Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T06:30:10.868Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Blank Form and Reduction as Determinants of Mousterian Scraper Morphology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Steven L. Kuhn*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131

Abstract

Variation in the forms of Mousterian tools has been attributed to a number of factors, including style, function, and more recently, differential reduction. This study compares the influences of two factors, reduction and the shapes of tool blanks, on the forms of scrapers from a Mousterian site in Italy. In the subject assemblages, the shapes of the tool blanks had a much stronger influence on scraper forms than had reduction. To the extent that blank form affects typology in other cases, explanations of contrasts among Mousterian assemblages would need to account for the use of alternative techniques of flake production. Since typological variation is multicausal, it would also appear more profitable to focus directly on variables pertinent to current research issues, rather than on reinterpreting the typology.

Resumen

Resumen

La variación en la morfología de los instrumentos musterienses ha sido atribuida a un número de factores, incluyendo estilo, función y, recientemente, reducción diferencial. El presente estudio compara la influencia de dos factores—reducción y forma de la lascas sobre las que los utensilios fueron confeccionados—en la morfología de los raspadores de un sitio musteriense en Italia. En los conjuntos estudiados la forma de las lascas posee mayor influencia que la reducción en la morfología de los raspadores. Si la forma de las lascas afecta la tipología en otros casos, las explicaciones del contraste entre conjuntos musterienses tendrán que tener en cuenta el uso de técnicas alternativas de producción de lascas. Dado que la variación tipológica es multicausal, resulta más útil centrar la atención directamente en variables pertinentes a los temas de investigación en cuestión, en lugar de reinterpretar la tipología.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Beyries, S. 1987 Variability de I'industrie lithique au mousterien. BAR International Series 328. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1973 Interassemblage Variability— The Mousterian and the ‘Functional Argument. ’ In The Explanation of Culture Change, edited by Renfrew, C., pp. 227254. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R. 1990 Isolating the Transition to Cultural Adaptations : An Organizational Approach. In The Emergence of Modern Humans : Biocultural Adaptations in the Later Pleistocene, edited by Trinkaus, E., pp. 1841. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Binford, L. R., and Binford, S. R. 1966 A Preliminary Analysis of Functional Variability in the Mousterian of Levallois Fades. American Anthropologist 68 : 238295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boeda, E. 1990 Dela surface a volume : Analyse des conceptions des debitages levallois et laminaire. In Paleolithiqe moyen recent et Paleolithique superieur ancien en Europe, edited by Farizy, C., pp. 6368. Memoires du Musee de Prehistoire d'llle de France No. 3. Nemours.Google Scholar
Bordes, F. 1953 Essai de classification des industries “mousteriennes. ” Bulletin de la Societe Prihistorique Francaise 50 : 226235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bordes, F. 1961a Typologie du Paleolithique ancien et moyen. Cahiers du Quaternaire 1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Bordeaux.Google Scholar
Bordes, F. 1961b Mousterian Cultures in France. Science 134 : 803810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bordes, F. 1968 The Old Stone Age. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Bordes, F., and Sonneville-Bordes, D. de 1970 The Significance of Variability in Paleolithic Assemblages. World Archaeology 2 : 6173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dibble, H. 1987a Reduction Sequences in the Manufacture of Mousterian Implements of France. In The Pleistocene Old World : Regional Perspectives, edited by Soffer, O., pp. 3346. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dibble, H. 1987b The Interpretation of Middle Paleolithic Scraper Morphology. American Antiquity 52 : 109117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dibble, H. 1988 Typological Aspects of Reduction and Intensity of Utilization of Lithic Resources in the French Mousterian. In Upper Pleistocene Prehistory of Western Eurasia, edited by Dibble, H. and Montet, A.