Temporalities in Stone Provisioning in the Middle Paleolithic Stone Artifact Record of the Cave of Pech De L’azé IV in Southwest France; Insights into the Variability in Neandertal Landscape Use

Interpretation of variability in the Middle Paleolithic stone artifact record continues to be one of the major research questions in the Pleistocene archaeology of Europe. Current interpretations of this variability are shifting from culture-historical explanations towards ones related with Neandertal use of the landscape in economic sense: strategies of mobility and resource procurement. These interpretations nonetheless reduce this behavior to one meaning behind a particular set of techno-typological traits in the stone artifact record. Contributing to this problem is the conventional concept of this record as comprised of archaeological assemblages defined on the basis of natural interfaces and perceived as emic entities that contain functionally associated artifacts of time-averaged behavioral events. This dissertation investigates temporalities of processes related to stone provisioning by Neandertals during their use of the cave of Pech de l’Azé IV in south-west France to contribute to understanding the variability in their landscape use from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 until MIS 3 in this region. This stone artifact sequence is sampled by the same number of stone artifacts, following the general history of their accumulation. The analysis examines behavioral processes of stone movement, blank production, tool selection, and tool management, and the dynamics among these processes is used to infer the degree of variability in the use of this place and the degree of variability in the use of stone as components of variability in landscape use. The results show certain patterns in the association between different degrees of variability in landscape use and the three isotope stages and the record of particular techno-typological attributes. During MIS 5, the degree of variability in landscape use fluctuated more than during post-MIS 5 times, when the variability in this behavior was constantly higher. Low variability in landscape use left the record with higher incidences of Levallois elements, while moderate or high variability in this behavior produced the record that is technologically less uniform. Also, until MIS 3, there was a cyclical pattern in the degree of variability in landscape use. Finally, this dissertation argues for the abandonment of the concept of assemblage in stone artifact archaeology

A geometric morphometric relationship predicts stone flake shape and size variability

The archaeological record represents a window onto the complex relationship between stone artefact variance and hominin behaviour. Differences in the shapes and sizes of stone flakes-the most abundant remains of past behaviours for much of human evolutionary history-may be underpinned by variation in a range of different environmental and behavioural factors. Controlled flake production experiments have drawn inferences between flake platform preparation behaviours, which have thus far been approximated by linear measurements, and different aspects of overall stone flake variability (Dibble and Rezek J Archaeol Sci 36:1945-1954, 2009; Lin et al. Am Antiq 724-745, 2013; Magnani et al. J Archaeol Sci 46:37-49, 2014; Rezek et al. J Archaeol Sci 38:1346-1359, 2011). However, when the results are applied to archaeological assemblages, there remains a substantial amount of unexplained variability. It is unclear whether this disparity between explanatory models and archaeological data is a result of measurement error on certain key variables, whether traditional analyses are somehow a general limiting factor, or whether there are additional flake shape and size drivers that remain unaccounted for. To try and circumvent these issues, here, we describe a shape analysis approach to assessing stone flake variability including a newly developed three-dimensional geometric morphometric method (\u273DGM\u27). We use 3DGM to demonstrate that a relationship between platform and flake body governs flake shape and size variability. Contingently, we show that by using this 3DGM approach, we can use flake platform attributes to both (1) make fairly accurate stone flake size predictions and (2) make relatively detailed predictions of stone flake shape. Whether conscious or instinctive, an understanding of this geometric relationship would have been critical to past knappers effectively controlling the production of desired stone flakes. However, despite being able to holistically and accurately incorporate three-dimensional flake variance into our analyses, the behavioural drivers of this variance remain elusive

Aggregates, Formational Emergence, and the Focus on Practice in Stone Artifact Archaeology

The stone artifact record has been one of the major grounds for investigating our evolution. With the predominant focus on their morphological attributes and technological aspects of manufacture, stone artifacts and their assemblages have been analyzed as explicit measures of past behaviors, adaptations, and population histories. This analytical focus on technological andmorphological appearance is one of the characteristics of the conventional approach for constructing inferences from this record. An equally persistent routine involves ascribing the emerged patterns and variability within the archaeological deposits directly to long-term central tendencies in human actions and cultural transmission. Here we re-evaluate this conventional approach. By invoking some of the known concerns and concepts about the formation of archaeological record, we introduce notions of aggregates and formational emergence to expand on the understanding of how artifacts accumulate, what these accumulations represent, and how the patterns and variability among them emerge. To infer behavior that could inform on past lifeways, we further promote a shift in the focus of analysis from the technological and morphological appearance of artifacts and assemblages to the practice of stone use. We argue for a more rigorous and multi-level inferential procedure in modeling behavioral adaptation and evolution

