Flint and pyrite: making fire in the Stone Age

Stapert, D.; Johansen, Lykke

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00065510

Cited by 43 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Recently, however, it has been suggested that rounding may have resulted from use of flints as strike-a-lights with iron pyrites (Stapert & Johansen 1999). Recently, however, it has been suggested that rounding may have resulted from use of flints as strike-a-lights with iron pyrites (Stapert & Johansen 1999).…”

Section: Utilised Piecesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Late Upper Palaeolithic Lithic Collection from Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset and Human Use of the cave

Jacobi

2004

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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A first formal description is given of the largest collection of lithic artefacts from Britain to be clearly dated to the first part of the Late Glacial Interstadial. Much of this material is interpreted as having been left in the cave following hunting of wild horses and red deer in summer and winter. The large total of artefacts is suggested to be a result of small increments over a lengthy period rather than evidence of use of the cave as a base camp or aggregation site. It is possible that the cave took on an additional or alternative function as a funerary site.

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Section: Utilised Piecesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Late Upper Palaeolithic Lithic Collection from Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset and Human Use of the cave

Jacobi

2004

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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“…The function of the pyritic stone is unclear, but firemaking is one possibility (e.g. Stapert and Johansen 1999). At Nunguri, a much wider variety of raw materials were flaked, used and discarded on site.…”

Section: Raw Materials Types and Geochemical Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coastal mobility and lithic supply lines in northeast New Guinea

Gaffney

Summerhayes

2018

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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This paper investigates how coastal mobility and a community's place within regional trade networks intersect with technological organisation. To do this, we identified different types of lithic production and exchange during the late pre-colonial period at three coastal sites around Madang in northeast New Guinea. The study is the first major technological and sourcing study in this area. Consistent with terrestrial models, lithic technological analysis crucially shows that groups with higher levels of coastal mobility (1) were reducing a wider range of lithic materials and (2) reduced material less intensively than groups with indirect access. Conversely, groups with lower coastal mobility levels (1) were flaking a restricted range of lithic materials and (2) reduced material more intensively. Geochemical analysis, using X-ray fluorescence, shows that at all three sites obsidian artefacts exclusively derived from Kutau/Bao (Talasea) in West New Britain. This indicates that, by about 600 years ago through to the late nineteenth century, the Kutau/Bao source had become a specialised export product, being fed into major distribution conduits operational along the northeast coast. Importantly, there is no evidence for exchange with other sources such as Admiralties or Fergusson Island obsidian. This is contrastive to the Sepik coast, where obsidian from the Admiralties Islands featured prominently alongside West New Britain obsidian, and suggests the emergence of different coastal supply lines feeding the northeast Madang coast and the north Sepik coast.

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“…Another characteristic of the collection is the presence of a rounded-end 'rubbed' tool. Although not in itself a cultural marker, new experiments have revealed this was probably part of a fire-making toolkit as similar wear patterns have been seen on the ends of strike-a-lights used in conjunction with pyrites (Stapert and Johansen, 1999). In terms of the debitage, the blades are generally long and well-made but the use of the en éperon preparation technique is all but absent.…”

Section: A Mainland European Creswellian?mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…strike-a-light(Stapert and Johansen, 1999) flaking direction, soft hammer mode of percussion, with evidence for en éperon technique of preparation…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Late‐glacial reoccupation of the British Isles and the Creswellian

Barton¹,

Jacobi²,

Stapert³

et al. 2003

J Quaternary Science

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This paper presents a review of AMS radiocarbon dating evidence for human occupation of Britain during the Late-glacial Interstadial. The dates are all on humanly modified materials, including artefacts, and on human bone. The CalPal program is used to test whether the earliest evidence of human presence shows any correlation with more widespread climatic events, and if the British chronology differs significantly from that of neighbouring regions of northwest Europe. In the second part of the paper a number of well-dated sites with British Late Upper Palaeolithic 'Creswellian' technology are examined and compared with lithic assemblages from The Netherlands and Belgium. The main conclusions of this work are that expansion of human populations into the northern edge of the upland zone just before or at the beginning of GI-1 was followed by repopulation of the British Isles possibly with very little time-lag. The British Creswellian sites offer evidence of this earliest resettlement, which is mainly focused on the upland margins of western and central Britain.

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Flint and pyrite: making fire in the Stone Age

Cited by 43 publications

References 7 publications

The Late Upper Palaeolithic Lithic Collection from Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset and Human Use of the cave

The Late Upper Palaeolithic Lithic Collection from Gough's Cave, Cheddar, Somerset and Human Use of the cave

Coastal mobility and lithic supply lines in northeast New Guinea

The Late‐glacial reoccupation of the British Isles and the Creswellian

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