Productions lithiques et comportements techno-économiques de groupes humains acheuléens et moustériens en région liguro-provençale

Acheulean and Mousterian human occupations left an abundant record of lithic productions in the Liguro-Provençal region. Certain sites show the transition between the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, yielding industries in which the shaping of bifaces continued along with partial Levallois reduction and the development of light-duty, retouched Mousterian tools. In the more recent sites, Mousterian lithic productions show further development in Levallois reduction techniques and sometimes blade production, while shaping techniques disappeared. The transport of artefacts of exotic lithic raw materials from sometimes very distant sources had already occurred by the end of the Acheulean, and the example of the use of allochthonous jasper illustrates an aspect of techno-economical behaviours and the mobility of these human groups. Such transport of jasper blanks from distant sources became further developed at certain Mousterian sites in Liguria, but with the addition of knapping and retouching activities at the occupation sites.     

Prospections systématiques d’une vallée entre Rhône et Loire (France). Une cartographie de l’occupation à la fin de l’Acheuléen ?

Systematic surveys on the Rhins Valley, a little tributary of the Loire River (South East France), have yielded lithic assemblages for more than 20 years. The number of open-air localities totals at that moment 28. The assemblages are composed for the most of bifaces, cores, including many Levallois cores, and flakes. Although the number of pieces varies in localities, data recorded for more than 20 years are enough to map a small size territory and compare assemblages attributed to the end of the “Acheulean”. Comparison of strategies, debitage and façonnage, provides hypotheses on the type of occupation of the valley, with living spots located on the flint outcrops and asking both a heavy-duty component and flaking products. Some main categories of bifacial tools are present, mainly on flint. The ratio of bifaces and intensity of shaping seems to distinguish the series. The Levallois core technology is used in large quantity associated to diverse other core technologies. These sites located on the plateaus bordering the valley offer the opportunity to describe human occupations on a micro-regional scale, occupations sharing technological common features. These occupations are located between the Saône-Rhône corridor and the isolated basins of the Massif Central. The rhodanian corridor has yielded at that moment few evidence of Acheulean open-air human occupations. These sites attest that systematic surveys have to continue on these areas to complete the knowledge on the occupations.     

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。     

Blades,bladelets and flakes: A case of variability in tool design at the dawn of the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy

Neanderthals left diverse sets of cultural evidence just before the Middle–Upper Palaeolithic transition in Europe. Within this evidence, the production of lithic implements plays a key role in detecting possible affiliations (or lack thereof) with the techno-complexes that occurred during the few millennia before the large-scale spread of the Proto-Aurignacian. This crucial phase has also been recorded in the North of Italy, where around 44–45 ky cal BP, the last Neanderthals were still using the Levallois knapping technique, in common with the technology adopted at several sites in the central Mediterranean region. A similar picture is seen at the Grotta di Fumane, which provides the evidence presented in this paper. The production technology employed produced different levels of variability with respect to the production of blades, sometimes pointed, and the use of recurrent centripetal flaking at the end of the reduction sequence, in addition to bladelet and Discoidal volumetric structures. This variability does not outweigh the dominant tendency towards the use of elongated Levallois blanks and other by-products for shaping into basic retouched tools such as simple or convergent scrapers and points. A break from this apparently well-rooted use of the unipolar Levallois method is recorded in the Uluzzian where, instead, flakes and cores were made using the centripetal modality.     

2004年新疆旧石器考古调查简报

2004年5-6月,中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所和新疆文物考古研究所联合组队,在新疆北部和中部进行了旧石器时代考古调查。发现24个石器地点和数千件石制品,采集和试掘出500余件石制品;绝大多数石制品来自于地表,少数出自原生地层。石制品类型多样,包括普通石核与石片、棱柱状石核、石叶、两面器、细石叶石核、细石叶、勒瓦娄哇石核与石片等;原料种类多样,尺寸、形态、技术变异大。从技术与类型判断,这些不同地点的文化材料时代跨度较大,较早的可能属旧石器时代晚期之初,甚至旧石器时代中期,较晚的则可能属于新石器时代早中期。较早阶段的石制品组合与中亚、西伯利亚阿尔泰地区同期遗址的文化面貌有相似之处,也与我国水洞沟遗址的石叶遗存有一定联系。骆驼石遗址及其丰富的勒瓦娄哇制品及大型石叶制品是本次调查的最大收获。本次调查的成果表明,新疆地区在旧石器时代晚期是人类迁徙和生存演化的活跃地带,留下丰富的文化遗存,对研究当时人类技术、文化特点和适应生存能力提供了重要材料与信息;很多地点具有与欧洲、俄罗斯阿尔泰地区旧石器时代中、晚期相似的文化遗存,对研究当时欧亚大陆古人群的迁徙、融合和文化交流具有重要价值;该地区具有发现更多、更重要的旧石器时代遗址并开展深入的考古发掘与研究的巨大潜力。     

