This thesis presents an investigation into Paleoindian projectile-point morphology. A goal of this research is to determine if evidence of a normative cultural manufacturing protocol can be identified on Clovis projectile points which can then be used to address research questions concerning Clovis point variability, and ultimately, the spread of this tool-form across North America. This paper addresses obstacles to behavioral investigations of stone tool morphology such as the effects of resharpening and raw material type on tool shape. I argue that a culturally normative process of manufacture was maintained throughout the life-history of Clovis projectile points which translated into a specific shape maintained to the time of exhaustion and discard. As an analytical tool, this study utilizes the geometric morphometric method to retain the geometry of each artifact throughout analysis by focusing on spatial covariation among landmarks uniformly found on each tool. This thesis investigates variability in 123 fluted projectile points from 23 archaeological sites in North America which met criteria meant to control for security of context in the archaeological record. Principle components describing the shape-variability inherent in this data-set were generated using geometric morphometrics and multivariate statistical analyses were employed to identify major factors of variability. This research concluded that Clovis projectile-point shape was determined by normative cultural behavior maintained throughout the life of the artifact and not the result of raw material type or resharpening processes. Therefore, the projectile-point variability found to be geographically patterned provided evidence of Paleoindian movement and the spread of tool form. Multivariate analysis of variance determined that a regional trend in variability was present. The distribution of within-site variance suggested that artifacts from sites in the West were very homogeneous while artifacts from Eastern sites were more variable. The multivariate cluster and discriminant function analyses also demonstrated a closer affinity between artifacts in the Southwest and Northwest than either has with the Northeast. The similarities in projectile point morphology between the Southwest and Northwest regions suggest movement beginning with a Southwest point of origin from which Pleistocene peoples may have carried their fluted point technology north and east.

The spatial arrangements of artifacts and features within archaeological sites have often been used to isolate activity areas and draw inferences about site function. This approach assumes that objects found in close proximity were used for the same task, and that artifacts are usually discarded where they were used. However, the location of artifact abandonment often has more to do with patterns of discard and use/reuse of the site throughout time than with the function or location of activities. This dissertation uses a comparative framework to address how the observed spatial structure of Middle Paleolithic sites in France sites was formed through centrifugal dispersion of lithic artifacts, i.e. the displacement of artifacts between their creation and the final location of their abandonments. Seven Middle Paleolithic sites were included in this study. The sites were excavated over large areas, from 200 to more than 2000 m². They range from small single component occupation sites to lithic raw material workshops with assemblages of more than 15,000 artifacts. The movement of artifacts is tracked through an analysis of sets of refitted lithics and through comparisons of the distributions of multiple classes of artifact across areas of the sites with differing artifact densities. Studying the distribution of lithic technological classes and tracking their movement through refitting sets provides new perspectives on the ways Paleolithic archaeological assemblages and sites were formed. The temporality of site use had a much greater impact on site structure than did activities that took place at any one point during a site's occupation. These data enabled me to assess the relative lengths and numbers of occupations for the seven sites in this study. The approach taken in this study not only provides a clearer understanding of site formation and structure than do studies that strive to isolate "activity areas," but it also provides information about the sizes of past human groups and the ways they moved among different localities on the landscape. Such insights are integral to the study of land use, mobility and economic adaptations among Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.

The Jot-em-Down Shelter (15McY348) was excavated by U.S. Forest Service archaeologists in 1986. The present study concentrated on the lithic assemblage, with a particular focus on the chipped stone debitage. The Jot-em-Down Shelter lithic assemblage was compared to assemblages recovered from four nearby sites, open sites 15McY570 and 15McY616, and rockshelter sites 15McY403 and 15McY409; and rockshelter sites located in and near the Red River Gorge, Cold Oak Shelter (15LE50) and Rock Bridge Shelter (15WO75). This study determined that Jot-em-Down Shelter was a multicomponent site utilized by mobile groups of people from the Early Archaic through Mississippi periods. Use of the site intensified around the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods. Prehistoric peoples who occupied the shelter had contact with other groups from the surrounding area, hunted nearby, and processed hides.