Introducing platform surface interior angle (PSIA) and its role in flake formation, size and shape

Four ways archaeologists have tried to gain insights into how flintknapping creates lithic variability are fracture mechanics, controlled experimentation, replication and attribute studies of lithic assemblages. Fracture mechanics has the advantage of drawing more directly on first principles derived from physics and material sciences, but its relevance to controlled experimentation, replication and lithic studies more generally has been limited. Controlled experiments have the advantage of being able to isolate and quantify the contribution of individual variables to knapping outcomes, and the results of these experiments have provided models of flake formation that when applied to the archaeological record of flintknapping have provided insights into past behavior. Here we develop a linkage between fracture mechanics and the results of previous controlled experiments to increase their combined explanatory and predictive power. We do this by documenting the influence of Herztian cone formation, a constant in fracture mechanics, on flake platforms. We find that the platform width is a function of the Hertzian cone constant angle and the geometry of the platform edge. This finding strengthens the foundation of one of the more influential models emerging from the controlled experiments. With additional work, this should make it possible to merge more of the experimental results into a more comprehensive model of flake formation

New findings of Middle Stone Age lithic artifacts from the Matmata loess region in southern Tunisia

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Combining collagen extraction with mineral Zn isotope analyses from a single sample for robust palaeoecological investigations

Collagen extraction from bones or dentine, commonly used for radiocarbon (14C) dating and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope (δ13C and δ15N) analyses, involves the dissolution of the bioapatite of skeletal elements. This fraction is typically disposed of during pretreatment. Here, we test the possibility of utilising this dissolved mineral solution for analysis of the bioapatite zinc isotope composition (δ66Zn). Bioapatite δ66Zn is a novel trophic level indicator similar to collagen δ15N but with isotopic fractionation independent from nitrogen, thus providing additional dietary information. We tested ways to minimise Zn contamination of the dissolved mineral phase during collagen extraction. We then used archaeological bone samples from Ain Difla (Jordan) and Ranis (Germany) to compare δ66Zn values of dissolved bioapatite following our collagen extraction protocol with δ66Zn values from the same sample material dissolved in a metal-free cleanroom. Our results demonstrate that with only minor adjustments to minimise Zn contamination, the dissolved mineral solution from collagen extraction protocols commonly employed for 14C dating and (palaeo)dietary analysis can be used for additional δ66Zn analyses even when collagen extraction does not take place in a cleanroom. Our protocol allows us to gain an additional dietary proxy to complement δ15N trophic level interpretations and perform more robust (palaeo)ecological investigations without further destructive sampling

Subarctic climate for the earliest Homo sapiens in Europe

Acknowledgments The re-excavation of Bacho Kiro Cave was jointly conducted by the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia and the Department of Human Evolution at the MPI-EVA. We would like to thank the National Museum of Natural History (Sofia), the Archaeology Department at the New Bulgarian University (Sofia), the Regional Museum of History in Gabrovo, and the History Museum in Dryanovo for assistance on this project and the opportunity to study the Bacho Kiro Cave faunal material. We would like to thank M. Trost, S. Hesse, M. Kaniecki, and P. Dittmann (MPI-EVA) for technical assistance during stable isotope sample preparation. S. Steinbrenner is thanked for technical assistance with TC/EA-IRMS maintenance. Thanks are also due to H. Temming and U. Schwarz (MPI-EVA) for the production of microCT scans and replicas of the sample materials. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of to D. Veres with taking OSL samples. Last but not least we would like to thank the handling editor, S. Ortman, as well as three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments that greatly improved this manuscript. Funding: The field work was financed by the Max Planck Society. The stable isotope work was funded by the Max Planck Society as part of S.P.’s doctoral project. S.P. was supported by the Max Planck Society and the University of Aberdeen. K.B. was supported by a Philip Leverhulme Prize from The Leverhulme Trust (PLP-2019-284). N.B.’s work was supported as part of a grant by the German Research Foundation (“PALÄODIET” Project 378496604). V.A. was supported by a grant from the Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal (IF/01157/2015/CP1308/CT0002). Author contributions: The study was devised by S.P., K.B., S.P.M., J.-J.H., and T.T. Archaeological excavation was undertaken by N.S. and T.T. in collaboration with Z.R. and S.P.M. who all contributed contextual information. V.A. collected sedimentological data at the site and untertook micromorphological investigations that provided information on site formation for this study. Zooarchaeological and paleontological analyses were performed by G.M.S. and R.S. OSL dating was carried out by T.L. Radiocarbon dating and recalibration of radiocarbon dates were conducted by H.F. MC-ICPMS analysis was conducted by N.B. and S.P. Sampling, sample processing for oxygen and strontium stable isotope analysis, and TC/EA-IRMS analysis were carried out by S.P. Code and data analyses were written and conducted by S.P. N.-H.T. consulted on statistical analysis and coding. S.P. wrote the paper with input from all authors. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Identifying the unidentified fauna enhances insights into hominin subsistence strategies during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition

