An Analysis of Waste Flakes from Sites in the Upper Knife-Heart Region,North Dakota

Abstract

An analysis of lithic debitage from seven archaeological sites was undertaken with the assumption that itcould provide insights into the technological and behavioral background of the craftsman. The analysis describes lithic debitage in terms of six categories. The sites are grouped into two phases: the Heart River phase (about A.D. 1675-1780) and the Knife River phase (about A.D. 1780-1845). The use of Chi-Square and Difference of Means statistics indicates that the present categorization of archaeological units (phases), based on ceramic analysis, is substantiated by an analysis of lithic debitage. Differences between the phases are related to the increasing loss of native material culture after White contact.     

Quartzite Qua Lithic Material in Archaeology:

Abstract

Quartzite is considered as a lithic material with particular reference to use-wear analysis. Since information concerning the use of quartzite is very scarce, experiments producing and observing wear on quartzite were performed. Differences in wear were observed for different tasks, but the differences are subtle enough and the wear general enough that the need for much further work is apparent. As quartzite is commonly found in some areas such as the Central Rocky Mountain States, understanding of manifestations of use on quartzite is seen as important, especially since there is some reason to believe it was used frequently in unmodified flake form. Quartzite is thought to be different enough from other lithic materials that generalizations on wear from such materails to quartzite may be invalid. Cursory experimentation with heat treatment of quartzite was also performed.     

Systemic Change and Lithic Debris: The Nine Mile Creek Survey

Abstract

Data from 55 archaeological sites located during the course of a survey of a portion of Nine Mile Creek northeast of Lawrence, Kansas were analyzed as the focus of a seminar at the University of Kansas in 1969. The recognition of significant variation in lithic debris samples from the Nine Mile Creek sites resulted in the development of a seriational procedure and an explanatory model in terms of temporally changing subsistence patterns.     

Nouveaux sites de gravures rupestres à Adrar N'Saras dans la haute vallée de l’Oued Sayyad à Taghjijt

This article is part of a series of research results that we have developed in the context of the preparation of a PhD thesis on human occupation in the upper valley of the Oued Sayyad during the Neolithic and Protohistory. These results consist in the discovery of new rock engraving sites in the region of Tainzert, in the commune of Taghjijt, in the region of Guelmim (Morocco). These sites contain a large number of engravings of various subjects, prehistoric burial mounds, shelters and archaeological finds, notably of lithic industry. This set of discoveries can add new archaeological data on the history of the region and the history of Morocco in general.     

Pedogenic carbonate stable isotopic evidence for wooded habitat preference of early Pleistocene tool makers in the Turkana Basin

The origin and evolution of early Pleistocene hominin lithic technologies in Africa occurred within the context of savanna grassland ecosystems. The Nachukui Formation of the Turkana Basin in northern Kenya, containing Oldowan and Acheulean tool assemblages and fossil evidence for early members of Homo and Paranthropus, provides an extensive spatial and temporal paleosol record of early Pleistocene savanna flora. Here we present new carbon isotopic (δ¹³C_VPDB) values of pedogenic carbonates (68 nodules, 193 analyses) from the Nachukui Formation in order to characterize past vegetation structure and change through time. We compared three members (Kalochoro, Kaitio, and Natoo) at five locations spanning 2.4–1.4 Ma and sampled in proximity to hominin archaeological and paleontological sites. Our results indicate diverse habitats showing a mosaic pattern of vegetation cover at each location yet demonstrate grassland expansion through time influenced by paleogeography. Kalochoro floodplains occurred adjacent to large river systems, and paleosols show evidence of C₃ woodlands averaging 46–50% woody cover. Kaitio habitats were located along smaller rivers and lake margins. Paleosols yielded evidence for reduced portions of woody vegetation averaging 34–37% woody cover. Natoo environments had the highest percentage of grasslands averaging 21% woody cover near a diminishing Lake Turkana precursor. We also compared paleosol δ¹³C_VPDB values of lithic archaeological sites with paleosol δ¹³C_VPDB values of all environments available to hominins at 2.4–1.4 Ma in the Nachukui and Koobi Fora Formations. Grassy environments became more widespread during this interval; woody canopy cover mean percentages steadily decreased by 12%. However, significantly more wooded savanna habitats were present in the vicinity of lithic archaeological sites and did not mirror the basin-wide trend of grassland spread. Hominin lithic archaeological sites consistently demonstrated woody cover circa 40% throughout our study interval and were 4–12% more woody than coeval basin environs. We propose that Turkana Basin early tool makers may have preferred a more wooded portion of the savanna ecosystem to reduce heat stress and to gain differential access to potable water, raw materials, animal carcasses, and edible plants.     

