Acheulean (Archaeology)

ROSSONI-NOTTER E., NOTTER O., SIMONP. et SIMONE S. The assemblages of the Observatory (Monaco) and Prince (Balzi Rossi, Liguria, Italy) Caves.New studies and regional issues”. International conference National Museum of Natural History, European Acheuleans, Northern v.s. Southern Europe: Hominins, technical behaviour, chronological and environmental contexts,19-21 Nov. 2014, Paris (France)

ROSSONI-NOTTER E., NOTTER O., SIMONP. et SIMONE S. « Comportements techniques des acheuléens de la grotte d’Aldène (Cesseras, Hérault, France) », Session B10-The interglacialHolsteinian eldorado and the onset of the Middle Palaeolithic (400-300 ka), UISPP, Union Internationale des Sciences Préhistoriques et Protohistoriques, International Union of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, Unión Internacional de CiencasPrehistoricas y Protohistoricas, 1er au 7 septembre 2014,Burgos (Espagne)

The ‘Movius Line’ is the putative technological demarcation
line mapping the easternmost geographical distribution
of Acheulean bifacial tools. It is traditionally argued by
proponents of the Movius Line that ‘true’ Acheulean bifaces,
especially handaxes, are only found in abundance in Africa
and western Eurasia, whereas in eastern Asia, in front of the
‘line’, these implements are rare or absent altogether. Here
we argue, however, that the Movius Line relies on classifying
undated surface bifaces as Acheulean on typological grounds
alone, a long-standing and widely accepted practice in Africa
and western Eurasia, but one that is not seen as legitimate in
eastern Asian contexts. A review of the literature shows that
bifaces are relatively common as surface finds in Southeast
Asia and on this basis we argue that the Movius Line is in
need of reassessment.

At the Abbeville/Saint Riquier colloquium, two regional syntheses for southwestern France were proposed. One discussed the northern Aquitaine Basin (Delpech et al., 1995), the other the southern basin of the Garonne and the Pyrenean Piedmont (Jaubert and Servelle, 1996). Since then, research has focused
on the classic sequences of Barbas I, La Micoque and Coudoulous I, or on little published sites, such as Lanne-Darré on the Lannemezan plateau (Colonge, 2005a; Colonge and Texier, 2005). Numerous rescue operations, many still in progress and thus only partially published, have also been conducted in recent years, mainly in geographic zones with diverse pedosedimentary contexts: the Isle Valley (Champ des
Débats (Brenet and Folgado, 1998), the Midi Toulousain and the middle Adour Basin (Colonge, Lelouvier, Bertran and collaborators). Several university theses have also fully or partially addressed this region (Turq, 1992; Millet, 2001; Mourre, 2003; Jarry and Brenet, in progress). These works concerning the first occupations in this region, up until OIS 9 when Middle Paleolithic industries become fully developed, allow revision of the ancient assemblages and presentation of a general synthesis of these industries.

Altamura F., Gaudzinski-Windheuser S., Melis R.T., Mussi M., 2019. Reassessing an early Middle Pleistocene Hippo Butchery Site: Gombore II-2 (Melka Kunture, Upper Awash valley, Ethiopia), in Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, 32 pp. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-019-00046-0
Abstract: Single-carcass sites of Lower and Middle Pleistocene age have attracted much attention since they were first recorded. They have been the focus both of science and of museum displays, with reconstructions of "hominins-feasting-on-a-carcass" purposefully illustrating a major step in human evolution. Here we report the Acheulean site Gombore II-2 in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia, dating to 0.7 Myr. In the 1970s, due to the presence of hippo remains, the site was published as a single-carcass butchering site. New excavations revealed an ichnosurface displaying animal and human footprints associated with bones and lithics. Subsequent studies of lithic and faunal remains of recent and past excavations as well as archive studies show that Gombore II-2 represents one of the earliest sites with hominin-hippo interaction. The hippo remains belong to a minimum of three carcasses, at least one of them butchered by hominins and subsequently ravaged by hyenas. However, instead of single carcasses exploited on the spot, evidence suggests the existence of a living floor where butchering episodes were performed through time, possibly transporting portions from scav-enging sites at a distance. Gombore II-2 thus provides unique insight into planning capacities and control over the environment probably by early representatives of Homo heidelbergensis.

– The FLK West sequence is divided into six fluvial stratigraphic levels, each of which provided archaeological materials. In the present paper we outline the major similarities and differences displayed by the lithic assemblages in FLK W, particularly the lower assemblages, which have yielded more objects than the upper ones. The differences noted in the absence/presence and frequency of LCTs may be explained in occupational terms, while the similarities in raw material selection, core reduction and flake retouching patterns indicate homogeneous cultural decisions and cognitive skills. We conclude that these assemblages were likely formed by the same hominin group or taxon and, therefore, the assemblage variability registered would correspond to different expressions of the same economic structure.

