Pressure Knapping Blade Production in the North-Western Mediterranean Region during the 7th millennium cal B.C

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The integration of the experimental archaeology and the spatial analysis for a statistical approach to the study of prehistoric art

The main aim of this research is to reconstruct the production sequence that has led to the creation of mobiliar art objects engraved on limestone blanks coming from the Mesolithic site of Cocina cave's (Valencia, Spain)(Salazar D.C., Garcia Puchol O., 2017). This aim will be attempt through the experimental approach based on the principles of the Experimental Archaeology. This kind of approach started in the 60s of the last century under the theoretical input of the New Archeology (Binford L.R., 1972). The experimental protocol is constituted by a series of procedures, repeatable wherever and by whomsoever, by ensuring that the result can be verified in every context. The experiments obtained represent what is defined a "reference comparative", useful to provide hypothesis on the actions that contributed to the creations of the archaeological. In our case study, the comparison phase between the experimental and the archaeological objects is undertaken by the microscopic analysis of the engraved. These traits act as a "fingerprint" of the instrument that produced them, and, indirectly illustrate the hand that made it (Adams, J.L.2013). A series of trials were carried out by groups of people from different age, ethnic and cultural background. All the experimenters created a series of lines on limestone using lithic tools similar to the archaeological tones. No rules were imposed for experimentation, but everyone had the "artistic" freedom to fill the area of the limestone blanks in the way they preferred. All the experimentations have been documented taking notes of: the support used, the working tool used, the ordered sequence of the engraved lines and their typology (vertical, horizontal, oblique). After this experimental work, we started studying the arrangement of the lines within the experimental samples in terms of space and engravings time execution. The aim is to establish statistically how the individual exploit the "artistic" space and whether there were differences based on age, sex or Culture. A software that combines the experimental archaeological analysis and the spatial study of the artistic surface is being developed in Python (Downey A.D., 2012). The main objective of this software is to collect the data for the statistical analysis, extracting all the necessary features from high resolution images of the experimental objects via a semi-automatic procedure. To this end a simple and intuitive graphical user interface has been designed, which will allow to extract a description of the scratch in terms of equations of straight lines.The images are acquired following a simple protocol which allows the software to auto calibrate (Hartley R,Zisserman A., 2003), and translate the equation from an image reference frame to a metric world reference frame, so that all the data are expressed in the same unit of measure. The data collected with the software that we are developing will be fed to statistical analysis routines that will be developed using classical statistical analysis environments like R and/or the python libraries Pandas and Scipy

The late Mesolithic of Western Europe: origins and diffusion of blade and trapeze industries

International audienceDuring the 7th millennium cal BC, Mesolithic assemblages record a major change throughout the entire European continent. This change took place in a very rapid manner. The aim of this paper is to determine possible origins of this phenomenon and to define the chronological stages of its spread. Critical examination of the radiocarbon dates and the sites make an African origin of this phenomenon likely, which subsequently diffuses very rapidly across the entire Western Mediterranean Basin before expanding across the whole of Western Europe. Equally, we are also trying to understand its proper nature: introduction of a new technical concept or migration of culturally distinct human groups

Le second Mésolithique d'Europe occidentale : origines et gradient chronologique

International audienceDuring the 7th millennium before Christ, the composition of Mesolithic assemblages is marked by a major change which can be observed throughout the entire European continent. This change took place in a very rapid manner. The aim of the present research is to determine possible origins of this phenomenon and to define the chronological stages of its spread. Equally, we are also trying to understand its proper nature: introduction of a new technical concept or migration of culturally distinct human groups?Au VIIe millénaire avant notre ère, la quasi totalité de l'Europe connaît un bouleversement majeur dans la composition des systèmes techniques des groupes mésolithiques. Ce changement a également lieu de façon très rapide. Ce travail cherche a définir les origines potentielles de ce phénomène ainsi que de définir le gradient chronologique de sa diffusion. On cherche également à en comprendre la nature même : s'agit-il de la diffusion d'un nouveau concept technique ou cela signe-t-il le déplacement physique de groupes humains culturellement différents

The Late Mesolithic of Western Europe: a technological approach of the blade and trapeze industries

