Lithic Assemblages
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Recent papers in Lithic Assemblages
Thomas Perrin, Pierre Allard, Grégor Marchand, Didier Binder, Oreto Garcia-Puchol, et al.. The late Mesolithic of Western Europe: origins and diffusion of blade and trapeze industries. Meso 2010 - The 8th International Conference on... more
Thomas Perrin, Pierre Allard, Grégor Marchand, Didier Binder, Oreto Garcia-Puchol, et al.. The late Mesolithic of Western Europe: origins and diffusion of blade and trapeze industries.
Meso 2010 - The 8th International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe - olithic of Western Europe: origins and diffusion of blade and trapeze industries. Meso 2010 - The 8th International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Sep 2010, Santander, Spain. <hal01813162>
HAL Id: hal-01813162
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01813162
Submitted on 12 Jun 2018
Meso 2010 - The 8th International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe - olithic of Western Europe: origins and diffusion of blade and trapeze industries. Meso 2010 - The 8th International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Sep 2010, Santander, Spain. <hal01813162>
HAL Id: hal-01813162
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01813162
Submitted on 12 Jun 2018
Considering the available data, the Mousterian period is the only techno-complex from the Middle Paleolithic identified and characterized in Portugal. However, some of the sites referred in this work should be simply attributed to the... more
Considering the available data, the Mousterian period is the only techno-complex from the Middle Paleolithic identified and characterized in Portugal. However, some of the sites referred in this work should be simply attributed to the Middle Paleolithic due to the lack of detailed elements. The site of Vale do Forno 8 probably represents the transition between the final Upper Paleolithic and the early Middle Paleolithic.
The open-air sites such as the ones in the outskirts of Lisbon and on the left margin of the Tagus estuary, where vestiges
are extremely abundant and the permanence for long periods correspond to sites of residential character.
None of these sites were subject to extensive excavations in order to confirm this type of settlement and further knowledge of the social organization of the inhabited spaces. Other open-air sites located in fluvial terraces present smaller areas of occupation and were probably related to game activities, maybe seasonal in nature. This was the case of Santo Antão do Tojal, were elephants and horses were eventually captured, of Foz do Enxarrique were red deer was almost exclusive and of Vilas Ruivas, were faunal remains were not preserved but remains of wind-breaks or hunting blind structures were found associated with fireplaces and post-holes. Fireplaces were also found in Gruta da Buraca Escura and on the open-air site of Santa Cita.
Caves such as Gruta da Oliveira and the Gruta Nova da Columbeira show long stratigraphic sequences and prolonged settlements, of residential type, though a few other caves also show temporary settlements related to game activities or the exploitation of geological resources. In most cases, there is an alternance of the cave occupation by humans and large carnivores. Food subsistence of humans was non-specialized, capturing large, mid and also small preys such as the rabbit, an abundant endemic species. The terrestrial turtle was also captured, especially in Gruta Nova da Columbeira. Aquatic resources were a significative part of the food supply in caves close to the coast such as Ibn Amar over the Arade estuary and Gruta da Figueira Brava, over the sea, where a lot of different species of mollucs, crustaceans and sea mammals such as seal and dolphin were present. In the caves some few kilometers from the coast, like Gruta Nova da Columbeira, recollection or fishing activities were not present. It means that the resource exploitation areas around the settlements were small. The same reasoning is applicable to the geological resources, in which the raw materials such as quartz, quartzite and flint were used in quantities according to their availability in the surrounding cave area, never more than in a 10 km around the settlements. In some cases e.g. Gruta da Figueira Brava and Gruta do Escoural, filonean quartz was extensively used in spite of its bad quality because of its abundance in the cave surroundings. In Lisbon region, where the distance between sites did not surpasse 30 km, there is also a strong relationship between the types of materials used and their availability, indicating the opportunistic and local origin of the production, even if mobility was high within each the exploited area.