This dissertation describes the technological behaviors represented by the ~500-thousand-year-old stratum 4a lithic assemblage from Kathu Pan 1 (KP1), Northern Cape, South Africa, and situates new evidence from this site into evolutionary context. The findings highlight the significance of the early Middle Pleistocene in Africa for understanding behavioral evolution in later Homo. The stratum 4a assemblage at KP1 represents a mainly flake and blade-based industry that employed multiple strategies to produce blanks that were retouched into a variety of forms, including unifacially retouched points. Diverse core reduction strategies at KP1 suggests that KP1 hominins were flexible to the demands of local raw materials, consistent with increased degrees of ‘behavioral variability’ and adaptability. Several lines of evidence indicate that the KP1 points were used as spear tips. Points from sites ~300 thousand years ago (ka) and younger were often used as weapon tips, and evidence for this behavior can now be pushed back to ~500 ka, with important implications for cognition and social behavior among early Middle Pleistocene hominins. Raw materials in the KP1 assemblage were acquired from multiple local sources. Based on comparisons with a sample from the underlying stratum 4b Acheulean assemblage, the stratum 4a assemblage does not exhibit major changes in the kinds or quality of raw material exploited; thus, the technological changes represented by the stratum 4a assemblage are not explained by changes in raw material. New evidence from KP1 poses problems for current models that link the appearance of Middle Stone Age technologies to speciation and dispersion ~300 ka. Middle Stone Age technologies appear in the African archaeological record by ~500 ka. The new timing for the origins of Middle Stone Age technologies provides a parsimonious explanation for technological similarities between the lithic assemblages of Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens, who share a common ancestor in the early Middle Pleistocene. Limits imposed by the nature of the African archaeological record and chronometric analyses may explain why the antiquity of these technological changes was not previously recognized.

This dissertation describes the technological behaviors represented by the ~500-thousand-year-old stratum 4a lithic assemblage from Kathu Pan 1 (KP1), Northern Cape, South Africa, and situates new evidence from this site into evolutionary context. The findings highlight the significance of the early Middle Pleistocene in Africa for understanding behavioral evolution in later Homo. The stratum 4a assemblage at KP1 represents a mainly flake and blade-based industry that employed multiple strategies to produce blanks that were retouched into a variety of forms, including unifacially retouched points. Diverse core reduction strategies at KP1 suggests that KP1 hominins were flexible to the demands of local raw materials, consistent with increased degrees of ‘behavioral variability’ and adaptability. Several lines of evidence indicate that the KP1 points were used as spear tips. Points from sites ~300 thousand years ago (ka) and younger were often used as weapon tips, and evidence for this behavior can now be pushed back to ~500 ka, with important implications for cognition and social behavior among early Middle Pleistocene hominins. Raw materials in the KP1 assemblage were acquired from multiple local sources. Based on comparisons with a sample from the underlying stratum 4b Acheulean assemblage, the stratum 4a assemblage does not exhibit major changes in the kinds or quality of raw material exploited; thus, the technological changes represented by the stratum 4a assemblage are not explained by changes in raw material. New evidence from KP1 poses problems for current models that link the appearance of Middle Stone Age technologies to speciation and dispersion ~300 ka. Middle Stone Age technologies appear in the African archaeological record by ~500 ka. The new timing for the origins of Middle Stone Age technologies provides a parsimonious explanation for technological similarities between the lithic assemblages of Neanderthals and modern Homo sapiens, who share a common ancestor in the early Middle Pleistocene. Limits imposed by the nature of the African archaeological record and chronometric analyses may explain why the antiquity of these technological changes was not previously recognized.