Techno-économie et signification culturelle de l’occupation moustérienne supérieure de Baume-Vallée (Haute-Loire)

The archaeological units of the Baume-Vallée rock shelter (Haute-Loire) in the South-East of the Massif Central, excavated by A. Laborde (from 1966 to 1973) then by J.-P. Raynal (from 1974 to 1996), have yielded abundant lithic assemblages attributed to the late Middle Paleolithic, characterized by a remarkable diversity of the raw materials used. The lithic industry of the upper units had previously been described as belonging to the Charentian facies lato sensu, then was attributed to the Ferrassie-type Mousterian. The technology and the techno-economic revision of its upper assemblage bring new information on the flaking mechanisms and the steps of the chaînes opératoires. These data tend to include this assemblage in the Levallois techno-complexes with scrappers often observed in late Middle Paleolithic of southeastern France.     

Palaeoloxodon and Human Interaction: Depositional Setting,Chronology and Archaeology at the Middle Pleistocene Ficoncella Site (Tarquinia,Italy)

The Ficoncella site in northern Latium (Italy) represents a unique opportunity to investigate the modalities of a short occupation in an alluvial setting during the Lower Palaeolithic. The small excavation area yielded a lithic assemblage, a carcass of Palaeoloxodon antiquus, and some other faunal remains. The main objectives of the study are to better characterize the depositional context where the Palaeoloxodon and the lithic assemblage occur, and to evaluate with greater precision the occupation dynamics. A 25 m-long well was drilled just above the top of the terrace of the Ficoncella site and faunal and lithic remains were analyzed with current and innovative techniques. The archaeological site contains floodplain deposits as it is located next to a small incised valley that feeds into a larger valley of the Mignone River. A tephra layer capping the site is ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dated to 441± 8 ka. Collectively, the geochronologic, tephrochronologic and geologic data, suggest the site was occupied during MIS 13. The new results should prompt further research at Ficoncella in order to improve our understanding of the dynamics of human settlement in Europe during the Early to Middle Pleistocene.     

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 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.     

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.     

First GIS Analysis of Modern Stone Tools Used by Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Bossou,Guinea, West Africa

Stone tool use by wild chimpanzees of West Africa offers a unique opportunity to explore the evolutionary roots of technology during human evolution. However, detailed analyses of chimpanzee stone artifacts are still lacking, thus precluding a comparison with the earliest archaeological record. This paper presents the first systematic study of stone tools used by wild chimpanzees to crack open nuts in Bossou (Guinea-Conakry), and applies pioneering analytical techniques to such artifacts. Automatic morphometric GIS classification enabled to create maps of use wear over the stone tools (anvils, hammers, and hammers/ anvils), which were blind tested with GIS spatial analysis of damage patterns identified visually. Our analysis shows that chimpanzee stone tool use wear can be systematized and specific damage patterns discerned, allowing to discriminate between active and passive pounders in lithic assemblages. In summary, our results demonstrate the heuristic potential of combined suites of GIS techniques for the analysis of battered artifacts, and have enabled creating a referential framework of analysis in which wild chimpanzee battered tools can for the first time be directly compared to the early archaeological record.     

Wedding of the Waters Cave, 48 HO 301, A Stratified Site in the Big Horn Basin of Northern Wyoming

Abstract

During the summer of 1959, the writer investigated several rock shelters at the mouth of the Wind River Canyon, about 3 miles south of Thermopolis, Wyoming. One of the rock shelters proved to be of archaeological value. A test trench revealed nearly 3 feet of stratified cultural deposits. The cultural materials fits well in the sequence for the Northwestern Plains, (Mulloy 1958: 204-223) and should be important in an area little known archaeologically.     

The Mechanical Basis Of Stone Flaking: Problems And Prospects

Abstract

A variety of quite different theories and models concerning the fracture of solids and the behavior of solids under stress have been developed by physical scientists. On the basis of their work, 19 variables are identified that are likely to be important in studying the mechanics of stone flaking. These variables fall into three classes: (1) properties of the material being fractured; (2) properties of the flaking device; and (3) variables relating to the experimental situation. A lack of knowledge concerning the physical properties of many common stone tool materials seriously hinders the direct application of theories of stress and fracture to practical archaeological problems. However, the work of physical scientists may still suggest approaches to problems in lithic technology and variables which may be worth examining.     

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.     

L’industrie lithique des gisements du Pléistocène inférieur de Barranco León et Fuente Nueva 3 à Orce, Grenade, Espagne

The archaeological localities of Barranco León and Fuente Nueva 3 in Orce, Grenade, in actuality have the oldest lithic artifacts in Europe; they are the oldest evidence of human occupation in the east of Europe. When compared the results from faunal analysis and magnetostratigraphical study, notably through the presence of Allophaiomys lavocati allow for a date of around 1.3 Ma. The raw material used for developing these lithic industries are, basically limestone or siliceous rocks, these raw materials selected were smoothed down in situ. The techniques used are knapping at raised with a hammerstone, and we can find all the different elements of the “chaine opératoire”. Both localities are characterised by the predominance of flakes and debris, cores, and some knapped cobbles sowing mediocre aspect. The technical and typological features of both lithic assemblages have an opportunist character but they are relatively sophisticated too.     

