Lithic scatters are the most abundant class of evidence relating to Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic activity in southern Britain. Many such scatters, especially those from surface and ploughsoil contexts, have long been characterised as being of low-interpretive value and have been marginalised both in academic studies of the periods and in the wider context of protecting and managing the historic environment. This vast body of evidence makes little contribution to contemporary understandings of the LUP and Mesolithic, which remains largely informed by work which privileges the investigation of well-preserved sites with in situ lithic scatters, especially those with associated faunal remains and palaeoenvironmental evidence. This has serious implications for our ability to characterise and interpret activity in locations and regions where such well preserved and intensively investigated sites are lacking, and in many areas of the country policy makers, fieldworkers and curators are not equipped with the information necessary to make informed decisions concerning the investigation, management and protection of the archaeology of these periods. This thesis explicitly address these issues through a detailed case study of the lithic scatter record from a study area in eastern England. This study is based around a comprehensive database of reported lithic scatters, assembled from a wide range of published and unpublished sources and encompassing all kinds of scatters, from well preserved and exhaustively analysed in-situ scatters to poorly provenanced collections of lithics amassed in the late 19th and early 20th century. This thesis provides the first comprehensive synthesis of the Late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of the study area and explicitly assesses the interpretative potential of the lithic scatter record, in terms of how it can be used both to develop narratives of landscape occupation and to inform future work on, and management of, lithic scatters in the study area and beyond.

Projectile points manufactured from antler, bone, ivory, and horn were a significant component of the Pleistocene hunter-gatherer’s weapons toolkit. While this situation appears to have been particularly the case for Upper Palaeolithic Europe where thousands of implements from Aurignacian to Azilian contexts have been recovered, elements of osseous technologies are increasingly being identified in Africa, Asia, Australia and North America. Projectile weaponry tipped with osseous raw materials therefore constitute a major dataset for the investigation of technological, subsistence, and social aspects of various and numerous Pleistocene populations. Having once been described as ‘impossible to evaluate’, investigation of maintenance and discard patterns for osseous projectile point assemblages has been severely neglected in the archaeological literature. As previous work has generally been restricted to qualitative descriptions of single artefacts exhibiting clear signs of rejuvenation or recycling, our knowledge of ‘the keeping’ of these toolkits is therefore extraordinarily limited. This thesis addresses this imbalance through beginning to build a robust methodology for investigating the maintenance, recycling, and discard of osseous projectile weaponry. More than 4,000 whole and fragmentary barbed and unbarbed osseous projectile points recovered from 25 Middle to Late Magdalenian sites located throughout France and southern Germany were examined, and through employing a multi-faceted approach incorporating metric analyses, statistics, use wear analysis, and the examination of contemporaneous depictions of weaponry, inter-site and inter-regional differences in maintenance and discard patterns were successfully identified. These results are discussed from a regional perspective in order to articulate these new data into interpretations of wider Magdalenian economic and social organisation.

Le sud-est français est un espace particulier pour le Paléolithique supérieur récent : il forme l’interface entre les domaines nord-occidental d’une part et méditerranéen et oriental d’autre part, entre la séquence Solutréen-Ba¬degoulien-Magdalénien-Azilien et l’Épigravettien.Alors que cette région forme encore un angle mort de la Pré¬histoire pour cette période, cette thèse s’intéresse aux industries lithiques épigravettiennes de l’arc liguro-provençal dans une perspective techno-économique qui permet un réexamen en profondeur de l’évolution des traditions techniques entre la fin du Gravettien (circa 23 000 cal. BCE) et le début du premier Mésolithique (circa 9 500 cal. BCE). Deux grands axes structurent ce travail : (1) La question chronologique. Il s’agit de réintégrer les industries étudiées dans un modèle chronocul¬turel en cours de redéfinition. Pour ce faire, l’étude des séries et l’obtention de dates par radiocarbone sont discutées avec une synthèse des connaissances concernant l’Épigravettien.(2) Les systèmes de mobilité et les stratégies d’approvisionnement. Le contexte régional est particulière¬ment favorable pour des raisons intrinsèques (domaine géologique compartimenté et espace géogra¬phique contraint) et extrinsèques (recherches effectuées depuis les années 1980 autour des ressources siliceuses régionales). Les résultats obtenus dans une perspective techno-économique sont mobilisés pour appréhender la structuration des territoires et son évolution dans le temps.Partie prenante d’une dynamique de renouvellement des connaissances sur l’Épigravettien dans sa globalité, cette thèse propose, en conclusion, un état des comparaisons possibles avec la séquence occidentale. / Southeastern France is a particular area as regards the late upper Palaeolithic as it lies between the northwestern prehistoric domain on one side, and the Mediterranean and eastern one on the other side; between the Solutrean-Badegoulian-Magdalenian-Azilian sequence and the Epigravettian one. This PhD work focuses on the techno-economic study of lithic industries originating from the Liguro-Provencal corridor, an area weakly-known for its upper Paleolithic industries. The aim is to re-assess in detail the evolution of technical traditions from the end of the Gravettian (circa 23 000 cal. BCE) to the beginning of the Mesolithic (circa 9 500 cal. BCE).This work addresses two primary objectives : (1) The Chronological framework. The industries studied are replaced in a newly defined chronocultural model. To do so, the results of the techno-economic studies and radiocarbon dates are combined and discussed in parallel with a synthesis of existing knowledge concerning the Epigravettian.(2) Mobility patterns and raw material provisioning strategies. The regional background is a particu¬larly favorable research context due to intrinsic factors (a compartmentalized geological domain and a constraining geographical area) and extrinsic ones (intensive research conducted since the 1980’s on lithic raw material availabilities). The results obtained are then mobilized to infer on ter¬ritorial organization and its evolution through time.

