| J. Desmond Clark (University of
California, Berkeley) |
Bifacial Technological
Development and Variability in the Acheulean Industrial Complex in the Middle Awash Region
of the Afar Rift, Ethiopia |
| Kathy Schick (University of
Indiana) |
The Acheulean in the Middle Awash,
here discussed for the first time, covers the period of the earlier biface occurrences
between 1.1 to > 0.65 kyr in the lower Pleistocene, the technologies of the earlier
middle Pleistocene and those of the later Acheulean in the late middle Pleistocene more
than 320 kyr. Each stage is technologically and typologically distinct and time related.
Also discussed is the variability in assemblage composition in different environmental
contexts, alluvial floodplain silts, channel sands of tributary streams, and lakeside
habitats. This variability is discussed in relation to behavioral activities and group
composition of the tool makers. |
|
|
| Michael Noll (Smithsonian
Institution) |
Comparison of Acheulian
Bifaces from East Africa and India |
| Michael Petraglia (Smithsonian
Institution) |
The term Acheulean Industrial
Complex is applied to Lower and Middle Pleistocene artifact occurrences that are
distributed over Africa; western and southern Europe; and southwest and southern Asia, and
date to >1.5 - 0.3 million years ago. Archaeologists and lithic typologists have
identified the Acheulean by the presence of bifaces. Broad geographic similarities in
biface morphological form-handaxes and cleavers-have traditionally been interpreted to be
the consequence of hominid "mental template." In contrast, recent studies have
argued that biface forms result from a combination of functional aspects and physical
properties of available raw materials. To test these various hypotheses, Acheulian biface
industries from East Africa and India are compared. Similarities and differences in biface
technologies, artifact forms, raw materials, and other attributes are discussed. This
biface study has implications to our understanding of hominid evolution and adaptation. |
|
|
| Mark White (University of
Durham) |
Bifaces and Raw
Materials: Flexible Flaking from Britain’s Early Palaeolithic |
| Nick Ashton (British Museum) |
The contemporary sites of Elveden
and Barnham (Suffolk, UK) lie 7 km apart and are probably situated on the same buried
river channel. The variability in raw material reflects the differences in biface form
between the two sites. While many of the bifaces seem to adhere to a "mental
template," others are limited by raw material, where flexibility, opportunism and
function appear to be the primary driving forces. The bifaces from both sites are
considered within the broader context of the British Lower Palaeolithic. |
|
|
| Mark Roberts (University College
London) |
The Use of Handaxes in
the Early Middle Pleistocene of Europe with Examples from the site of Boxgrove, West
Sussex, UK |
|
The handaxe is a tool type that
first appeared in Europe around 500 kyr. Handaxes have been extensively studied by
Paleolithic researchers since the earliest beginnings of the discipline. However, along
topics such as manufacture, shape and style, their function remains somewhat
controversial. Handaxes have been variously described as simple cores, throwing
implements, multipurpose tools and most recently as sexual tokens. Recent work at the
Boxgrove site suggests that these tools were used primarily for butchering large mammal
carcasses: evidence will be presented to support this hypothesis. |
|
|
| Shannon P. McPherron (Bishop
Museum) |
Technological and
Typological Variability in the Bifaces from Tabun Cave, Israel |
|
Jelinek’s 1967-1972
excavations of Tabun Cave yielded over 1900 complete and partial bifaces. These bifaces
come from a series of beds, but the bulk of the assemblage can be attributed to the Late
Acheulian and Yabrudian industries. This paper presents the results of a typological and
technological study of variability in these bifaces. Patterns of biface manufacture and
maintenance are sought. Particular emphasis is given to understanding the relationships
between technology, raw materials, reduction intensity, and typology and to how these
variables changed through time in the Tabun sequence. |
|
|
| Marie Soressi (Inst. de
Préhist. et Géo. du Quaternaire) |
Manufacture, Transport
and Use of Mousterian Bifaces: A case study from the Perigord |
| Maureen A. Hays (College of
Charleston) |
While attention has been paid to
Acheulian handaxes, late Pleistocene bifaces have been relatively neglected due to the
current focus on Levallois debitage. Yet bifaces are a diagnostic feature of the
Mousterian of Acheulian tradition, a Mousterian facies which has been considered as a
forerunner of industries transitional to the Upper Paleolithic. Based on analysis of raw
material sources, technology, and use-wear of Mousterian bifaces from La Grotte XVI, a
cave site dated to about 60 kyr, there is strong evidence to suggest that Mousterian
bifaces were carefully designed and maintained implements that were transported from one