Les publications scientifiques traitant de l’utilisation des matériaux quartz en préhistoire sont rarissimes comparé à celles traitant des roches siliceuses cryptocristallines comme le silex ou l’obsidienne. Pourtant, les populations humaines ont abondamment utilisé les divers matériaux réunis sous l’appellation « quartz » pour la confection de leur outillage, et ce depuis les périodes les plus reculées du Paléolithique Inférieur jusqu’aux époques modernes. Les raisons de cette sélection préférentielle des outils en silex comme matériel d’étude sont multiples. Outre le poids des approches traditionnelles à la Préhistoire où l’étude du silex est prépondérante, le matériel en quartz présente des difficultés d’études qui sont à la fois liées à la texture du matériau et à ses propriétés mécaniques, mais aussi à l’utilisation de méthodologies d’analyses dérivées de l’étude du silex et qui s’avèrent inadéquates ou mal adaptées pour le quartz de filon. Un premier chapitre introductif est ainsi destiné à présenter les principales causes du manque d’intérêt des préhistoriens envers les matériaux quartz. Nous proposerons, dans un second temps, de délivrer les principaux éléments de caractérisation minéralogique et pétrographique de ce que l’on nomme communément « quartz ». Le second chapitre est entièrement destiné à réunir et confronter les principaux résultats de quelques spécialistes pionniers ayant travaillé sur l’utilisation du quartz pour la confection d’un outillage lithique. Au travers de cette récolte de données informatives, il s’agira d’établir les principales caractéristiques des quartz de filon en termes de comportement à la taille et d’établir une liste des principaux critères technologiques, morphologiques et typologiques permettant son analyse. Le troisième chapitre est consacré à la présentation de la méthodologie d’analyse typo-technologique employé dans cette étude. Cette méthode se fonde principalement sur les divers critères exposés au sein du chapitre 2. Le quatrième et dernier chapitre est entièrement consacré à l’analyse des séries en quartz des sites néolithiques de Kovačevo (Bulgarie), Madžari (ARYM), Promachonas-Topolniča (frontière gréco-bulgare) et Dikili Tash (Grèce). L’objectif étant, à partir de la création d’une méthodologie de référence, de reconnaître les choix opérés par les sociétés néolithiques balkaniques dans la gestion et la production de leurs outillages domestiques. Ces choix sont évalués, en termes culturels, en établissant la part des contraintes environnementales, la disponibilité des ressources des domaines lithologiques locaux, les technologies utilisées ainsi que les grands domaines d’activités impliquant l’utilisation de la fraction quartz de l’outillage. Les modes de production de l’industrie du quartz seront aussi replacés dans la gestion de l’ensemble des industries néolithiques, du silex, mais aussi de la poterie, afin de comprendre leur place dans le système socio-économique des premières communautés agropastorales des Balkans. / Scientific publications dealing with the use of quartz in Prehistory are rare compared to those dealing siliceous cryptocristalline rocks such as flint, chert and obsidian. Yet, human populations have extensively used the various materials gathered under the appelation « quartz » for making their tools since the remotest times of the Lower Palaeolithic to modern times. The reasons for this preferential selection of flint tools as study materials are multiple. Besides the weight of traditional approaches to prehistoric times where the study of flint is predominant, quartz materials present difficulties of studies that are both related to the texture of the material and its mechanical properties, but also to the use of derivative methodologies of analysis of the study of flint that prove inadequate or unsuitable for vein quartz materials.An introductory chapter is thus intended to present the main causes of the lack of interest from prehistorians towards quartz materials. We then propose to deliver the main mineralogical and petrographic elements that characterize what is commonly called “quartz”.The second chapter is fully intended to unite and confront the main results of some pioneers specialists who have worked on the use of quartz for the manufacture of stone tools. This collection of informative data will help us establish the main features of vein quartz in terms of knapping behavior and also to list the main technological, morphological and typological criteria enabling its analysis.The third chapter is devoted to the presentation of the methodology used in this study. It consists of a typo-technological analysis mainly based on the various criteria outlined in chapter 2.The fourth and final chapter is fully devoted to the analysis of the quartz series from Neolithic sites Kovačevo (Bulgaria), Madzari (FYROM), Promachonas-Topolnica (Greek-Bulgarian border) and Dikili Tash (Greece). The objective is to recognize the choices made by the Balkan Neolithic societies in the management and production of their domestic tools. These choices are evaluated in cultural terms, establishing the share of environmental constraints, resource availability of local lithological domains, technologies and major areas of activity involving the use of quartz tools. The quartz industry production patterns will also be replaced in the management of the entire Neolithic industries, flint, but also pottery, to understand their place in the socio-economic system of the first agro-pastoral communities in the Balkans.

