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。     

A new discovery of Neanderthal settlements in Turkey: Sürmecik open-air campsite in Western Anatolia

Western Anatolia is the poorest region in terms of Turkey's Palaeolithic finds. In the past years, only a few Palaeolithic artefacts were known from the surface in the provinces of İzmir, Manisa, Kütahya and Afyonkarahisar in western Anatolia. After the fossil Homo erectus skull fragment was found in the travertine deposits in Kocabaş (Denizli) in 2002, the importance of the region more increased. After this important discovery, Dr. Kadriye Özçelik started a Palaeolithic survey in Denizli and found a large number of chipped stone tools from the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods. Nevertheless, the last important Palaeolithic discovery in the region was made in Sürmecik (Banaz-Uşak) in 2015. This is an open-air campsite belonging to the Middle Palaeolithic period. Here is also a mining area where a mining operation is conducted. The chipped stone artefacts of the Sürmecik Palaeolithic open-air campsite come from a clay layer between hematite and limonite deposits under a travertine layer of about 4.5–5 meters in thickness. Faunal remains represent mostly by equids species. All stages of Mousterian culture are clearly visible in this open-air campsite. Sürmecik is the richest middle Palaeolithic open-air campsite in Turkey. The 83,002 lithic pieces were collected in the excavations carried out in 2016 and 2017. It is thought that the lithic assemblage will exceed 100,000 with the ongoing studies. The group of bifacial leaf points in this collection is seen in Turkey for the first time. Four master thesis studies started on the lithic material of Sürmecik. It is planned to take some samples for dating analysis along with ongoing studies.     

Les industries lithiques de trois occupations de plein air et leur place dans le contexte Moustérien du Languedoc méditerranéen : Le Cadénas (Bédarieux, Hérault), Les Cours (Plaissan, Hérault) et Le Serre du Coucouyon (La Capelle et Masmolène, Gard)

Mediterranean Languedoc is a vast region in Southern France where Mousterian occupations, mainly concentrated in the eastern sector, are numerous. The three lithic series of the open-air sites presented in this article are yet unpublished. The techno-economical approach used to analyse these three stone assemblages has brought to light variability in Neandertal behaviour concerning raw material collection and economy in sectors more or less rich in siliceous resources, and also concerning the different production systems used and their goals. Comparisons made with other Mousterian stone assemblages in Languedoc seem to indicate ties with certain sites from the Rhône Valley.     

Behavioral inferences from Early Stone artifact assemblages: an experimental model

A methodological approach for assessing the nature and palaeographic distribution of early stone artifact assemblages is presented, modeled after an approach originally used for faunal analysis. By combining experimental replicative studies with careful analysis of Palaeolithic archaeological occurrences, it is potentially possible to reconstruct entire technological systems and to assess what stages of lithic reduction may be preferentially represented at high density artifact concentrations that we normally call archaeological “sites”, and what stages of reduction are found in lower density (“off site”) scatters.Based upon the results of this approach, alternative explanations for certain stages of lithic reduction being preferentially represented at a number of Plio-Pleistocene archaeological sites at Koobi Fora, Kenya are considered and evaluated with regard to early hominid organizational patterns. It appears that hominid stone technology was a relatively complex system by 1·9 to 1·4 million years B.P., involving significant transport and carrying of stone artifacts representing various stages of reduction and suggesting more foresight and planning than observed among extant nonhuman primates.The application of this approach to other Palaeolithic occurrences should enable anthropologists to obtain a better understanding of the organizational patterns of tool-making hominids throughout the course of human evolution.     

Baïraki – un site du Paléolithique inférieur sur le territoire de la Plaine d’Europe orientale

The paper presents the preliminary results of five years’ multidisciplinary researches (2010–2014 years) of the new Lower Palaeolithic Bayraki site, situated in the vicinity of Dubossary town in Moldavia, on the high terrace (VII) of the Dniester River. In the Lower and Middle Pleistocene deposits are discovered six layers including lithic artefacts of Lower Palaeolithic character. Two layers (I and II) relate to deposits dated by the Brunhes period and four layers (III, IV, V and VI) are attributed to the Matuyama period. The highest number of artefacts (884 objects) is issue from the layer V (the Jaramillo period), whose lithic industry has an Oldowan character. In other layers are found few flint archaeological objects and sporadic fragments of indeterminable bones. In the layer III is found a fossil horse mandibular (Equus sussenbornensis). At present, this site presents the oldest Low Pleistocene across all East European Plain.     

The Mendieta site (Sopelana,Biscay province,northern Spain): Palaeoenvironment and formation processes of a Lower Palaeolithic open-air archaeological deposit

A rescue archaeological excavation on the Mendieta area (Sopelana, Biscay province) has shown the presence of lithic industry within an original stratigraphic context of possible Lower Palaeolithic age. The materials containing the lithic industry exhibit stratigraphic and sedimentary features derived from fluvio-alluvial and pedogenic processes. The formation procedures of this open-air site took place under warm and humid palaeoenvironmental climatic conditions, as has been partially confirmed by palynological data. This geoarchaeological characterization supplies important information in order to understand the genesis and location of the scarce open-air archaeological sites of the Lower Palaeolithic age present in the Cantabrian region.     