International audienceThis paper presents an overview of the knapping techniques of the Second Mesolithic during the 7th and 6th millennium in Western Europe. This period is indeed characterised by the emergence of new armatures-the trapezes-and of new techniques of prismatic blade production that show discontinuation from the preceding technical traditions. Dichotomy can be noted between pressure debitage, seemingly restricted to the Castelnovian groups, and different types of indirect percussion observed in the entire study area (Italy, France, Iberian Peninsula and Belgium). The ANR research program « The last hunter-gatherers of Western Europe » (Allard P. dir.) continues a previous research project led by Thomas Perrin (research grant of the Fyssen foundation). The latter had outlined the trapeze bearing sites and the available radiocarbon dates in the entire western European area. This study evidences a progressive spread of the trapezes from Southern (Mediterranean basin) to Northern Europe over time (Perrin et al. 2009, Perrin et al. this volume). This program is the first stage of a collective study aiming at the identification of the origins and the speed of diffusion of this phenomenon. The aim of the second part is a better understanding of the proper nature of this phenomenon that acts like a package: the new types of armatures seem to be linked to new technical practices and notably to new knapping techniques, percussion by punch and pressure technique. The present paper, which is a preliminary synthesis of this ongoing research program, presents the current state of the data regarding the identified techniques and their distribution within our study area. This analysis is based on the technological approach aiming at characterizing the knapping techniques, including the utilized strategies, the types of production and the techniques of percussion. As the analysis of the entire dataset on the technological approach goes beyond the scope of this paper, we have focused our presentation on a series of diagnostic examples that illustrate the recent results obtained from these industries. Our study area encompasses France, Belgium, the Iberian Peninsula and Italy. Our issue here is based on the hypothesis that the change of armatures is linked to a change of knapping techniques which do not evolve from the previous technical traditions. Thus: 1) Which are these new techniques that appeared to be sufficiently attractive in order to spread rapidly across the entire study area? 2) Did the diffusion of these technical changes fit with the expansion of trapezes across Europe during the 7th and 6th millennium cal BC? 3) Is this a uniform phenomenon? If not, where are the discontinuations located

Niuet (L' Alqueria d' Asnar). Poblado del III Milenio a.C.

Es presenta el resultat de les excavacions fetes al jaciment de Niuet (I'Alqueria d'Asnar. Alacant), on s'analitzen els diferents aspectes de la cultura material, tecnologia, paleogeografia i paleoambient, en el context del III mil.lenni a.C. a la val1 del riu d'Alcoi.In this item, we present the results of the excavations carried out at the archaeological site of Niuet, (l'Alqueria d’Asnar, Alacant), thus analyzing the different aspects of material culture, technology. Palaeography as well as paleoenvironment within the context of the third millennium before Christ. at the valley of El Riu d'Alcoi (the River of Alcoi).Se presenta el resultado de las excavaciones realizadas en el yacimiento de Niuet, (1 'Alqueria d'Asnar, Alacant), analizando los diferentes aspectos de la cultura material, tecnología, paleogeografía y paleoambiente en el contexto del III er milenio a.C. en el valle del Riu d'Alcoi

Contextualizando la cerámica impressa : horizontes culturales en la Península Ibérica

Organizado por: GRAMPO: Grup de Recerques Arqueològiques al Mediterrani i Pròxim Orient. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona PREMEDOC: Grup de Recerca de Prehistòria del Mediterràni Occidental. Universitat de València Servei d'Arqueologia. Ajuntament de Barcelona. Con la colaboración de: Museu d'Història de Barcelona. Ajuntament de BarcelonaDesde hace poco tiempo en el estudio sobre los orígenes de las primeras sociedades agrícolas en el Mediterráneo Occidental se ha generado un amplio debate en torno a la filiación y características culturales de los primeros grupos que practican una economía de subsistencia. En este contexto encuentra sentido la discusión sobre la presencia en la península Ibérica un momento relacionable con la denominada Impressa-Ligur presente en diferentes regiones del arco Ligur Provenzal. Este volumen, fruto de una reunión científica, reúne información actualizada sobre la posible presencia de estos contextos cerámicos en torno a la mitad del VI milenio cal en la península Ibérica dentro del marco más amplio del Mediterráneo occidental. Las primeras producciones cerámicas del Occidente son analizadas poniendo énfasis tanto en sus características como sobre todo en el contexto y la lectura histórica que aportan. Estructuradas por áreas geográficas, las 14 contribuciones realizadas por 38 investigadores nacionales e internacionales, ofrecen una visión inédita y original sobre una de las novedades más importantes de la investigación en Prehistoria reciente en el último decenio