Use wear analysis of quartzite lithic implements from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Lagoa do Bando (Central Portugal)

Abstract

The Middle Palaeolithic site of Lagoa do Bando is an open air site in a lacustrian context located at 570 m a.s.l. in the municipality of Mação in the center of Portugal. The site was discovered in 2011, during an emergency excavation, and resulted on the recovery of a Middle Palaeolithic lithic assemblage mainly composed of fine grained quartzite implements of expedient, discoid and Levallois technology. Use wear analysis was conducted on 41 artifacts formed through discoid and Levallois technology. Twenty one of these artifacts revealed use wear traces. Ten of them show traces of wood work, five have traces of butchering activities, three present traces of meat processing and two present undetermined traces. The site is located at an atypically high elevation for an open air site and there is evidence of a high rate of woodworking activity, rare in the Middle Palaeolithic occupations. The woodworking activities are possibly linked to the exploitation of woody local resources (maybe for the construction of hunting blinds) and not only with to the manufacture and maintenance of spears and shafts. These results converge with the interpretation of this site as a temporary hunting site integrated in a complex pattern of occupation of the area between the river valleys and the top of low mountains.

Conditioning of the raw materials on discoid exploitation strategies during the Early Middle Palaeolithic: the example of Payre level D (South-East France)

“…The use of several kinds of lithic raw materials to produce tools is well attested in the European Middle Palaeolithic, suggesting capabilities of Neanderthals to manage various quality stones for producing the tools (e.g. ; Berruti and Cura 2016;Blaser et al 2002;Carbonell et al 2005;;Cologne et al 2009;;;Daffara et al 2014;de Lombera-Hermida et al 2011;Degorce and Castel 2006;;Delagnes and Rendu 2011;Di Modica and Bonjean 2009;;Janot 1988;;Lamotte et al 2014;Lazuén et al 2011;;;Moncel et al 2014Moncel et al , 2013Moncel and Daujeard 2012;Moncel and Lhomme 2007;;Mourre and Thiébaut 2008;Nicoud 2010;;Rodriguez 2004;santagata et al, 2017;Thiébaut et al 2012;Tuffreau et al 2009;). However, their technological study was often approached without considering both their petrographic characteristics and specific response for knapping.…”

The Lowermost Tejo River Terrace at Foz do Enxarrique, Portugal: A Palaeoenvironmental Archive from c. 60–35 ka and Its Implications for the Last Neanderthals in Westernmost Iberia

“…The c. 20 cm lower bed (at 5.60-5.40 m depth), comprising Mousterian artefacts and fossil bones in a matrix of gravelly micaceous fine sands, is interpreted as overbank deposits close to the channel margin that also record hominin activities of hunting and butchery [48,64,66,70]. During this period, the Tejo channel moved laterally towards the west, preserving this record of human occupation.…”

“…About 13 specimens were identified with marks from the action of carnivores and 15 with marks from human butchery (nine with cutmarks and six with evidence of burning) [66]. Results from use-wear study on the lithic assemblage performed on 110 quartzite artefacts showed a dominance of wear traces associated to butchering, cutting of soft-animal tissue and scraping on bone activities [70]. Based on this, the authors conclude that the site was primarily a hunting zone, in which the animals were killed, quartered and then mainly taken to other places.…”

The oldest Homo erectus buried lithic horizon from the Eastern Saharan Africa. EDAR 7 - an Acheulean assemblage with Kombewa method from the Eastern Desert, Sudan

“…On three artefacts, the traces were less developed but could still be interpreted as resulting from cutting of undetermined soft material ( Fig 28A, 28C and 28D). Similar forms are sometimes connected with butchering activities [90,104].…”