Evidence for sophisticated raw material procurement strategies during the Lower Paleolithic—Hula Valley case study

Finkel, Meir; Bar, Oded; Dor, Yoav Ben; Ben‐Yosef, Erez; Tirosh, Ofir; Sharon, Gonen

doi:10.1002/gea.21968

Cited by 5 publications

References 81 publications

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Explaining the Increase in “High-quality Chert” in the Early Upper Paleolithic Artifacts in Southern Jordan: Quantitative Examination of Chert Mechanical Properties and Fracture Predictability

Suga,

Tsukada,

Tarawneh

et al. 2023

J Paleo Arch

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In the studies of aked stone tools, the "quality" of lithic raw material has often been assessed from a viewpoint of its suitability to lithic production, and several studies quanti ed such raw material qualities by measuring mechanical properties of several different rocks like obsidian, chert, and basalt. To advance this approach, this study aims to quantify variations in the quality of chert, which is usually based on the difference in grain-size, e.g., ne-grained chert as "high-quality". For this purpose, we measured two types of hardness, i.e., the rebound hardness by Schmidt Hammer and the Rockwell Hardness (HRC), by using chert samples from southern Jordan, where the use of ne-grained chert increased in the Early Upper Paleolithic (Ahmarian) in association with the development of bladelet technology. The results indicate that ne-grained chert has greater fracture predictability and particularly suitable for the production of bladelets. However, ne-grained chert in southern Jordan suffer from abundant internal fractures and was not used as often as medium-grained chert for Levallois products and robust blades in the Late Middle and Initial Upper Paleolithic. Thus, explaining the prehistoric selectivity of lithic raw materials need to consider fracture predictability as well as other factors, such as actual conditions of occurrences and lithic production technology.

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Explaining the Increase in “High-quality Chert” in the Early Upper Paleolithic Artifacts in Southern Jordan: Quantitative Examination of Chert Mechanical Properties and Fracture Predictability

Suga,

Tsukada,

Tarawneh

et al. 2023

J Paleo Arch

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Re-thinking the concept of embedded procurement: Insights from the lower Paleolithic of the Levant

Agam,

Finkel

2024

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports

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Automatic analysis of the continuous edges of stone tools reveals fundamental handaxe variability

Muller,

Sharon,

Grosman

2024

Sci Rep

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The edges of stone tools have significant technological and functional implications. The nature of these edges–their sharpness, whether they are concave or convex, and their asymmetry–reflect how they were made and how they could be used. Similarly, blunt portions of a tool’s perimeter hint at how they could have been grasped or hafted and in which directions force could be applied. However, due to the difficulty in accurately measuring the complex 3D geometry of tool edges with traditional methods, their attributes are often overlooked. When they are analyzed, they have traditionally been assessed with visual qualitative categories or unreliable physical measurements. We introduce new computational 3D methods for automatically and repeatably measuring key attributes of stone tool edges. These methods allow us to automatically identify the 3D perimeter of tools, segment this perimeter according to changes in edge angles, and measure these discrete edge segments with a range of metrics. We test this new computational toolkit on a large sample of 3D models of handaxes from the later Acheulean of the southern Levant. Despite these handaxes being otherwise technologically and morphologically similar, we find marked differences in the amount of knapped outline, edge angle, and the concavity of their edges. We find many handaxes possess blunt portions of perimeter, suitable for grasping, and some handaxes even possess more than one discrete sharp edge. Among our sample, sites with longer occupations and more diverse toolkits possessed handaxes with more diverse edges. Above all, this paper offers new methods for computing the complex 3D geometry of stone tool edges that could be applied to any number of artifact types. These methods are fully automated, allowing the analysis and visualization of entire assemblages.

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Evidence for sophisticated raw material procurement strategies during the Lower Paleolithic—Hula Valley case study

Cited by 5 publications

References 81 publications

Explaining the Increase in “High-quality Chert” in the Early Upper Paleolithic Artifacts in Southern Jordan: Quantitative Examination of Chert Mechanical Properties and Fracture Predictability

Explaining the Increase in “High-quality Chert” in the Early Upper Paleolithic Artifacts in Southern Jordan: Quantitative Examination of Chert Mechanical Properties and Fracture Predictability

Re-thinking the concept of embedded procurement: Insights from the lower Paleolithic of the Levant

Automatic analysis of the continuous edges of stone tools reveals fundamental handaxe variability

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