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.     

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.     

Short human occupations in the Middle Palaeolithic level I of the Abric Romani rock-shelter (Capellades, Barcelona, Spain)

This paper presents a multidisciplinary study on the size of the occupied surfaces, provisioning strategies and behaviour planning at the Romani rock-shelter, using the Middle Palaeolithic record of the level i. This level is dated around 46.000 BP through U/Th ages. A behavioural interpretation is proposed, which emphasises the activities and the systemic value of the archaeological artefacts and structures. Occupation patterns are identified on the basis of the accumulations formed by human activities. These archaeological accumulations, consisting of artefacts and hearths, are easily defined visually as spatial units. The relationships between these accumulations, established by means of refitted remains, indicate that differences can be established between: 1) small and medium-sized occupation surfaces; 2) restricted and diversified provisioning strategies. This variability suggests that different modes of occupation are represented in the same archaeological level. The human activities reveal the generalization of fire technology. In almost all sizes of the occupation surfaces, the exploitation of vegetal resources near the Abric Romani marks the threshold of the restricted provisioning strategy. Limited use and fragmented knapping activities are recorded in the lithic assemblage. Faunal remains show differential transport. The exploitation of lithic, faunal and vegetal resources characterizes the diversified provisioning strategy. The small occupation surfaces and restricted provisioning strategies suggest short settlements in the Abric Romani. This shorter occupation model complements the longer diversified provisioning strategy recorded in both small and medium-sized occupied surfaces. The selection of precise elements for transport and the possible deferred consumption in the diversified provision strategy suggest an individual supply. In this respect, Neanderthal occupations in the Romani rock-shelter show a direct relation to: 1) hunting strategic resources; 2) high, linear mobility.     

旧石器时代早期石制品分析方案

本文提出一种应用于旧石器时代早期石制品研究的分析方案。本方案以宏观分析方法为主,不包括同样重要的微观分析方法,主要应用于旧石器时代早期石制品的技术-类型学分析,不涉及特定地区和特殊石制品的讨论。在旧大陆旧石器时代早期石器研究中,鉴于学者们使用的技术学与类型学分析方案总体相似,我们认为在研究中使用标准化的分析方案会提高地区间石器面貌的可比性,并有助于理解旧石器时代早期旧大陆古人类的技术行为模式。从这个角度出发,本文将回顾旧石器时代早期石器研究的主要理论和方法,并提出分析视角和术语建议,希望有助于研究中对描述剥片类、废片类、锤击工具、拼合工具和传统石制品的测量与绘图惯例。     

安徽省宁国市安友庄旧石器遗址调查及发掘简报

2003-2004年,安徽省文物考古研究所对地处水阳江流域的宁国安友庄遗址开展野外调查及考古发掘,发掘面积250 m²,调查采集石制品3件,发掘出土石制品49件。石制品原料以中津河（水阳江一级支流）二级阶地底部砾石层中产出的石英岩砾石为主,少量为石英。石制品类型包括石核、石片和石器。石制品均为使用硬锤直接剥片。石制品主要出自中国南方地区常见的网纹红土和均质红土中,根据长江中下游地区第四纪红土风化壳的相关研究结果,初步推断安友庄遗址古人类生存与活动的年代延续中更新世中、晚期一段时间。虽然安友庄遗址发现石制品数量不多,但其中存在模式2技术产品,如剥取大石片的大石核、长度大于或等于10 cm的大石片,以及以手斧、大型石刀等为代表的大型切割石器,特别是比较典型的两面加工手斧在水阳江流域尚不多见。安友庄遗址的发现,为进一步讨论早期人类在长江下游地区的扩散与技术发展具有重要的科学意义。     

甘肃徐家城遗址石制品原料最小单元分析

徐家城遗址是甘肃省近年来发掘的一处旧石器时代晚期遗址,主要埋藏于陇西盆地水洛河二级阶地上覆的马兰黄土中,年代在距今约4.6~2.3万年间。本文使用原料最小单元分析这一目前国内尚未普及的方法对该遗址主文化层的石制品进行研究,涉及遗址形成过程、空间利用以及古人类的流动组织等方面。研究表明,古人类原地剥片行为是遗址主文化层石制品分布状态形成的主要原因,文化层交界位置所受扰动程度较大;石器工业面貌权宜性色彩较为浓厚,发掘区内并未呈现明显的功能分区,同一时期可能存在其他生活中心。本文对原料最小单元分析方法的适用性和潜力作了一定讨论。     

Chronological changes in stone tool assemblages from Krapina (Croatia)

This study presents the results of the first recent analysis of stone tool assemblages from Krapina (Croatia). All assemblages are Pleistocene in age and many are associated with human remains, the Krapina Neandertals. The assemblages are described typologically and technologically, and subtle chronological changes in raw material selection and technology of tool blank production are observed. These changes involve increasingly sophisticated and selective use of lithic materials. Changing artefact assemblages are considered in light of variability in the hominids from Krapina, and are interpreted as reflecting behavioral change among Neandertals rather than between Neandertal and modern human populations.     

