Ideas no longer written in antler

Abstract

In the course of the Upper Paleolithic, antler debitage techniques seem to have followed a linear evolution. The earliest one, fracturing by cleaving, appeared during the Aurignacian and is considered by some specialists to be ineffective. According to them, it was not until the invention of the groove and splinter technique during the Gravettian that antler debitage became efficient. Nonetheless, during the Solutrean, fracturing once again became the most common technique, but by splitting. Based on a study of 102 Solutrean pressure tools and experimentations, we reach the conclusion that splitting is a very effective technique that can produce blanks with the same qualities as those made by the groove and splinter technique. The splitting technique was nonetheless excluded in previous studies. We explore the reasons for this and the particularities of the different antler debitage techniques evidenced in the Western Upper Paleolithic.

Les Pyrénées au cours du Dernier Maximum Glaciaire. Un no man’s land badegoulien ? Nouvelles données sur l’occupation du piémont pyrénéen à partir du réexamen des industries solutréennes de l’abri des Harpons (Lespugue, Haute-Garonne)

“…La définition de cette borne chronologique, qui repose sur la datation d'un déchet technique en bois de renne lié à un schéma opératoire de production aujourd'hui uniquement connu en contexte badegoulien (voir supra : éclat de retouche de support), contredit donc l'idée d'une perduration tardive des traditions solutréennes dans les Pyrénées. En effet, bien que les travaux les plus récents aient clairement démontré l'existence, au Solutréen récent, de production faisant intervenir la fracturation par percussion directe (Baumann et Maury, 2013 ;Chauvière et al in Ducasse et Renard, dir., 2013 ;Renard et al, en préparation), les objectifs ainsi que les modalités de sa mise en oeuvre semblent diverger des standards badegouliens. Ainsi, par comparaison avec les cadres définis au Cuzoul de Vers Par effet domino, cette proposition de relecture du cadre archéo-stratigraphique pyrénéen au cours du DMG réinterroge les âges récents aujourd'hui admis pour la fin du Solutréen vasco-cantabrique (qui montre une communauté de style marquée avec les Pyrénées : voir supra ; Corchón et al, 2015 ;Rios-Garaizar et al, 2013) et donc certains des modèles débattus dans toute l'aire de répartition du Solutréen récent de type Cantabrique.…”

Animals as Raw Material in Beringia: Insights from the Site of Swan Point CZ4B, Alaska

“…While surface impacts are not preserved, green break scars suggest repeated impacts using the newly created surface as a platform ( Figure 2). Fracture of caribou antler by cleaving and direct percussion, using an anvil as support, was widespread in the Upper Paleolithic (Baumann and Maury 2013). Typically, the desired end-products were not the short and wide flakes created by percussion, but rather the straight, elongated pieces of the beam or second spike from which flakes were extracted-shaping/façonnage rather than débitage (Pétillon and Ducasse 2012).…”

Unshaped Bone Tools from Denisova Cave, Altai

“…The bone fragments were divided into three groups by the types of traces on their surface: taphonomic, technical, and from use. Earlier described materials (Semenov, 1957;Fisher, 1995;Villa, d'Errico, 2001;Maigrot, 2003;Pickering, Egeland, 2006;Baumann, Maury, 2013;Baumann, 2014) and experimental data on manufacturing unshaped and formal bone tools were used as a comparative base. Post-sedimentary organic (microorganisms, animals, plants) and inorganic (weathering, soil subsidence, water courses) modifications, resulting in dissolution, cracking, striations, erosion, disintegration, vermiculation, concretions, were looked for.…”