Dating the earliest human occupations in Western Europe and reconstructing links with climatic and environmental constraints is a central issue in Quaternary studies. Amongst the discovery of Palaeolithic artefacts ascribed to the Early Pleistocene in southeast Britain and central France the Somme Basin, where the Acheulean type-site Amiens Saint-Acheul is located, is a key area for addressing this topic. Research undertaken over the past 20 years on both Quaternary fluvial and loess sequences of this area has provided a unique dataset for the study of the relations between human occupations and environmental variations. Studies based on an interdisciplinary approach combining sedimentology, palae-ontology and geochronology have highlighted the impact of the 100 kyrs cycles on terrace formation during the last million years. In this terrace system, the earliest in situ Acheulean settlements known in the 1990s were dated to early MIS 12 (±450 ka), but new field discoveries, at Amiens " Rue du Man ege " , dated to ± 550 ka, significantly increase the age of the oldest human occupation in the area. In this context, new fieldwork has been undertaken in Abbeville at the Carri ere Carpentier site, famous for its White Marl deposit attributed to the Cromerian and in the same terrace level where the former discoveries of " Abbevillian bifaces " were made by d'Ault du Mesnil. This research is based on an interdis-ciplinary approach, combining sedimentology, paleontology, dating (ESR on quartz and ESR/U-series on teeth) and archaeology. According to the various bio-proxies (molluscs, large vertebrates, small mammals), the White Marl was deposited during the early part of an interglacial phase in an aquatic slow-flowing environment, as emphasized by the development of oncoliths and the presence of fish and aquatic molluscs. The landscape was composed of a mosaic of open bush and forest areas, in which wet

The palaeolithic Portomaior site recent have been localized in the Miño basin in the As Neves council (Pontevedra, Galicia), are situated in a middle terrace of the Miño of +30-40m. Acheulian industry has been localized in several of the four stratigraphy levels differentiated. In absence of faunal remains and for the moment the absolute date, the relative position of the terrace in the general sequence of the valley permit to considerer a chronology of the second half of the Middle Pleistocene for the site. The high density of industry in context stratigraphy permits compares this collection with the Las Gándaras de Budiño site, it knows since middle century of 1960.

ROSSONI-NOTTER E., NOTTER O., SIMONE S., SIMON P. (2016). Acheulean breccia of Prince cave (Liguria, Italy): new insights and regional issues. Quaternary International, 411, pp 236-253. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618216001415

Prince cave is located along the Liguro-provençal corridor, in Italy (Liguria). Between mountains and sea,
in the heart of a refuge zone, this site is part of the Paleolithic complex of sites called Balzi Rossi or
Grimaldi. The excavations led from 1966 to 2002 managed to unearth Acheulean industries in two
distinct brecciated deposits. Former interdisciplinary studies and analysis attributed Br2 to MIS 7
(220,000 ± 120/50 ka) and Br1 to MIS 6. With the aim to update the characterizations and the place of
these assemblages within the regional Acheulean panorama, this work conducts for the first time an
exhaustive study on the respective industries. It provides detailed data on their numerical distributions,
territorial patterns, technical features, and technoeconomic strategies. The results leads undoubtedly to
common behaviors but modulated by significant differences. Both groups were looking for available
littoral pebbles as to shape heavy and large cutting tools, in particular in Br1 (n ¼ 159) where they are
better and wider represented (choppers, chopping-tools, handaxes, picks, unifacial, rostro-carinate,

epannel
e). Br2 (n ¼ 290), richer in artefacts, delivers much fewer products among which larger chop-
pers, chopping-tools and bifacial piece. In both cases, direct percussion with hard hammers is prevalent,
but bipolar percussion and soft hammer (Br1) had also been employed in finalization phases. Further-
more, the corpuses always include large flakes coming from specific operating sequences of debitage.
Local Ciotti flints and other semi-local hard siliceous materials (Perinaldo flints, microquartzite),
collected on the ligurian littoral at 10e20 km to the east, were used for medium flakes productions and
the confection of retouched tools. Western (15e20 km) and allochthonous (>30 km) procurements
appear exclusive to Br2. However, Prince knappers shared the same techniques (direct percussion with
hard hammers), methods (unifacial/bifacial Discoid, recurrent unipolar, bipolar, and centripetal Levallois,
SSDA) and technoeconomic strategies (ramifications, recycling of isotropic materials, blanks, tools, in situ
knapping and confections). Volumetric unipolar and orthogonal methods are only inventoried in Br2.
Debitage schemes pursued the productions of unretouched elongated flakes and manufacturing of
scrapers and denticulates. Br2 corpus revealed a better control and efficiency in this particular regard. Its
operating sequences are longer, more complex and achieved. It offers also a more various toolkit
(transversal scrapers, Clactonian and retouched notches, beaks, points, Tayac point, awls, end-scrapers).
With a lower “pre-Mousterian” industry and a upper “final Acheulean”, Prince industries complete and
inform the Acheulean neighboring complex.