阿舍利大石片的生产方式与策略

阿舍利技术的两个核心要素在于剥取大石片以及制作手斧等定型化大型工具。目前,国内有关手斧工业的研究中,关注较多的是大型工具的加工与制作,而对于大石片生产的方式与策略则缺乏系统的研究和介绍。本文重点介绍和综述了目前国外发现和报道的大石片生产技术,并对每种技术的具体特点进行了分析和阐释。根据剥片复杂程度的不同,阿舍利大石片生产技术可细分为三类;第一类指砾石初级剥片技术,是利用原料的自然特征,选择合适台面和剥片角度进行单次剥片;第二类包括两面剥片技术、板状石核剥片技术和昆比哇技术,是在了解原料特征的基础上,对石核进行有计划的剥片,以便连续生产出多个大石片;第三类包括奇尔基技术、塔拜勒巴拉-塔奇恩基特技术和西维多利亚技术,是在较为复杂的剥片流程引导下,通过对石核的预制,获取具有相对稳定形态的大石片。在此基础上,初步分析了广西百色盆地发现的大型石核和大石片标本,探讨其在深入认识该地区石器工业面貌方面的作用和意义。     

Le Paléolithique ancien de l’Europe orientale et du Caucase

Currently, only Tréhougol’naya Cave has reliably dated evidence for human settlement in Eastern Europe and Caucasus, from the beginning through the middle of the Middle Pleistocene. In Eastern Europe, assemblages from Khriatchi and Mikhailovskoé, and possibly Darvagchai I, appear to be the only stratified locations that tentatively can be compared (despite problems with these materials) with Tréhougol’naya. In the eastern limits of Central Europe, layer VI in Korolevo I is the only stratified assemblage that may be compared with Tréhougol’naya. All these Lower Paleolithic occupations yielded the Pre-Mousterian small tool industries with some pebble tools, but without Acheulean bifaces and Levallois technique. These data suggest that Eastern Europe lies outside the distribution range of the Acheulean techno-complex demarcated with the “Movius Line”. In the Southern Caucasus, the Dmanissi hominine and lithic records document the fact that the earliest small-brained humans – probably later H. habilis-rudolfensis or earlier H. ergaster-erectus hominids bearing Pre-Oldowan technology – initially left Africa and appeared in Western Asia as early as 1.8 Ma ago. However, in the Southern Caucasus, the available chronological data indicate that the Acheulean complex has a later temporal appearance here compared to the Upper Acheulean or Acheulo-Yabrudian in Western Asia. Two main Upper Acheulean industrial variants currently can be recognized in the Southern Caucasus. The first, called the Kudarian by the author (from the caves of Kudaro I, Kudaro III, and Azyk), is characterized by lithics made from mostly siliceous rocks, rare Acheulean bifaces, and non-Levallois flaking technique. The second variant is characterized by lithics made from volcanic rocks, numerous Acheulean bifaces, and often more laminar or Levallois debitage. It can be suggested that there are independent origins for these Southern Caucasus Upper Acheulean industrial variants. Possible roots of the Acheulean assemblages of Kudarian variant might be in the local earlier Lower Paleolithic small tool assemblages with some pebble tools but without Acheulean bifaces. The other Caucasus variant of the Upper Acheulean appears to be related to the Levantine Upper Acheulean.     

More than blades. Early Middle Palaeolithic of the Levant

The Early Middle Palaeolithic (EMP) in the Levant dated between 250 and 150 ka is a unique period characterised by the systematic production of elongated blanks using different reduction strategies: Levallois, Laminar and core on flake are involved. The hallmark of the EMP blade industries is different types of retouched points but the production of other blanks categories as bladelets, small flakes and triangular flakes is also evident. Such a broad-based approach to lithic resources of foragers relocating through the Levant during the EMP could reflect the behavioural adaptations of hominins and adjustments in their subsistence strategies as well as management of time and division of special activities, consequently leading to a marked anticipation of needs. The techno-typological diversity is visible in the mode of production but at the same time, it reflects the narrow variation that is shared among all known EMP sites. This seems to indicate that at this time the demographic organisation in the region may be closely linked within a cohesive geographical and chronological framework.     