The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition is seen as an important research focus and key to understanding issues surrounding Neanderthal and modern human interactions. Because of this focus upon human type transitional industries without associated human fossil evidence have been marginalised within the debate. This perspective can be termed etic, looking at overall patterns and millennial timescales to answer ‘big’ questions. In contrast my research could be termed emic, using a small collection of ‘transitional’ stone tools to explore the perspective of the producers and users. Human type is not considered relevant here. This approach has allowed a shift in scale; from millennial and pan-European to seasonal and the uplands that now constitute Britain. To explore this emic perspective experimental production has been used to make material a manufacturing process. Metrical, formal and typological analysis has been applied to the archaeological type fossil corpus to more fully comprehend variability. Together these approaches have been used to construct a nuanced and comprehensive châine operatoire model for the industry. This model allowed comparative analysis to derive new understandings from old and new archaeological collections from three sites. Resultant material and behavioural patterns have been interpreted within their particular landscape and general faunal contexts. Emergent themes have been integrated into a seasonal structure to create the desired emic narrative. This process has revealed a maintainable, repairable and adaptable technology used to manage the predictable unpredictability associated with the hunting of migrating large fauna through a long summer season and in uplands of known and unknown stone resources.

This research reconstructs site formation processes and activities of the inhabitants of two cave sites in south China, Xianrendong and Yuchanyan, where the earliest pottery in the world has been discovered. The goal is to broaden existing understandings of human behavior of Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Chinese hunter-gatherers, through the production of data types rarely gathered at a Chinese Palaeolithic site. I use the geoarchaeological technique of micromorphology – microscopic observation of thin sections of oriented intact sediment samples to identify their components and nature – and micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (μ-FTIR) a technique used to obtain the molecular composition of materials used here to detect changes associated with fires. In this study, I reconstruct occupational patterns over time and show how flooding events as well as cave-specific climatic patterns, such as freeze/thaw and dripping water affected human choices of living spaces. Analysis of sediments derived from human use clarify details of such activities as building and cleaning fires, and constructing clay surfaces. Analytical results indicate that the inhabitants of Xianrendong maintained fires with consistently low temperatures, while at Yuchanyan through control of oxygenation and preference of wood fuel humans could maintain their fires between 500 and 700 Co for long periods of time. The low temperatures support the hypothesis from a preliminary study of the ceramics that pottery at Xianrendong was made without the use of kilns. Thoroughly consumed wood fuel at Yuchanyan indicates sophisticated pyro-technological knowledge and a possible preference for boiling as a cooking method. Finally, micromorphological analyses confirm the undisturbed nature of the sediments and so corroborate the reliability of a recent radiocarbon date of 20 ka cal BP for the earliest pottery-bearing layers. Micromorphological research reveals these early peoples’ knowledge of the physical properties of fires and clays, as well as their behavior of separating usable space into activity areas. In combination with the published systematic analysis of the faunal and botanical remains and of the material culture from these sites, my results provide a high-resolution account of life in these two sites. This study will be an important precedent for the further, systematic use of these geoarchaeological techniques in Chinese archaeology. / 2020-02-14T00:00:00Z

Yes / Microwear analysis is applied to reconstruct the function and social organisation at the Late Glacial site of Trollesgave, Denmark. As with Bromme Culture sites in general, the lithic assemblage consists of primarily three types of tools. There is a strong association between these types and their use: end scrapers for dry hide scraping; burins for working hard material, primarily bone; and tanged points primarily for projectile tips. Nearly all divergence from this pattern can be referred to as the activities of children, the products and workshops of which have previously been identified. Based on the combined information from microwear analysis, flint knapping and spatial distribution of artefacts, the assemblage is inferred as the traces of a single family hunting (and fishing) occupation. / Danish Council for Independent Research (FKK ref. no. 273-08-0424)

