A Middle Palaeolithic wooden digging stick from Aranbaltza III, Spain

Aranbaltza is an archaeological complex formed by at least three open-air sites. Between 2014 and 2015 a test excavation carried out in Aranbaltza III revealed the presence of a sand and clay sedimentary sequence formed in floodplain environments, within which six sedimentary units have been identified. This sequence was formed between 137±50 ka, and includes several archaeological horizons, attesting to the long-term presence of Neanderthal communities in this area. One of these horizons, corresponding with Unit 4, yielded two wooden tools. One of these tools is a beveled pointed tool that was shaped through a complex operational sequence involving branch shaping, bark peeling, twig removal, shaping, polishing, thermal exposition and chopping. A use-wear analysis of the tool shows it to have traces related with digging soil so it has been interpreted as representing a digging stick. This is the first time such a tool has been identified in a European Late Middle Palaeolithic context; it also represents one of the first well-preserved Middle Palaeolithic wooden tool found in southern Europe. This artefact represents one of the few examples available of wooden tool preservation for the European Palaeolithic, allowing us to further explore the role wooden technologies played in Neanderthal communities

Use-wear Analysis of Nonflint Lithic Raw Materials: The Cases of Quartz/Quartzite and Obsidian

Ever since the beginnings of traceology as a scientific method of analysis, the raw material was seen to be one ofthe most influential variables in the formation and development of use-wear marks (Semenov 1957). This is not only the consequence of differences in the mineralogical composition of each rock, as other characteristics such as granulometry, cementation and position of the different minerals, mineral structure, type offracture and hardness are also influential (Hayden 1979; Clemente Conte 1997; Rodríguez Rodríguez 1997; Astruc et al. 2001). Thus, the degree of homogeneity and heterogeneity of the different rocks used as raw material for the manufacture of different implements also influences the specific characteristics of the use-wear marks.The word on obsidian tools has been partly funded by the project of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche ANR-08-BLANC-0318-CD9, "ObsidienneUs" (dir. L. Astruc)Peer reviewe

On the Entity and Antiquity of the Aurignacian at Willendorf (Austria): Implications for Modern Human Emergence in Europe

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