Are Victoria West cores “proto-Levallois”? A phylogenetic assessment

Cores from South Africa assigned to the “Victoria West” industry have long been purported as a “proto-Levallois” core form, and thus regarded as ancestral to the Levallois prepared core technologies of the Middle Paleolithic and African Middle Stone Age. Similarities in form between Victoria West cores, in terms of surface morphology and the removal of large flakes from a prepared surface, led to hypothesized schemes of technological evolution from Victoria West cores through to fully developed Levallois cores. However, the phylogenetic basis of this Victoria West “proto-Levallois” hypothesis, and the assumptions of phylogenetic homology upon which it rests, have never been tested formally. In recent years, archaeologists have begun to use phylogenetic methods drawn from biology to test hypotheses of technological and cultural evolution. Here, the phylogenetic assumptions of the Victoria West “proto-Levallois” hypothesis are tested directly using a cladistic (maximum parsimony) protocol. The cladistic analyses indicate that Victoria West cores are not the basal sister taxon of a Levallois clade, as predicted by the proto-Levallois hypothesis. Moreover, character analyses demonstrate that several characters relating to core surfaces and flake scar morphology are not phylogenetically homologous, but result from convergent technological evolution within the Acheulean techno-complex. Post hoc analyses further determine that these results are not confounded by choice of outgroup or raw material factors. The results were also shown to be robust on the basis of the ensemble retention index statistic, bootstrap analyses, and permutation tests. Hence, it is concluded that Victoria West cores do not represent a “proto-Levallois” core form, and that the term “para-Levallois” should more correctly be applied on phylogenetic grounds. It is further argued that even in cases where different technologies are found to share phylogenetically homologous features, use of the term “proto” is questionable on theoretical grounds.     

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.     

Barogali et l’Oued Doure. Deux gisements représentatifs du Paléolithique ancien en République de Djibouti

In the Republic of Djibouti, surveys and excavations, carried out from 1985 to 1992, confirmed the presence of the pre-Acheulean (Oldowan) and Acheulean sites in the country. Three seasons of excavations (1985-1987 in the Gobaad Basin, have unearthed in a hardened compact clay strata of an ancient marshland dating to the Lower Pleistocene, the fossilized skeletal remains of an Elephas recki ileretensis. Numerous stone tools have been gathered with the bones. The E.S.R. dating the elephant’s lower third molar gave a date between 1,.6 and 1,.3 MY that would confirm its paleontological grouping and the membership of this butchery site to the Oldowan period. The animal appeared to have been lying on its left side. The cranial roof had been separated from the calvarium, perhaps to get at the brain; but the skull remains in anatomic connection with the tusks. The jaw (mandible) seems to have been broken to extract the tongue. Hominids, perhaps Homo ergaster, knapped tools from a nearly outcrop of poor quality lava. The tools were specifically adapted to their needs, such as scraping, chopping and scattering the bones. The site has yielded 569 artifacts: utilized material and hammerstones (121); pebble tools (32); cores (14); “debitage” products (366); retouched flakes (36). Artifacts are rarely retouched and often broken. Five different types of choppers have been classified. The polyedrons and one bola make up 22% of the pebble tools. The cores are divided into unipolar, centripetal and polyhedrical types. In another site, Haïdalo, an almost complete skeleton of an Elephas recki recki in anatomical connection and without any sign of predation, has been found at eight kilometers from Barogali. During surveys in the Ali Sabîh region (1990-1992) seven sectors have been discovered and prospected in the Oued Doure Basin. On the surface area and also in situ into some little pits, 345 rhiolitic Acheulean artifacts have been found, near rhyolitic outcrop. These artifacts are generally large. The choppers (18) can be dividended into 2 sets : side choppers (55%) and end choppers (27%), often with a bifacial cutting edge. There is only one polyedron, but we have found eight heavy scrapers. The Acheulean group is important (43 tools). The bifaces are varied and there are also a few cleavers and picks. Cores are numerous (92) and Levallois cores are preponderant (45%). We find also centripetal cores (27%) and so unipolar, bipolar and polyhedral cores. Tools made of flakes (118) are numerous: scrapers are typologically diversified. Some of them have a double utilization. Notch tools, denticulate tools are presents but also end scrapers, burin, borer, back knifes and scantily retouched flakes. The characters of this lithic material, large cores and big flakes, large bifaces of various types, cleavers and retouched flakes, indicates that they are Acheulean products. So, the Doure Site can be placed in the Middle / Upper Acheulean transition.     