Esta pesquisa visa a compreensão das indústrias líticas relacionadas ao sambaquis Bacanga, Panaquatira e Paço do Lumiar, existentes, respectivamente, nos municípios de São Luís, São José de Ribamar e Paço do Lumiar, localizados na Ilha de São Luís, Maranhão. Os sítios cujo material foi analisado estão em uma região costeria, inseridos em ambiente de estuário e apresentaram cronologias variando entre 3.840 e 1420 anos antes do presente. Os conceitos básicos utilizados para compreender as indústrias foram os de cadeia operatória e sistema tecnológico. / This research aims at understanding the lithic industries related to shellmounds Bacanga, Panaquatira and Paço do Lumiar existing, respectively, in the municipalities of São Luís, São José de Ribamar and Paço do Lumiar, located on the island of São Luís, Maranhão. The sites where in a coastal region inserted in estuary environment and showed varying timelines between 3840 and 1420 years before present. The key concepts used to understand the industries were the operative chain and technological system.

Le Centre-Ouest de la France est une région clef pour l’appréhension des variations culturelles du Magdalénien moyen ancien (19-17 500 cal. BP). Elle apparaît, à travers de riches productions artistiques (art pariétal et mobilier, parure) et osseuses (pointes de projectiles, navettes), comme un carrefour culturel. Deux faciès sont identifiés : le Magdalénien à pointe de Lussac-Angles et le Magdalénien à navettes. À travers l’étude des sites de la Marche (Lussac-Angles) et de la grotte Blanchard à la Garenne (navettes), nous avons cherché à restituer les comportements techniques liés à la production et à l’utilisation de l’outillage de ces deux grands faciès. À la suite d’une approche systémique combinant analyse technologique et fonctionnelle des productions lithiques, nous montrons qu’il existe un partage de fonds technique commun et une perméabilité entre ces faciès, à travers les modalités de production des lames et des lamelles, les relations entre forme et fonction et les stratégies de gestion de l’outillage (utilisations multiples, réutilisations, ravivages, raffûtages, multiplication des outils doubles). En revanche, des variations en termes de gestes voire de procédés techniques liés à l’utilisation des grattoirs et des lamelles à dos sont perceptibles. Ces éléments révèlent des spécificités propres aux comportements techniques sur chacun des sites. / West-central France is a key region to apprehend cultural variations of the Early Middle Magdalenian (19-17 500 cal. BP). This region appears to be at a cultural crossroad of several traditions visible through rich art (cave art, portable art, ornaments) and bone industry traditions (projectile points, navettes). Two facies are identified: the Lussac-Angles Magdalenian and the navettes Magdalenian. By focusing on the sites of la Marche (Lussac-Angles) and the Blanchard cave on the hillside of la Garenne (navettes), we seeked to approach technical behaviours related to use and production of the tools of these two facies. With a systemic approach that combines technological and functional analyses of lithic production, we show the existence of a shared technical background and a permeability between facies. This is evidenced through modalities of production of blades and bladelets, relations between form and function and tools management strategies (multiple uses, reuses, sharpenings, multiplication of double tools). On the other hand, variations in terms of gestures or technical processes related to the use of endscrapers and backed bladelets are perceptible. These elements reveal specificities of the technical behaviours on each site.

No description available.

This essay is about the earliest sites in the county of Norrbotten, Sweden. The sites are dated to the Mesolitic period through radiocarbon dating. This essay includes an analysis which is based on the lithic material from fourteen archaeological examined sites in the county of Norrbotten. The aim of this essay is to investigate if there are any significant differences between the sites comparing lithic raw-materials and artifacts. The quantitative analysis confirms differences between the sites and their lithic material. There are visible differences within the raw-materials, artefacts and amount of lithic material. The possible reasons for differences in the lithic material are discussed through the essay: settlement patterns, chronology and geographical location of the sites.