Yes / Grotta del Romito has been the subject of numerous archaeological, chronological and palaeoenvironmental investigations for more than a decade. During the Upper Palaeolithic period the site contains evidence of human occupation through the Gravettian and Epigravettian periods, multiple human burials, changes in the pattern of human occupation, and faunal, isotopic and sedimentological evidence for local environmental change. In spite of this rich record, the chronological control is insufficient to resolve shifts in subsistence and mobility patterns at sufficiently high resolution to match the abrupt climate fluctuations at this time. To resolve this we present new radiocarbon and tephrostratigraphic dates in combination with existing radiocarbon dates, and develop a Bayesian age model framework for the site. This improved chronology reveals that local environmental conditions reflect abrupt and long-term changes in climate, and that these also directly influence changing patterns of human occupation of the site. In particular, we show that the environmental record for the site, based on small mammal habitat preferences, is chronologically in phase with the main changes in climate and environment seen in key regional archives from Italy and Greenland. We also calculate the timing of the transitions between different cultural phases and their spans. We also show that the intensification in occupation of the site is chronologically coincident with a rapid rise in Mesic Woody taxa seen in key regional pollen records and is associated with the Late Epigravettian occupation of the site. This change in the record of Grotta del Romito is also closely associated stratigraphically with a new tephra (the ROM-D30 tephra), which may act as a critical marker in environmental records of the region. / Leverhulme Trust (F/0 0235/I) and by a Natural Environment Research Council ORADS radiocarbon dating award (NF/2011/2/7).

Ce travail aborde l’étude d’une sélection de structures de combustion provenant de Régismont-le-Haut (Hérault, France) et des Bossats (Seine-et-Marne, France) en suivant une méthode multiscalaire. Ces deux sites de plein air livrent une documentation archéologique riche permettant de renseigner pour le premier une phase récente de l’Aurignacien et une phase ancienne du Gravettien, entre autres, pour le second. Du point de vue méthodologique, la démarche retenue implique de débuter par l’analyse des données de terrain (échelle macroscopique), de poursuivre les investigations grâce à la micromorphologie (échelles méso- et microscopique) et finalement d’avoir recours à la géochimie organique (échelle moléculaire). Afin d’affiner les clefs de lecture des résultats archéologiques et de proposer de nouvelles pistes de réflexion, un programme d’expérimentation a également été conduit. La mise en œuvre conjointe de ces différentes approches complémentaires dans l’optique de croiser leurs résultats et leurs hypothèses interprétatives fait notamment la part belle à la prise en compte de la matière organique présente dans les sédiments des structures de combustion. Les résultats obtenus permettent à la fois de mieux cerner les modes de fonctionnement et d’utilisation des différentes structures tout en prenant en compte leur évolution taphonomique. Les questions des aménagements, de l’intensité du fonctionnement, des types de combustible et de la fonction sont abordées dans le cas des structures primaires, les foyers, mais les structures secondaires apportent également des informations en ce qui concerne les activités d’entretien. La mise en perspective de ces résultats acquis sur deux sites particulièrement bien préservés permet une discussion plus large de la place des structures de combustion au début du Paléolithique supérieur, période pour laquelle les pyrotechnologies demeurent un domaine encore trop méconnu des comportements humains. / This study treats a selection of combustion structures from Régismont-le-Haut (Hérault, France) and les Bossats (Seine-et-Marne, France) using a multiscalar approach. These two open-air sites provide an extremely rich archaeological documentation of, respectively, a recent phase of the Aurignacian and an early phase of the Gravettian (among others). Methodologically the study entails treating three scales of analysis, beginning with field data (macroscopic scale), followed by micromorphological investigation (meso- and microscopic scales), and finishing with geochemical analyses (molecular scale). An experimental program was also developed in order to refine our tools for interpreting our archaeological datasets, as well as to propose novel avenues of reflexion. The concomitant application of these complementary approaches and subsequent cross-examination of their respective results underlines the important role of organic matter in the combustion structure sediments. The results obtained allow for a better understanding of fire structure operation and use, as well as the taphonomic evolution. For primary structures questions regarded additional construction of the structures, intensity of use, types of fuel, and their function, while secondary structures brought to the table information regarding maintenance activities. The contextualization of results obtained from these two particularly well-preserved sites allows us to reflect more widely upon the role of combustion structures in the Early Upper Palaeolithic, a period during which pyrotechnology remains a little explored sphere of human behaviour.

A new focus in Palaeolithic archaeology is to look at the possibility of the individual as a unit of analysis in the prehistoric record. This involves looking at the Palaeolithic actor as more than just an invisible entity that had a minor role in the production of long term patterns. The Palaeolithic individual was a ‘lived life’, with all aspects of agency, identity, and decision-making abilities. One area that is potentially illuminating for the examination of the individual is personal adornment, as this can lead to an understanding of the body and identity and the role of material culture in social life and self-making. A catalogue of Upper Palaeolithic sites in Europe and Siberia with evidence of items of personal adornment was recorded. From this information, patterns and sites that potentially show the individual are discussed through the categories of body, identity, and material culture.

A new focus in Palaeolithic archaeology is to look at the possibility of the individual as a unit of analysis in the prehistoric record. This involves looking at the Palaeolithic actor as more than just an invisible entity that had a minor role in the production of long term patterns. The Palaeolithic individual was a ‘lived life’, with all aspects of agency, identity, and decision-making abilities. One area that is potentially illuminating for the examination of the individual is personal adornment, as this can lead to an understanding of the body and identity and the role of material culture in social life and self-making. A catalogue of Upper Palaeolithic sites in Europe and Siberia with evidence of items of personal adornment was recorded. From this information, patterns and sites that potentially show the individual are discussed through the categories of body, identity, and material culture.