Aboriginal Use of Tongue River Silica in Northwest Iowa

Abstract

One of the raw materials available to prehistoric peoples _of northwestern Iowa is known as Tongue R1ver S1hca. Although the original source of the rock is the Fort Union formation (Paleocene) of the Dakotas, these resistant materials occur commonly in downstream alluvial deposits and along the Missouri River system where they were collected locally in northwestern Iowa for over 7000 years. This paper deals with the recognition of these redeposited Tongue River materials, their archaeological distribution in time and space, a consideration of the most workable color phase resulting from thermal pretreatment, and a general analysis of the types of chipped stone tools most frequently produced.     

河南登封方家沟遗址的石料产地

方家沟遗址主文化层出土了大量石制品,以石片石器工业为特征,年代约在距今5～3万年前。遗址周边是一个石料资源相对丰富的区域,可以通过原料分布、质量和可获性了解当时人类为何选择特定原料。遗址的原料既包括石英砂岩、石英岩和脉石英砾石,又包括脉石英岩块。石料调查显示,遗址附近丘岗顶部的中更新世砾石层可能是砾石原料的来源;西北距遗址约7～11 km处的嵩山东南麓元古宙地层中多见脉石英出露,最有可能是脉石英岩块的采集地。遗址周边区域并不缺乏燧石等质量更好的原料,但极少被当时人类所利用,这说明当地石片石器工业的长期延续不能用缺乏优质原料来解释。     

A Human Deciduous Tooth and New 40Ar/39Ar Dating Results from the Middle Pleistocene Archaeological Site of Isernia La Pineta,Southern Italy

Isernia La Pineta (south-central Italy, Molise) is one of the most important archaeological localities of the Middle Pleistocene in Western Europe. It is an extensive open-air site with abundant lithic industry and faunal remains distributed across four stratified archaeosurfaces that have been found in two sectors of the excavation (3c, 3a, 3s10 in sect. I; 3a in sect. II). The prehistoric attendance was close to a wet environment, with a series of small waterfalls and lakes associated to calcareous tufa deposits. An isolated human deciduous incisor (labelled IS42) was discovered in 2014 within the archaeological level 3 coll (overlying layer 3a) that, according to new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar measurements, is dated to about 583–561 ka, i.e. to the end of marine isotope stage (MIS) 15. Thus, the tooth is currently the oldest human fossil specimen in Italy; it is an important addition to the scanty European fossil record of the Middle Pleistocene, being associated with a lithic assemblage of local raw materials (flint and limestone) characterized by the absence of handaxes and reduction strategies primarily aimed at the production of small/medium-sized flakes. The faunal assemblage is dominated by ungulates often bearing cut marks. Combining chronology with the archaeological evidence, Isernia La Pineta exhibits a delay in the appearance of handaxes with respect to other European Palaeolithic sites of the Middle Pleistocene. Interestingly, this observation matches the persistence of archaic morphological features shown by the human calvarium from the Middle Pleistocene site of Ceprano, not far from Isernia (south-central Italy, Latium). In this perspective, our analysis is aimed to evaluate morphological features occurring in IS42.     

A new application of dental wear analyses: estimation of duration of hominid occupations in archaeological localities

Characterization of settlement patterns is one of the core concepts in archeological research. The duration of an occupation is usually estimated through zooarchaeology (e.g., density of remains, cementochronology) and is limited by taphonomic processes and sample size. We propose a new application of dental wear methods for estimating the relative duration of hominid settlements in Paleolithic sites. Dental microwear is known to be sensitive to seasonal changes in diet. In this new application we use microwear scratch counts to estimate the variation in the dietary signal of various ungulate species. We propose that this variation is correlated to the duration of site occupation. Each season presents a limited and different set of food resources available in the environment. If animals are sampled only during a specific season (i.e., during a short term occupation) then they would be expected to have a dental wear signal with little variation. On the other hand, a greater diversity of food is available across different seasons. Therefore, if game animals are hunted through various seasons during long occupation periods, then they would be expected to have more variable dental wear. The application of this technique to the Middle Paleolithic site of Arago Cave (France), where various types of occupations occurred, supports this hypothesis. When combined with multidisciplinary studies of archaeological localities (seasonality in particular), this new application of dental wear analysis presents valuable information about hominid settlements and behavior. We contextualize our data with results from lithic and zooarchaeological analyses from Arago. These results reveal the presence of both high and low mobility groups of Homo heidelbergensis throughout the sequence of the Arago Cave.     

Fort Union Porcellanite And Fused Glass: Distinctive Lithic Materials Of Coal Burn Origin On The Northern Plains

Abstract

Among the most common surface indicators of archaeological sites in south central Montana and northern Wyoming are the grey and red porcellanite flakes resulting from tool making activities. Although one of the major lithic materials used by prehistoric inhabitants of the northern plains region, porcellanite’s identity has remained relatively unknown. Amateur and professional archaeologist alike have loosely referred to this material as “metamorphosed siltstone”, “baked shale”, “Powder River chert”, “grey chert”, “fired brick”, “jasper”, etc. Similarly, fused glass is often misrepresented as obsidian. Because of its unique origin, definablearea of occurrence (the western coal region, the European coal fields, and perhaps other coalbearing areas), and its extensive utilization by the prehistoric populations of the region, porcellanite and fused glass deserve additional attention from archaeologists.