New ESR/U-series dates in Yabrudian and Amudian layers at Qesem Cave, Israel

Falguères, Christophe; Richard, Maïlys; Tombret, Olivier; Shao, Qingfeng; Bahain, Jean‐Jacques; Gopher, Avi; Barkai, Ran

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.02.006

Cited by 69 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Our evidence includes two flint tools, which bear use wear associated with bone working and preserved bone residues on their edges, and a broken fallow deer tibia exhibiting a non-dietary sawing mark. The evidence presented here is at least 300 kya old—possibly closer to 400 kya1718 — and is potentially some of the earliest evidence of deliberate stone tool-assisted bone working associated with non-dietary purposes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 64%

Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel

Zupancich

Nunziante-Cesaro

Blasco

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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For a long while, the controversy surrounding several bone tools coming from pre-Upper Palaeolithic contexts favoured the view of Homo sapiens as the only species of the genus Homo capable of modifying animal bones into specialised tools. However, evidence such as South African Early Stone Age modified bones, European Lower Palaeolithic flaked bone tools, along with Middle and Late Pleistocene bone retouchers, led to a re-evaluation of the conception of Homo sapiens as the exclusive manufacturer of specialised bone tools. The evidence presented herein include use wear and bone residues identified on two flint scrapers as well as a sawing mark on a fallow deer tibia, not associated with butchering activities. Dated to more than 300 kya, the evidence here presented is among the earliest related to tool-assisted bone working intended for non-dietary purposes, and contributes to the debate over the recognition of bone working as a much older behaviour than previously thought. The results of this study come from the application of a combined methodological approach, comprising use wear analysis, residue analysis, and taphonomy. This approach allowed for the retrieval of both direct and indirect evidence of tool-assisted bone working, at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Qesem Cave (Israel).

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mentioning

confidence: 64%

Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel

Zupancich

Nunziante-Cesaro

Blasco

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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“…Dates from the hearth area separating the two microvertebrate concentrations by stratigraphic superposition are roughly 250e300 ka (Falgu eres et al, 2015). Concentration 1 is younger and 2 older than the hearth, which coincides with direct ESR dating of Concentration 1 to 250e280 ka (Mercier et al, 2013).…”

Section: Biostratigraphysupporting

confidence: 70%

Palaeoecological and biostratigraphical implications of the microvertebrates of Qesem Cave in Israel

Maul¹,

Bruch

Smith

et al. 2016

Quaternary International

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“…While they have been found to differ from the hammerstones with fracture angles, also present in the assemblage [52], they reflect an organized operative scheme that is somewhat comparable to the management of orthogonal cores. On the BL tools, traces [13,16,31,34,36,37,38,41,42,46,51,104,105,107,118,119,120,125,136,139,141,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160,161,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169,170,171,172,…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subspheroids in the lithic assemblage of Barranco León (Spain): Recognizing the late Oldowan in Europe

et al. 2020

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The lithic assemblage of Barranco León (BL), attributed to the Oldowan techno-complex, contributes valuable information to reconstruct behavioral patterning of the first hominins to disperse into Western Europe. This archaic stone tool assemblage comprises two, very different groups of tools, made from distinct raw materials. On the one hand, a small-sized toolkit knapped from Jurassic flint, comprising intensively exploited cores and small-sized flakes and fragments and, on the other hand, a large-sized limestone toolkit that is mainly linked to percussive activities. In recent years, the limestone macro-tools have been the center of particular attention, leading to a re-evaluation of their role in the assemblage. Main results bring to light strict hominin selective processes, mainly concerning the quality of the limestone and the morphology of the cobbles, in relation to their use-patterning. In addition to the variety of traces of percussion identified on the limestone tools, recurrences have recently been documented in their positioning and in the morphology of the active surfaces. Coupled with experimental work, this data has contributed to formulating hypothesis about the range of uses for these tools, beyond stone knapping and butchery, for activities such as: wood-working or tendon and meat tenderizing. The abundance of hammerstones, as well as the presence of heavy-duty scrapers, are special features recognized for the limestone component of the Barranco León assemblage. This paper presents, for the first time, another characteristic of the assemblage: the presence of polyhedral and, especially, subspheroid morphologies, virtually unknown in the European context for this timeframe. We present an analysis of these tools, combining qualitative evaluation of the raw materials, diacritical study, 3D geometric morphometric analysis of facet angles and an evaluation of the type and position of percussive traces; opening up the discussion of the late Oldowan beyond the African context.

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New ESR/U-series dates in Yabrudian and Amudian layers at Qesem Cave, Israel

Cited by 69 publications

References 22 publications

Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel

Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel

Palaeoecological and biostratigraphical implications of the microvertebrates of Qesem Cave in Israel

Subspheroids in the lithic assemblage of Barranco León (Spain): Recognizing the late Oldowan in Europe

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