The Acheulean workshop of la Noira (France, 700 ka) in the European technological context

Moncel, Marie‐Hélène; Despriée, Jackie; Voinchet, Pierre; Courcimault, Gilles; Hardy, Bruce; Bahain, Jean‐Jacques; Puaud, Simon; Gallet, Xavier; Falguères, Christophe

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.04.051

Cited by 49 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 139 publications

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“…If we consider that the partial bifacial artefact is not a chopping‐tool but a genuine large cutting tool, the discovery of this bifacial piece at Pont‐de‐Lavaud raises the question of the sporadic emergence of bifacial technology in core‐and‐flake traditions, as observed at a few early sites in Europe with no real development of the technique, before the first clear evidence of bifacial technology (la Noira; Moncel et al ., , ). In some sites, we observe one or two pieces with the partial bifacial management of two convergent edges and sometimes a pointed or round tip.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In some ways, this problem parallels the issue in East African assemblages, described as Developed Oldowan or Early Acheulean, where it is still unclear whether there are tangible links or a rupture over time (de la Torre and Mora, , , de la Torre et al ., ). A local European origin for bifacial working seems unlikely, given that there is currently little evidence of the in situ development of partial bifacial working (Moncel et al ., ). The partial bifacial tool at Pont‐de‐Lavaud could provide evidence at 1 Ma of attempts at bifacially worked pieces among a core‐and‐flake industry.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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The 1‐million‐year‐old quartz assemblage from Pont‐de‐Lavaud (Centre, France) in the European context

Despriée

Moncel

Arzarello

et al. 2018

J Quaternary Science

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The Pont-de-Lavaud site, located in the Centre Region of France (Creuse Valley), yielded a quartz lithic assemblage composed of a few hundred artefacts with cores, pebble tools, flakes and flake-tools, mixed with several thousand debris items and pebbles. The archaeological site is covered by a fossil fluvial deposit from the Creuse River (sheet I, with a relative altitude of þ 90/105 m), dated by Electron Spin Resonance at the site itself to around 1 Ma. We will focus in this paper on the lithic assemblage with clear anthropogenic features to describe the technological strategies applied to quartz pebbles, with the help of experiments. The core technology is based on short 'cha^nes op eratoires' on local quartz aimed at producing pointed end-products on pebbles and flakes. The methods and techniques include both the bipolar technique on an anvil and direct percussion with a hard hammer. The reduction sequences were strongly conditioned by the morphology and the physical characteristics of the raw material. Few flakes are retouched. The Pont-de-Lavaud lithic assemblage is one example of the diversity of the 1-Ma European industries. The assemblage shows techno-cultural behavioural variability at this period and adaptation to raw material constraints. Comparisons with series where the use of quartz is widespread demonstrate the ability of hominins to use stones of varying quality and to adapt technology to the raw material in zones located beyond the 45th parallel north.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The 1‐million‐year‐old quartz assemblage from Pont‐de‐Lavaud (Centre, France) in the European context

Despriée

Moncel

Arzarello

et al. 2018

J Quaternary Science

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“…; Petraglia and Shipton ; Wynn and Tierson ), and even within individual sites (e.g., Archer and Braun ; Crompton and Gowlett ; Gowlett , ; Moncel et al . ; Wang et al . ), also supports the notion that hominins likely had a relatively large degree of freedom when producing functionally viable bifaces (at least for a majority of traits).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biometric variables predict stone tool functional performance more effectively than tool‐form attributes: a case study in handaxe loading capabilities

Key

Lycett

2018

Archaeometry

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Both the form of a stone tool and the anatomy of the individual using it have potential to influence its cutting performance. To date, however, the selective pressures acting on stonetool form and hominin biometric/biomechanical attributes have been investigated in isolation and their relative influence on performance have never been compared directly. This paper examines the influence of both tool-form attributes and biometric variation on the functional performance of Acheulean handaxes. Specifically, it investigates the impact of 13 tool attributes and eight biometric traits on the working forces applied through the edge of 457 replica tools. The relative contribution of tool-form and biometric attributes to handaxe loading levels were examined statistically. Results identify that both tool-form attributes and biometric traits are significantly related to loading; however, tool-user biometric variation has a substantially greater impact relative to tool-form attributes. This difference was demonstrated by up to a factor of 10. These results bear directly on the co-evolutionary relationships of stone tools and hominin anatomy, and the comparative strength of selective pressure acting on each. They also underline why handaxe forms may have been free to vary in form across time and space without necessarily incurring critical impacts on their functional capabilities.

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“…This has been correlated with the beginning of MIS 16 (Despri ee et al, 2011) on the basis of ESR dates of 655 ± 55 ka on overlying fluvial sands (Moncel et al, 2013;Voinchet et al, 2015). The assemblage recovered from stratum b consists of cores, flakes and bifacial tools considered as early evidence of the Acheulian (Moncel et al, 2013(Moncel et al, , 2016b. Other sites discovered in the same (Foug eres) formation of the Cher include Gi evres, at la Plaine-de-la-Morandi ere, dated to 700e650 ka.…”

Section: Francementioning

confidence: 99%

Fluvial deposits as an archive of early human activity: Progress during the 20 years of the Fluvial Archives Group

Chauhan

Bridgland

Moncel

et al. 2017

Quaternary Science Reviews

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Fluvial sedimentary archives are important repositories for Lower and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts throughout the 'Old World', especially in Europe, where the beginning of their study coincided with the realisation that early humans were of great antiquity. Now that many river terrace sequences can be reliably dated and correlated with the globally valid marine isotope record, potentially useful patterns can be recognized in the distribution of the find-spots of the artefacts that constitute the large collections that were assembled during the years of manual gravel extraction. This paper reviews the advances during the past two decades in knowledge of hominin occupation based on artefact occurrences in fluvial contexts, in Europe, Asia and Africa. As such it is an update of a comparable review in 2007, at the end of IGCP Project no. 449, which had instigated the compilation of fluvial records from around the world during 2000e2004, under the auspices of the Fluvial Archives Group. An overarching finding is the confirmation of the well-established view that in Europe there is a demarcation between handaxe making in the west and flakeecore industries in the east, although on a wider scale that pattern is undermined by the increased numbers of Lower Palaeolithic bifaces now recognized in East Asia. It is also apparent that, although it seems to have appeared at different places and at different times in the later Lower Palaeolithic, the arrival of Levallois technology as a global phenomenon was similarly timed across the area occupied by Middle Pleistocene hominins, at around 0.3 Ma.

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The Acheulean workshop of la Noira (France, 700 ka) in the European technological context

Cited by 49 publications

References 139 publications

The 1‐million‐year‐old quartz assemblage from Pont‐de‐Lavaud (Centre, France) in the European context

The 1‐million‐year‐old quartz assemblage from Pont‐de‐Lavaud (Centre, France) in the European context

Biometric variables predict stone tool functional performance more effectively than tool‐form attributes: a case study in handaxe loading capabilities

Fluvial deposits as an archive of early human activity: Progress during the 20 years of the Fluvial Archives Group

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