Understanding Palaeolithic hominin subsistence strategies requires the comprehensive taxonomic identification of faunal remains. The high fragmentation of Late Pleistocene faunal assemblages often prevents proper taxonomic identification based on bone morphology. It has been assumed that the morphologically unidentifiable component of the faunal assemblage would reflect the taxonomic abundances of the morphologically identified portion. In this study, we analyse three faunal datasets covering the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition (MUPT) at Bacho Kiro Cave (Bulgaria) and Les Cottés and La Ferrassie (France) with the application of collagen type I peptide mass fingerprinting (ZooMS). Our results emphasise that the fragmented component of Palaeolithic bone assemblages can differ significantly from the morphologically identifiable component. We obtain contrasting identification rates between taxa resulting in an overrepresentation of morphologically identified reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and an underrepresentation of aurochs/bison (Bos/Bison) and horse/European ass (Equus) at Les Cottés and La Ferrassie. Together with an increase in the relative diversity of the faunal composition, these results have implications for the interpretation of subsistence strategies during a period of possible interaction between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Europe. Furthermore, shifts in faunal community composition and in carnivore activity suggest a change in the interaction between humans and carnivores across the MUPT and indicate a possible difference in site use between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The combined use of traditional and biomolecular methods allows (zoo)archaeologists to tackle some of the methodological limits commonly faced during the morphological assessment of Palaeolithic bone assemblages

Experimental Design and Experimental Inference in Stone Artifact Archaeology

Lithic researchers rely heavily on experimentation to infer past behaviors and activities based on stone artifacts. This paper explores the analogical nature of archaeological inference and the relationship between experimental design and inference validity in stone artifact experimentation. We show that actualistic flintknapping lacks vital aspects of scientific experimentation, and thus has inherent inferential issues of analogical adequacy and confidence. It is argued that a greater emphasis on hypothesis construction and variable control is needed in order to establish sound referential linkages upon which constructive analogic inferences about the past can be built

The Role of Controlled Experiments in Understanding Variation in Flake Production

Understanding chipped-stone technology essentially comes down to understanding how a single flake is made. Even though a knapper may remove many flakes to prepare a core or shape a piece, thin it, or modify its edges, each and every one of these removals requires a certain degree of control so that particular effects are achieved. While there is currently an emphasis in lithic analysis on reconstructing the totality of various reduction sequences (e.g., see Olszewski, chapter 4, this volume; Rollefson, chapter 10, this volume), we still have much to learn about how individual flakes are formed. In order to quantify the various mechanical aspects of flake production, a number of researchers have designed experiments under highly controlled conditions, often using shaped cores and mechanical strikers. These types of experiments allow control over several aspects of flaking, from the angle and force of the blow and type of hammer used to various core surface and platform morphologies. In this way, it is possible to study in a very detailed fashion the effects of particular independent variables on flake morphology. Such experiments are called controlled experiments because their goal is to control as many as possible of the variables involved with knapping in order to isolate the effects of a single variable. Because of the design of these kinds of experiments, such controls are much tighter than is generally possible with replicative flint-knapping experiments, and the results are clearly more amenable to quantification. On the other hand, the downside of many controlled experiments is that the processes and products do not always accurately simulate archaeological ones. This artificial nature inherent to many controlled experiments has often made it difficult to apply the results directly to archaeological materials