-Rif tables. The Quaternary formations are located on the right bank of the river Redat. The large hills, at the West of Aïn Dfali village, consist of alluvium gravel attributed to Early Quaternary. In the foothills, the Middle Quaternary takes place with an attenuated highlighted. The exploited raw material used to make the lithic industries, found on the site, consists mainly of quartzite with a choice of mid/big-sized blocks. The reduction sequences are not complete as demonstrated by the absence of preparation and small flakes. Debitage and shaping reduction sequences coexist in this site. The shaping is essentially represented by handaxes and chopper-cores. Handaxes are often shaped on one side and show significant cortical residues; they are shaped on flakes elongated and flattened cobbles. The flakes used as blanks are generally cortical. The chopper-cores are exploited by unifacial unipolar knapping (from 3 to 5 removals) and show a probably non-functional sinuous edge. The utilized methods of knapping are Levallois (recurrent and lineal), discoid bifacial and unifacial and SSDA. The SSDA method shows the exploitation of 2/4 knapping platforms by an unipolar method aimed at obtaining large/medium sized flakes with irregular shapes and often lateral cortical residues. Very few retouched blanks were found. The Levallois debitage is done on flat and rounded cobbles, the preparation of the Levallois surface is carried out by centripetal knapping and the debitage surfaces show the detachment of a preferential flake, with a round shape, or a recurrent (centripetal or unipolar) exploitation; also documented is the production of Levallois points. The discoid debitage is performed on rounded cobbles, it is mostly unifacial and it shows the preferential exploitation of a pronounced convexity or the alternating exploitation of two opposing convexities. The flakes obtained are thick and have a triangular/rectangular shape with converging negatives. The material found in Aïn Dfali is the result of a selective transport and is in the secondary position but allows to certify an important prehistoric Acheulian occupation in the region.     

陕西汉中洋县金水河口旧石器遗址出土石制品研究

位于汉水左岸一级支流金水河第四级阶地的金水河口遗址是汉水流域发现较早的一处旧石器遗址。2014年6月~2015年2月,为了配合国家重点建设工程——南水北调西线“引汉济渭”项目的实施,我们对金水流域金水镇附近的3个旧石器遗址进行了正式发掘,金水河口遗址即为其中之一。该遗址发掘面积370m²,出土不同类型石制品1210件。研究显示在金水河口遗址生活的古人类主要选取附近河滩砾石为原料进行剥片及工具加工。石制品的岩性以石英和石英岩为主,硅质灰岩次之,并少量使用了石英砂岩和花岗岩原料。古人类主要使用锤击法剥片。遗址中石核的利用效率较低,近半数石片有直接使用的痕迹。加工工具的毛坯以石片为主。工具类型除了刮削器、凹缺器、石锥等小型工具之外,还有砍砸器、手镐、重型刮削器等重型工具。遗址中碎屑数量很少。石制品组合以刮削器等小型工具为主,也包含少量重型工具。相较于汉中盆地已发现的遗址,金水河口遗址的文化面貌与洛南盆地中更新世的龙牙洞遗址更相似,但是重型工具的比例更高。由于遗址堆积物已超出了钾长石红外后释光测年法（post-IR IRSL）的测年范畴,目前只能给出遗址的埋藏时间下限,即埋藏石制品地层的年代不晚于150 ka。作为汉中盆地有明确测年的中更新世晚期遗址,金水河口遗址为我们系统了解汉江支流金水河流域和秦岭地区的石器工业特点、遗址地层堆积及年代等提供了新的、丰富的材料。     

陕西洛南盆地延岭旧石器地点发掘报告

延岭地点处于东秦岭洛南盆地南洛河第二级阶地上,属盆地西部“四十里梁塬”中部,紧邻支流县河。2012年10～11月对该地点进行发掘,揭露面积251 m²,在地表耕土层和平整土地扰动层、原生黄土和古土壤层出土石料、石核、石片、各类修理的石器、断块、碎屑等不同类型石制品856件。延岭地点加工石制品的主要原料为附近河流阶地砾石堆积中的砾石,以石英为主,石英岩次之,石英砂岩、砂岩、火成岩、硅质岩等偶有使用。剥片方式主要为锤击法,偶见砸击法。石制品以小型为主。石器组合包括刮削器、尖状器、石锥、凹缺器、薄刃斧和手镐。遗址地层光释光年代学研究显示该地点埋藏石制品的地层形成于中更新世晚期至晚更新世早期,其中距今12～7万年之间的晚更新世早期为石制品埋藏最为丰富的时段。     

Lower Paleolithic hominin ecology at the fringe of the desert: Faunal remains from Bizat Ruhama and Nahal Hesi, Northern Negev, Israel