A Nubian Complex Site from Central Arabia: Implications for Levallois Taxonomy and Human Dispersals during the Upper Pleistocene

Archaeological survey undertaken in central Saudi Arabia has revealed 29 surface sites attributed to the Arabian Middle Paleolithic based on the presence of Levallois blank production methods. Technological analyses on cores retrieved from Al-Kharj 22 have revealed specific reduction modalities used to produce flakes with predetermined shapes. The identified modalities, which are anchored within the greater Levallois concept of core convexity preparation and exploitation, correspond with those utilized during the Middle Stone Age Nubian Complex of northeast Africa and southern Arabia. The discovery of Nubian technology at the Al-Kharj 22 site represents the first appearance of this blank production method in central Arabia. Here we demonstrate how a rigorous use of technological and taxonomic analysis may enable intra-regional comparisons across the Arabian Peninsula. The discovery of Al-Kharj 22 increases the complexity of the Arabian Middle Paleolithic archaeological record and suggests new dynamics of population movements between the southern and central regions of the Peninsula. This study also addresses the dichotomy within Nubian core typology (Types 1 and 2), which was originally defined for African assemblages.     

中国旧石器时代早、中期石器技术多样性研究的新进展

关于中国石器技术发展轨迹和特点,其中一种观点认为,在更新世大部分时间内,中国石器技术以第1模式为主。本文结合近年的考古发现和研究成果,对中更新世早期至距今约4万年的中国石器技术面貌进行了简要总结。这段时间内的中国石器技术呈现出明显的多样性和复杂性,尤其自晚更新世以来,多种石器技术体系并存,其中包括以手斧、手镐和薄刃斧等大型工具为特色的阿舍利技术体系、以盘状石核和各类小型工具为特征的小型石片石器技术体系、以勒瓦娄哇石核和尖状器为特点的莫斯特技术体系、以及以基纳型刮削器为主的莫斯特技术体系,后两者具有明显的旧石器时代中期技术特点。多种石器技术体系共存,这一现象反映了技术发展的区域性和该阶段人群构成的多样性,这为探讨古人类环境适应行为以及区域间人群扩散交流提供了重要信息。     

Indices de fréquentation humaine dans les grottes à ours au Paléolithique moyen final: L’exemple de la Caverna Generosa dans les Préalpes lombardes, Italie

Already known like a palaeontological site for the study of Ursus spelaeus, Caverna Generosa also records ephemeral traces of human visits during the late Middle Palaeolithic. The cave opens at an altitude of 1450 m on the steep southern slope of the Monte Generoso Massif between the Lugano and the Como lakes and forms a complex group of narrow galleries and inner chambers. Sedimentological and palaeontological data and radiocarbon dates place both the cave-bear and the human frequentations in the first part of the isotopic stage 3 with climatic conditions shifting from cool and dry to more temperate and wet. Environment progressively changed from scarcely arboreal to arboreal-brush with small open spaces. Few flakes and Levallois flakes have been recovered scattered in the sediment and affected in most cases by intense postdepositional alteration. These items testify incursions of mousterian groups equipped with end-products and radiolarite flakes struck from blocks provisioned at lower locations southwards. End-products, namely Levallois flakes, prove that lithic reduction sequences were spatiotemporally fractionated in the covered territory. Conversely, it cannot be excluded a priori that sublocal radiolarite has been chipped at the entrance of the cave or at the very close surroundings for extraction of rudimental tools for immediate use. It is worth to mention that the small chert slabs in the Moltrasio limestone which crop throughout the cave walls were totally ignored. Caverna Generosa can be viewed as a refugia-location used in function of more or less constrained factors strongly influenced by high-altitude and bioclimatic situations. This type of site might well be integrated within the seasonal movements of humans in the western Lombard Pre-Alps area.     

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.     

Le gisement acheuléen de plein air de La Garde (Loire). Remarques sur une série lithique acheuléenne entre Rhône et Loire

The lithic assemblage of La Garde offers the opportunity to observe a Final Acheulean series located in the Loire department (south-east France). The site was probably a multi-activity place asking large tools and flakes, according to the strategies used by humans. Three main categories of large bifacial tools mainly made of flint can be described, with a triangular or oval shape and with a transversal cutting edge. These tools are more bifacial-tools than bifaces through the kind of shaping and the retouches on the cutting edges. The Levallois flaking is associated to various other types of knapping. The site, located along a small valley, suggests a human circulating between the Saône-Rhône corridor and the interior basins of the Massif Central Mountains. The Rhodanian corridor yielded little evidence of Acheulean settlements while in the Centre of France, they are numerous. La Garde proves that systematic prospecting in this area will permit in future to complete the map of the Acheulean occupations in south-east France.     