From both technical and typological points of view, the Final Mousterian represented by the assemblages of Gruta da
Oliveira, Gruta Nova da Columbeira and Gruta da Figueira Brava, showed no evidence of transition to the Upper Paleolithic but rather a “mousterianisation” of the lithic industry was observed.
The food supplies used and the species captured reflected the paleoclimatic conditions that took place. The eldest materials dated Mousterian were collected in Gruta da Furninha, from ca. 80 Ka calBP, and are related to the stripped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena prisca), a species of warm climate coexisting with the warmwater species Patella safiana and Pectunculus bimaculatus which existed in the 5-8 m a.s.l. marine conglomerate level observed in Forte da Baralha, in the littoral of the Arrábida Ridge.
Presently these species do not occur at latitudes higher than the Mediterranean or the Atlantic Moroccan coast. After the formation of the fossil deposits of Gruta da Furninha, the palaeoclimatic evolution is not known until ca. 45 Ka calBP, represented by the palaeontological sites of Vale de Janela in the Estremadura littoral and São Torpes in the Alentejo littoral. In both sites there were found species related to a cool and wet temperate climate, but Myrica also occurs, a termophilic genus. A climate cooler than the Mediterranean is in agreement with the presence of the mountain goat in the upper Mousterian levels of gruta da Oliveira dating before 43/42 Ka calBP. Afterwards, the climate became progressively warmer and Mediterranean-type: the mountain goat disappeared from Gruta da Oliveira and Mediterranean rodents are present in the Level 8 of that cave, dating from 38/37 Ka calBP, while Cepaea nemoralis appeared in Lapa dos Furos, dating from 40 Ka calBP.
From 36 Ka calBP on, there was a climatic cooling and the mountain goat reappears in low altitude mountain ranges
(Gruta Nova da Columbeira and Gruta da Figueira Brava). In fact, the weather conditions were probably cooler than in the
present and comparable to those in the cantabrian region, as suggested by the findings in Gruta da Figueira Brava. But the presence of the land turtle, which was abundant in Gruta Nova da Columbeira (up to 34-31 Ka calBP) demands summer temperatures ca. 20-30 ºC for egg hatching. On the other hand, the microfauna from Level K in Gruta do Caldeirão, including Allocricetus bursae, shows how steppic conditions migrated to the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and prevailed when the first industries of the Upper Paleolithic occurred, an evolved phase of the Aurignacian, about probably 35-34 Ka calBP.
Within this particular paleoclimatic framework of the western and southwestern parts of the Peninsula, it is possible to
accept the survival of population remains of some species including the ancient elephant which is present in Foz do Enxarrique about 33.6 Ka calBP, and also the last Neanderthals and their Late Mousterian industry.
The open-air sites such as the ones in the outskirts of Lisbon and on the left margin of the Tagus estuary, where vestiges
are extremely abundant and the permanence for long periods correspond to sites of residential character.
None of these sites were subject to extensive excavations in order to confirm this type of settlement and further knowledge of the social organization of the inhabited spaces. Other open-air sites located in fluvial terraces present smaller areas of occupation and were probably related to game activities, maybe seasonal in nature. This was the case of Santo Antão do Tojal, were elephants and horses were eventually captured, of Foz do Enxarrique were red deer was almost exclusive and of Vilas Ruivas, were faunal remains were not preserved but remains of wind-breaks or hunting blind structures were found associated with fireplaces and post-holes. Fireplaces were also found in Gruta da Buraca Escura and on the open-air site of Santa Cita.