The Southern Levant is a pivotal area for the study of hominin paleoecology during the Lower Paleolithic, because of its location on the out-of-Africa dispersal route and its significant ecological diversity. Important information has been gained by archaeofaunal studies, which usually reveal that exploitation of diverse Mediterranean environments with woodlands, marshes and lake margins, represents a dominant subsistence strategy for Lower Paleolithic hominins. Here, we present new taxonomic and taphonomic data from two sites in the southern coastal plain of the Southern Levant, at the fringe of the Negev Desert: Bizat Ruhama (Early Pleistocene) and Nahal Hesi (Middle Pleistocene). The sites preserve anthropogenic faunas, with the former signaling a marrow-exploitation strategy, perhaps related to scavenging from carnivore kills, and the latter showing evidence for primary access to fleshed ungulate carcasses. The species composition of these Northern Negev sites is unique for the Levantine Lower Paleolithic in that these sites lack typical woodland and riparian species, probably indicating an open, relatively uniform environment with patchy water sources and trees, much like this semiarid region today. Bizat Ruhama and Nahal Hesi are among the only Levantine Lower Paleolithic faunas associated with such a setting, thereby widening the known spectrum of environments exploited by hominins in the region. It is suggested that the two sites, coupled with the nearby Late Pleistocene evidence, reflect a largely stable semiarid environment on the northwestern fringe of the Negev Desert throughout much of the Pleistocene.     

洛南花石浪龙牙洞1995年出土石制品研究

1995─1997年,经过连续3年对洛南盆地花石浪龙牙洞遗址的发掘,获得20余种哺乳动物、鸟类和水生动物化石以及包括人类生活踩踏面、灰烬层、烧石、烧骨和77000余件石制品在内的大量的人类文化遗迹和遗物。本文是1995年度龙牙洞内顶部扰动层及第4层上部出土的18608件各类石制品的阶段性研究成果。研究结果显示石制品是以中小型石片和简单的石片工具为代表的旧石器时代早期文化,而龙牙洞是一处内涵丰富的早期人类居住类型遗址。     

蔚县盆地2019-2020年旧石器考古调查

作为广义泥河湾盆地的重要组成部分,蔚县盆地也曾是更新世期间古人类生存活动的重要地区。2019-2020年度在蔚县盆地开展了新一轮的旧石器考古调查工作,发现并确认18处旧石器和动物化石地点,获得35件石制品以及少量动物化石。从文化遗存的出露层位来看,泥河湾河湖相地层和黄土堆积是遗物埋藏的主要地貌部位。石制品类型包括石锤、石核(含细石核)、废片和工具;原料以火山岩、燧石和石英岩为主;石核剥片和工具修理均主要采用锤击法。技术类型总体上包含了简单石核石片技术和细石叶技术两套组合。结合相关地貌、地层对比资料以及石制品的类型特征,初步推测新地点的时代分别为中更新世和晚更新世,其中含细石叶技术制品地点的年代应为晚更新世晚期。     

泥河湾盆地麻地沟E5旧石器地点的遗址成因与石器技术

麻地沟E5旧石器地点位于泥河湾盆地东端岑家湾台地古人类活动集中区,埋藏于泥河湾层灰白色-灰黄色细砂和粉砂层内。遗址发现于2007年,中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所于2014年对其进行考古发掘,揭露面积22m~2,出土143件石制品、8件动物碎骨和235件砾石。遗址成因(标本分布状况、原料与个体大小、风化磨蚀状况和标本空间聚集特征等)分析表明,遗址形成受到明显的水流搬运和改造。石制品原料均来自遗址周围1km~2范围内,岩性以硅质白云岩、燧石和火山岩为主;锤击法剥片和修理石器,剥片和修理随意,石制品形态无定型,显示旧石器时代早期奥杜威(Oldowan)工业特点。初步古地磁年代测定显示古人类在该遗址活动的时间大致为1.20 Ma。该遗址的发掘对研究泥河湾盆地早更新世遗址成因与古人类的生存方式具有重要意义。     

The Lower Palaeolithic assemblage of Layers 15–18 (Unit G) at Hummal. An exemplary case addressing the problems placing undated,archaic-looking stone tool assemblages in the Early and Lower Palaeolithic record by techno-typological classification

The site of Hummal is situated in the region of El Kowm in central Syria. The site comprises an archaeological sequence covering the entire Pleistocene epoch, and encompasses all major Palaeolithic complexes currently known in the Middle East. At the base of the site, 14 m below today's ground level, several layers with a lithic assemblage attributed to the Lower Palaeolithic have been excavated over the past years. At present, the collection recovered from this lowest succession at Hummal contains more than 700 stone artefacts and more than 3000 bone fragments. The lithic assemblage is characterized by a simple flaking technique and the presence of different pebble tools, such as choppers, hammerstones and sphaeroids. Additionally four handaxes were recovered, which have a symmetric shape, are clearly bifacial and rather flat. The lithic assemblage from the lowermost layers of the Hummal excavation largely resembles an Archaic, Lower Palaeolithic assemblage, belonging to the so-called Oldowan or Mode 1 stage. However, the presence of well-shaped and symmetric handaxes sheds doubt on the validity of this attribution to a Mode 1, Oldowan or the Early Acheulean Stage. It can, therefore, be debated, whether the common classifications of lithic industries are adequate for describing the archaeological record from the period in question in the Middle East.     

