Understanding Lithic Recycling at the Late Lower Palaeolithic Qesem Cave, Israel: A Functional and Chemical Investigation of Small Flakes

ISBN-13: 9781789691016 / Angielski / Miękka / 2019 / 204 str.

Flavia Venditti

Opis

Flakes, and small flakes in particular, are usually seen as by-products or debris of the knapping process, rather than desired end-products with a specific potential use. In recent years, this particular category of small tools has gained interest among the researchers especially in Lower Palaeolithic contexts mainly focused on technological aspects, while the functional role of these tools is still poorly investigated. At the Late Lower Palaeolithic Qesem Cave, Israel, a particular lithic trajectory has been recognized directed towards the production of small flakes by means of recycling exploiting old discarded flakes used as cores. The high density of this production throughout the stratigraphic sequence of the cave demonstrates that this was a conscious and planned technological choice aimed at providing small and sharp items to meet specific functional behaviours, and that this lithic behaviour persisted for some 200 kyr of human use of the cave. The exceptional conservation of use-wear signs and residues have allowed to reconstruct the functional role of this specific production highlighting its specialized nature, mostly related to the processing of the animal carcasses through accurate and careful actions and in a very peculiar way. The application of the functional analysis based on the determination of wear on artefacts by means of optical light microscope, scanning electron microscopy and chemical analysis (FTIR and EDX), provides a useful and effective approach for understanding the adaptive strategies of the Qesem Cave hominins while facing various situations and solving different needs.