Les assemblages lithiques des niveaux du Paléolithique moyen de l’Abri des Pêcheurs (Ardèche, Sud-Est de la France): Des occupations néandertaliennes récurrentes dans un « fossé »

The Abri des Pêcheurs has yielded an extraordinary sequence with Middle and Upper Palaeolithic levels. Humans came and stayed in a ditch-cave that has been filled in along time. During Middle Palaeolithic occupations, they used first quartz, and this site is the only case in this area. Assemblages show similar technological behaviour along time. Flint is few employed and arrived as flakes from different areas if we consider its geological variety. Functions of the site are not well established. The base of the sequence has yielded sediments with a mixing of ibex, carnivore bones and artefacts. The study of the lithic assemblages brings information on the processing systems used on quartz and flint during occupations which left few evidence and used local stones while flint is available not far from the site. Hypothesis on short and specialized occupations is discussed.     

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.     

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.     

Age and Date for Early Arrival of the Acheulian in Europe (Barranc de la Boella,la Canonja,Spain)

The first arrivals of hominin populations into Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene are currently considered to have occurred as short and poorly dated biological dispersions. Questions as to the tempo and mode of these early prehistoric settlements have given rise to debates concerning the taxonomic significance of the lithic assemblages, as trace fossils, and the geographical distribution of the technological traditions found in the Lower Palaeolithic record. Here, we report on the Barranc de la Boella site which has yielded a lithic assemblage dating to ∼1 million years ago that includes large cutting tools (LCT). We argue that distinct technological traditions coexisted in the Iberian archaeological repertoires of the late Early Pleistocene age in a similar way to the earliest sub-Saharan African artefact assemblages. These differences between stone tool assemblages may be attributed to the different chronologies of hominin dispersal events. The archaeological record of Barranc de la Boella completes the geographical distribution of LCT assemblages across southern Eurasia during the EMPT (Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, circa 942 to 641 kyr). Up to now, chronology of the earliest European LCT assemblages is based on the abundant Palaeolithic record found in terrace river sequences which have been dated to the end of the EMPT and later. However, the findings at Barranc de la Boella suggest that early LCT lithic assemblages appeared in the SW of Europe during earlier hominin dispersal episodes before the definitive colonization of temperate Eurasia took place.     

Lithic Resource Utilization Patterns in the Middle Missouri Subarea

Abstract

Some years ago Donald Lehmer (1954) suggested, on the basis of data from sites near the Oahe Dam, that Middle Missouri Tradition and Coalescent Tradition populations practiced distinctly different lithic resource exploitation patterns. This study attempts to evaluate and expand upon Lehmer’s observations using data from four archaeological sites near Mobridge, South Dakota. An underlying premise is that studies of lithic resource exploitation must be grounded in a firm understanding of the geologic and geographic parameters of the natural resource base. Toward this end, field reconnaissanceand geologic information are used to define 12 stone types which occur in high frequency in the chipped stone artifact assemblages and which have reasonably well defined natural source locations and conditions. Comparisons of the four site assemblages according to the frequency of occurrence of these stone types supports Lehmer’s observations, and illustratescontrastive patterns of resource exploitation associated with the two cultural traditions. Coalescent populations relied heavily on several stone types occurring naturally in the Big Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, while Middle Missouri populations generally ignored these sources and relied heavily on Knife River Flint as a major lithic resource. These contrastive exploitation patterns appear to have remained relatively constant through time and across considerable space.     

L’assemblage lithique du site Acheuléen de Namib IV (Namib central,Namibie)

Despite a rich archaeological record, the old prehistory of Namibia, particularly from the Earlier Stone Age, is poorly documented, due to the surface context of the findings, exposed by erosional processes. In this context, human behaviors and responses to environment changes in this region during the Middle Pleistocene remain unclear. In the late 1970's, Myra Shackley surveyed the Central Namib dune desert and discovered lithic artefacts associated to fragmented fossilized bones of antelopes, elephants, zebras and buffalos at Namib IV. She interpreted this locality as an Acheulean butchery site on the shores of a paleolake. The radiometric dating suggested an age of ~347ka whereas biochronology broadly pointed the human occupation to the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (1–0.5 Ma). Thanks to these ages, Namib IV is currently the earliest dated evidence of human presence in the current Namib coastal desert. Contextualized by the existing chronological and paleoenvironmental data, we analyzed the unstudied lithic material recovered at Namib IV. To do so, we applied a qualitative morpho-structural approach to the stone tools and tried to reconstruct the productional schemes (chaînes opératoires). Our results argue for an important economy of the raw material, a spatial fragmentation of stone tool production and an important technical homogeneity of the lithic assemblage despite few possible intrusive elements. In the light of these analyses, we finally discussed the advanced site function of Namib IV as butchery site.