The Oldowan site of Muhkai II,layer 80 (northeastern Caucasus): Spatial structure and cultural and chronological attribution of the lithic assemblage

In 2004–2006 a group of Lower Palaeolithic sites was discovered in the northeastern Caucasus: Ainikab I–VI, Gegalashur I–III and Muhkai I–II. Since then, they have been the subject of comprehensive scientific investigations. One site which is undergoing active research is the multilayered site of Muhkai II. Multiple cultural layers at the site have been found in a 73 m thick sequence of Early Pleistocene sediments. The geological age of the layers encompasses the interval 2.1–0.8 million years ago, or the majority of the Early Pleistocene. Layer 80 of Muhkai II is located in the central part of the section at a depth of −33.6 to −34.0 m. Its significance lies in the fact that the site contains two cultural layers–the upper and the lower (main)–that are preserved in situ or have been subject to minimal fluvial processes. The finds consist of lithic artefacts and osseous faunal remains. According to field observations and microstratigraphic analyses, the cultural layers can be characterised as the ancient surfaces of an occupation area. Two stages of occupation can be defined in the lower cultural layer. Layer 80 of Muhkai II was a periodically visited location at the banks of a waterbody, where the acquisition and butchery of large mammals took place. The faunal collection contains 301 bones, deriving from four carnivorous and six herbivorous species of mammals. The total lithic collection contains 1094 finds. According to typological and technological criteria the lithic assemblage relates to the Oldowan and has analogies with Oldowan sites in Africa (particularly with sites of the Olduvai Gorge as well as others). At the same time, some specifics of the lithic assemblage reflect the uniqueness of the site and its functional type. Layer 80 of the Muhkai II site is estimated to date to within the chronological interval ∼2.1–1.7 mya.     

The Vallonnet cave on the northern Mediterranean border: A record of one of the oldest human presences in Europe

Prehistoric sites testifying to human presence older than one million years in Europe are rare, and in the current state of knowledge, the oldest of them have been dated to around 1.4–1.5 Ma. The Vallonnet cave at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in the Alpes-Maritimes, on the Mediterranean border, is one of the oldest sites in France to have yielded evidence of human activity: a lithic assemblage of about a hundred pieces and traces of butchery on bones of an Epivillafranchian fauna. The archaeological levels of this small cave were recently dated between 1.1 and 1.2 Ma by U-Pb correlated with paleomagnetic data. The site was occupied alternately by large carnivores that used it as a den or a lair, and by hominins that stayed there briefly in bivouac. The lithic remains are mainly percussion tools, shaped pebbles, flakes and cores, whose raw materials are local, or even semi-local, and on the whole not very diversified with mainly limestone, and to a lesser extent sandstone, quartzite, flint and quartz. This assemblage is attributed to a Mode 1 technology (Oldowayen), among which macro-tools (hammerstones, shaped and fractured pebbles) are found alongside rarer elements resulting from debitage operating chains aimed at producing sharp-edged flakes, very rarely retouched. The bipolar-on-anvil flaking technique could be identified from the characteristics of some artifacts. Several refitting flakes on shaped pebbles or percussion tools attest to knapping and percussion activities in the cave. Hominins consumed the remains of large herbivore carcasses, as attested by the presence of cutting and fracturing marks on some bones. The presence of a freshwater source in the immediate vicinity, and the knapping and butchering activities here therefore document the subsistence behavior of Lower Pleistocene human groups, certainly in competition with the carnivores present.     

黄河中游晋陕峡谷陕西侧龙门至壶口段新发现的石制品

2019-2020年,在黄河中游晋陕峡谷陕西一侧龙门至壶口段新发现9处旷野旧石器地点,采集石制品136件,部分石制品直接采自地层剖面上。康家岭地点石制品的埋藏地层为马兰黄土底部的洪积碎屑层,时代可能为晚更新世早期。苏家岭地点有1件石制品出自MIS3阶段弱古土壤层之下的洪积碎屑层,光释光年龄为距今7.2±0.7万年。其余大部分石制品的埋藏地层为马兰黄土层,时代为晚更新世中、晚期,其中凉泉沟地点埋藏石制品的黄土地层光释光年龄大于距今5万年。古人类加工石制品的原料主要为砾石,岩性以石英岩为主,其次为石英,此外还有少量燧石、细砂岩和硅质岩。石制品类型包括石核、石片、石器和断块。个体大小以中小型为主。石核和石片以自然台面者为主,剥片主要采用硬锤锤击法直接剥片,少量应用砸击法。石器有中小型的刮削器、凹缺器和大型的砍砸器,均属简单石核-石片技术产品。本次新发现的旧石器地点进一步扩大了晋陕峡谷地区旧石器时代遗存的时空分布范围,有助于后续相关研究工作的开展。