Hominin Dispersal into the Nefud Desert and Middle Palaeolithic Settlement along the Jubbah Palaeolake,Northern Arabia

The Arabian Peninsula is a key region for understanding hominin dispersals and the effect of climate change on prehistoric demography, although little information on these topics is presently available owing to the poor preservation of archaeological sites in this desert environment. Here, we describe the discovery of three stratified and buried archaeological sites in the Nefud Desert, which includes the oldest dated occupation for the region. The stone tool assemblages are identified as a Middle Palaeolithic industry that includes Levallois manufacturing methods and the production of tools on flakes. Hominin occupations correspond with humid periods, particularly Marine Isotope Stages 7 and 5 of the Late Pleistocene. The Middle Palaeolithic occupations were situated along the Jubbah palaeolake-shores, in a grassland setting with some trees. Populations procured different raw materials across the lake region to manufacture stone tools, using the implements to process plants and animals. To reach the Jubbah palaeolake, Middle Palaeolithic populations travelled into the ameliorated Nefud Desert interior, possibly gaining access from multiple directions, either using routes from the north and west (the Levant and the Sinai), the north (the Mesopotamian plains and the Euphrates basin), or the east (the Persian Gulf). The Jubbah stone tool assemblages have their own suite of technological characters, but have types reminiscent of both African Middle Stone Age and Levantine Middle Palaeolithic industries. Comparative inter-regional analysis of core technology indicates morphological similarities with the Levantine Tabun C assemblage, associated with human fossils controversially identified as either Neanderthals or Homo sapiens.     

Atbarapur (Hoshiarpur district,Punjab), the Acheulian of the Siwalik Range within the South Asian context

The largest collection of Acheulian artefacts in the Siwalik region is from the site of Atbarapur in north-western India. The artefacts occur in reworked sediments of the Pinjore Formation, starting with the onset of the Pleistocene and continuing at places in this region till 0.6 Ma. The technical study shows two similar “chaînes opératoires”: one based on cobbles for making small flakes and the second based on boulders for large flakes. Both are short and simple: cores are not prepared and each of them produced about seven flakes. Handaxes and cleavers, typical Acheulian tools, are made on the large flakes, often struck from the ventral face of larger flakes (Kombewa method) or from split boulders. The technology compares well with the Lower Pleistocene Acheulian of peninsular India, but with slightly more refined bifaces. It also compares with assemblages from Africa and East Asia: Atbarapur stands as a milestone on the diffusion route(s) of the Acheulian.     

Gentelles-Le Mont de l’Evangile (département de la Somme,France) : un site de plateau occupé de l’Acheuléen au Micoquien

The palaeolithic site of Gentelles (Somme, France) is situated on a chalky plateau unlike most Lower and Middle Palaeolithic sites of the Somme basin, which are related to fluvial environments (alluvial and slope deposits). The archaeological material of the site excavated at Gentelles on several thousand square meters is recovered from the infilling of a dolina. The archaeological sequence is attributed to Late Middle and Upper Pleistocene (MIS 10 to MIS 5). The assignment of the loess infilling the dolina to MIS 6 is supported by ESR/U-Th dates obtained on teeth and the IRSL age of the sediment. All lithic assemblages include bifacial production and debitage with cores showing one or several surfaces of debitage. There is no evidence of Levallois flaking methods, which are very common in many Middle Palaeolithic industries of Northern France. The first steps of the reducing sequences are not present in most lithic assemblages. Some faunal remains (equids, bovids) have been discovered in the loess deposits. In most cases, the function of the site corresponds to short occupations of hunters moving on the plateau. In contrast, the CLG assemblage (MIS 8) which shows many phases of the reducing sequence suggests longer occupations.     

The Acheulean massive scrapers of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov-a product of the biface chaîne opératoire

The presence of large scrapers has been reported from Acheulean sites worldwide but they are rarely described in detail. At Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY), a similar group of artifacts, named here "massive scrapers," was identified as a significant component of the lithic assemblage. In this paper, we define and describe this Acheulean tool type and discuss its size, morphology, and technology. We demonstrate that at GBY these tools were shaped on flakes that were side-products of the reduction sequence to produce bifaces (handaxes and cleavers). We hypothesize that these blanks were rejected as potential bifaces during the knapping sequence but considered suitable for the retouching of massive scrapers, and were set aside for future work. We support our view with data from archaeological finds younger than those of GBY, as well as with evidence from controlled experimental knapping and ethnoarchaeological observations. We then discuss the contribution of this elaborate knapping strategy to our understanding of Lower Paleolithic hominin behavior, particularly in the domains of multifaceted planning and foresight.