Caves such as Gruta da Oliveira and the Gruta Nova da Columbeira show long stratigraphic sequences and prolonged settlements, of residential type, though a few other caves also show temporary settlements related to game activities or the exploitation of geological resources. In most cases, there is an alternance of the cave occupation by humans and large carnivores. Food subsistence of humans was non-specialized, capturing large, mid and also small preys such as the rabbit, an abundant endemic species. The terrestrial turtle was also captured, especially in Gruta Nova da Columbeira. Aquatic resources were a significative part of the food supply in caves close to the coast such as Ibn Amar over the Arade estuary and Gruta da Figueira Brava, over the sea, where a lot of different species of mollucs, crustaceans and sea mammals such as seal and dolphin were present. In the caves some few kilometers from the coast, like Gruta Nova da Columbeira, recollection or fishing activities were not present. It means that the resource exploitation areas around the settlements were small. The same reasoning is applicable to the geological resources, in which the raw materials such as quartz, quartzite and flint were used in quantities according to their availability in the surrounding cave area, never more than in a 10 km around the settlements. In some cases e.g. Gruta da Figueira Brava and Gruta do Escoural, filonean quartz was extensively used in spite of its bad quality because of its abundance in the cave surroundings. In Lisbon region, where the distance between sites did not surpasse 30 km, there is also a strong relationship between the types of materials used and their availability, indicating the opportunistic and local origin of the production, even if mobility was high within each the exploited area.
From both technical and typological points of view, the Final Mousterian represented by the assemblages of Gruta da
Oliveira, Gruta Nova da Columbeira and Gruta da Figueira Brava, showed no evidence of transition to the Upper Paleolithic but rather a “mousterianisation” of the lithic industry was observed.
The food supplies used and the species captured reflected the paleoclimatic conditions that took place. The eldest materials dated Mousterian were collected in Gruta da Furninha, from ca. 80 Ka calBP, and are related to the stripped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena prisca), a species of warm climate coexisting with the warmwater species Patella safiana and Pectunculus bimaculatus which existed in the 5-8 m a.s.l. marine conglomerate level observed in Forte da Baralha, in the littoral of the Arrábida Ridge.
Presently these species do not occur at latitudes higher than the Mediterranean or the Atlantic Moroccan coast. After the formation of the fossil deposits of Gruta da Furninha, the palaeoclimatic evolution is not known until ca. 45 Ka calBP, represented by the palaeontological sites of Vale de Janela in the Estremadura littoral and São Torpes in the Alentejo littoral. In both sites there were found species related to a cool and wet temperate climate, but Myrica also occurs, a termophilic genus. A climate cooler than the Mediterranean is in agreement with the presence of the mountain goat in the upper Mousterian levels of gruta da Oliveira dating before 43/42 Ka calBP. Afterwards, the climate became progressively warmer and Mediterranean-type: the mountain goat disappeared from Gruta da Oliveira and Mediterranean rodents are present in the Level 8 of that cave, dating from 38/37 Ka calBP, while Cepaea nemoralis appeared in Lapa dos Furos, dating from 40 Ka calBP.
From 36 Ka calBP on, there was a climatic cooling and the mountain goat reappears in low altitude mountain ranges
(Gruta Nova da Columbeira and Gruta da Figueira Brava). In fact, the weather conditions were probably cooler than in the
present and comparable to those in the cantabrian region, as suggested by the findings in Gruta da Figueira Brava. But the presence of the land turtle, which was abundant in Gruta Nova da Columbeira (up to 34-31 Ka calBP) demands summer temperatures ca. 20-30 ºC for egg hatching. On the other hand, the microfauna from Level K in Gruta do Caldeirão, including Allocricetus bursae, shows how steppic conditions migrated to the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and prevailed when the first industries of the Upper Paleolithic occurred, an evolved phase of the Aurignacian, about probably 35-34 Ka calBP.
Within this particular paleoclimatic framework of the western and southwestern parts of the Peninsula, it is possible to
accept the survival of population remains of some species including the ancient elephant which is present in Foz do Enxarrique about 33.6 Ka calBP, and also the last Neanderthals and their Late Mousterian industry.