location to another. The influence of raw material availability on Mousterian bifacial
technology is also discussed. |
|
|
| Thierry Aubry (Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa) |
Solutrean Laurel Points Production and Raw Material Procurement
During L.G.M. in Southern Europe: Two Examples from Central France and Portugal |
| Miguel Almeida (Dryas Arqueologia, Lda.) |
The aim of this paper is to study variability of Laurel Leaf point
morphology, shaping techniques (flaking, pressure retouching, heat treatment, and raw
material origins. Both intra- and inter-regional Solutrean group differences are
considered, based on data from recent excavation projects from Central France and
Portugal. At the regional level, models are proposed to explain the function, production
and discard of Laurel Leaf points. Similarities and disparities between the two group's
strategies are discussed with inference to European scale. |
| Bertrand
Walter |
| Maria
João Neves (Dryas Arqueologia, Lda.) |
|
|
|
| Alain Turq (Musée National de
Préhistoire) |
Variability in Middle
Palaeolithic Bifacial Technology of the Northeast Aquitaine Basin (France) |
|
More than a thousand handaxes from
open air sites and rockshelters in various geological contexts with different raw material
resources have been studied. Various technological, typological, morphological and
lithological analyses of these materials both demonstrate the complexity of bifacial
technology and allow us to address such notions as whether these handaxes represent
bifacial tools, cores, or blanks for other kinds of retouched tools. The mobility of these
bifaces are determined from studying very carefully the origin of the lithic raw material. |
|
|
| Douglas B. Bamforth (University
of Colorado) |
Rethinking the role of
Bifacial Technology in Plains Paleoindian Lifeways |
|
Paleoindian groups are typically
thought to have moved unpredictably within very large areas, making a sophisticated and
flexible bifacial technology highly adaptive. However, there is clearly great variation in
Eastern Paleoindian assemblages that does not conform to this stereotype. This paper
examines Plains Paleoindian assemblages and shows similar variation. Specifically,
Northern and Central Plains assemblages show almost no use of non-local raw materials and
are often dominated by core-based, not bifacial, technology. Southern Plains assemblages
may conform more closely to the traditional stereotype, but are similar in essential ways
to non-Paleoindian assemblages from this area. |
|
|
| Jack Hofman (University of
Kansas) |
Tethered to Stone or
Freedom to Move: Folsom Biface Technology in Regional Perspective |
|
Distance does not consistently
impact the tool kits of high-tech hunters which are used primarily during specific hunting
events. Depletion of Folsom hunting toolkits was probably not regularized, but punctuated
by intensive use events. Thus, it was the amount of required (bison) products and number
of anticipated hunting events which determined the size and essential composition of these
tool kits, not the time or distance from lithic sources. Folsom people on bison hunts knew
their technological requirements and could have prepared for movement without concern for
fixed lithic resources, until time to gear up for the next hunt. This model holds
implications for one-way patterning in the regional distribution of Folsom artifacts. |
|
|
| Lawrence A. Conrad (Western
Illinois University) |
Time as Sequence, Type
as Ideal: Whole Object Measurement of Biface Size and Form in Midwestern North America |
| Michael Shott (University of
Northern Iowa) |
Standard ways to measure and
describe bifaces reduce them to linear dimensions, useful but as limited as are
stick-figure depictions of people. Whole-object methods better represent form and reveal
otherwise imperceptible variation. We examine size and form in triangular arrowheads from
seven single-component assemblages in the central Illinois Valley forming a rough A.D.
600-1700 time series. Biface size and form are considered approximations of ideal types
possessing historical, social and practical meaning. In whole-object perspective, types
partition a time-dependent continuum of metric variation; they are abstractions, not real
categories. The subtle variation revealed requires explanation, not just documentation.
Sometimes, how we look influences what we see. |
|
|
| April Nowell (University of
Victoria) |
Biface Variability and
Deformation Modeling |
| Kyoungju Park (University of
Pennsylvania) |
This paper proposes a
new methodology for analyzing biface variability. Two types of deformation models drawn
from robotics are used to describe and quantify biface shape and inter and
intra-assemblage variability. Results of studies conducted on geometric shapes, a
published collection of bifaces, and an archaeological sample drawn from Tabun Cave
(Israel) are presented. |
| Dimitris Metaxis (University of
Pennsylvania) |
| Jinah Park (University of
Pennsylvania) |
|