Furninha Cave was the object of a very early paper by Nery Delgado in 1884. The description of Pleistocene lithic and faunal materials implied that there had been a Paleolithic occupation in the cave. That was confirmed by the later work... more
Furninha Cave was the object of a very early paper by Nery Delgado in 1884. The description of Pleistocene lithic and faunal materials implied that there had been a Paleolithic occupation in the cave. That was confirmed by the later work of Breuil and Zbyszewski in 1945, where they attributed those materials to the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Some 30 years later, O. da Veiga Ferreira (1962) and J. Roche included some of the Furninha materials in their own synthesis of the Portuguese Solutrean. By the end of the century, J. Zilhão (1997) excluded most materials attributed by Breuil and Zbyszewski to the Upper Paleolithic, stating that this occupation was highly ephemeral and those materials thought to be Upper Paleolithic were, in fact, Neolithic or later. With the present study, with a new and complete revision of the lithic paleolithic assemblages in a total of 389 artifacts, the presence of Mousterian, Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian occupations in Furninha were clearly demonstrated. Finally, we also present a new interpretation based on the lithic analysis and a reanalysis of the cave stratigraphy, and the attribution of the different materials to the original bone beds described by Nery Delgado in 1880. This interpretation indicates that the original field work was of great quality, and that the stratigraphical mixing thought to have happen by most researchers, including Breuil, Roche and Zilhão, most likely did no take place and the cave was kept essentially pristine up to the moment of the complete excavation by Delgado.
This work offers an approach to the question of the transition phase between the Epigravettian and the Mesolithic in the Alpine area. The aim is to compare the techno-typological characteristics of diachronic lithic industries.... more
This work offers an approach to the question of the transition phase between the Epigravettian and the Mesolithic in the Alpine area. The aim is to compare the techno-typological
characteristics of diachronic lithic industries. Archaeological records that contribute to this issue come from the sites of Riparo Cogola (Trento), Palù Echen (Trento), Regole (Trento) and Galgenbühel/Dos de la Forca (Bozen/Bolzano). They cover the period from the Younger Dryas to the Boreal and are attributed to the Recent Epigravettian and to the Sauveterrian. Some changes in the lithic production that occurred between the beginning of the Younger Dryas and the Preboreal can be perceived: one of the most evident aspects of this development
is the reduced necessity for the production of laminar products. A blade-bladelet production that exploits the maximum length
of the core until its abandon (Cogola 19) changes into a more varied core management in the Sauveterrian finalised at extracting bladelets, laminar flakes and flakes. Taking into consideration the manufacture of the armatures, the use of the microburin technique becomes systematic in the Preboreal. Regarding the composition of the microliths, the following observations have been made: there is a numerical increase in some geometric microliths (crescents and triangles), a decrease in backed pieces with truncation and the disappearance of the
trapeziums. Moreover, one of the key elements for analysing this transition is represented by the backed points that are characterised by a clear morpho-technical change together with a progressive microlithization.
characteristics of diachronic lithic industries. Archaeological records that contribute to this issue come from the sites of Riparo Cogola (Trento), Palù Echen (Trento), Regole (Trento) and Galgenbühel/Dos de la Forca (Bozen/Bolzano). They cover the period from the Younger Dryas to the Boreal and are attributed to the Recent Epigravettian and to the Sauveterrian. Some changes in the lithic production that occurred between the beginning of the Younger Dryas and the Preboreal can be perceived: one of the most evident aspects of this development
is the reduced necessity for the production of laminar products. A blade-bladelet production that exploits the maximum length
of the core until its abandon (Cogola 19) changes into a more varied core management in the Sauveterrian finalised at extracting bladelets, laminar flakes and flakes. Taking into consideration the manufacture of the armatures, the use of the microburin technique becomes systematic in the Preboreal. Regarding the composition of the microliths, the following observations have been made: there is a numerical increase in some geometric microliths (crescents and triangles), a decrease in backed pieces with truncation and the disappearance of the
trapeziums. Moreover, one of the key elements for analysing this transition is represented by the backed points that are characterised by a clear morpho-technical change together with a progressive microlithization.
- by Michele Bassetti and +1
- •
- Northern Italy, Alps, Epigravettian, Sauveterrian
The Author describes a lithic industry found on Monte Netto (Poncarale, Brescia). On the basis of the typology of flint artifacts, the lithic industry is ascribed t o a Late Mesolithic Trapeze complex.