-White, pp. 181198. The University Museum, University of Pensylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Dibble, H., and Montet-White, A. (editors) 1988 The Upper Pleistocene Prehistory of Western Eurasia. The University Museum, University of Pensylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Dibble, H. and Whittaker, J. 1981 New Experimental Evidence on the Relation Between Percussion Flaking and Flake Variation. Journal of Archaeological Science 6 : 283296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flenniken, J. J., and Wilke, P. 1989 Typology, Technology and Chronology of Great Basin Dart Points. American Anthropologist 91 : 149158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gamble, C. 1986 The Palaeolithic Settlement of Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Geneste, J-M. 1990 Development des systemes de production lithique au cours du Paleolithique moyen en Aquitaine septentrionale. In Paleolithiqe moyen recent et Paleolithique superieur ancien en Europe, edited by Farizy, C., pp. 203213. Memoires du Musee de Prehistoire dTlle de France No. 3. Nemours.Google Scholar
Jelinek, A. 1976 Form, Function and Style in Lithic Analysis. In Culture Change and Continuity : Essays in Honor of James Bennett Griffin, edited by Cleland, C., pp. 1933. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. 1989 The Utility of Production Trajectory Modeling as a Framework for Regional Analysis. In Alternative Approaches to Lithic Analysis, edited by Henry, D. O. and Odell, G. H., pp. 119138. Archeological Papers No. 1. American Anthropological Association, Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Kelly, R. 1988 The Three Sides of a Biface. American Antiquity 53 : 717734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S. 1990a Diversity Within Uniformity : Tool Manufacture and Use in the ‘Pontinian’ Mousterian of Latium (Italy). Ph. D. dissertation, University of New Mexico. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Kuhn, S. 1990b A Geometric Index of Reduction for Unifacial Stone Tools. Journal of Archaeological Science 17 : 583593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S. 1991 “Unpacking Reduction“ : Lithic Raw Material Economy in the Mousterian of West-Central Italy. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10 : 76106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laj-Pannocchia, F. 1950 L'industria Pontiniana della Grotta di S. Agostino (Gaeta). Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 5 : 6786.Google Scholar
Marks, A. E. 1988 The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in the Southern Levant : Technological Change as an Adaptation to Increasing Mobility. In La mutation, edited by Otte, M., pp. 109123. L' Homme de Neandertal, vol. 8. M. Otte, general editor. Etudes et Recherches Archeologiques de l'Universite de Liege No. 35. Liege.Google Scholar
Parry, W., and Kelly, R. 1987 Expedient Core Technology and Sedentism. In The Organization of Core Technology, edited by Johnson, J. and Morrow, C., pp. 285309. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Pelegrin, J. 1990 Observations technologiques sur quelques series du Chatelperronien et du MTA B du su-ouest de la France : Une hypothese d'evolution. In Paleolithiqe moyen recent et Paleolithique superieur ancien en Europe, edited by Farizy, C., pp. 195201. Memoires du Musee de Prehistoire d'llle de France No. 3. Nemours.Google Scholar
Roebroeks, W., Kolen, J., and Rensink, E. 1988 Planning Depth, Anticipation and the Organization of Middle Paleolithic Technology : The “Archaic Natives” Meet Eve's Descendants. Hellenium 28 : 1734.Google Scholar
Rolland, N., and Dibble, H. 1990 A New Synthesis of Middle Paleolithic Variability. American Antiquity 55 : 480499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sackett, J. 1981 From de Mortillet to Bordes : A Century of French Paleolithic Research. In Towards a History of Archaeology, edited by Daniel, G., pp. 8599. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Schwarcz, H., Buhay, W., Gran, R., Stiner, M., Kuhn, S., and Miller, G. 1991 Absolute Dating of Sites in Coastal Lazio. In The Fossil Man of Monte Circeo : Fifty Years of Research on the Neandertals Neandertals in Latium. Quaternaria Nova 1 (nuova serie), in press. Ms. 1989.Google Scholar
Shea, J. 1989 A Functional Study of the Lithic Industries Associated with Hominid Fossils at Kebara and Qafzeh Caves, Israel. In The Human Revolution : Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Humans, vol. 1, edited by Mellars, P. and Stringer, C., pp. 611625. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Speth, J. 1972 The Mechanical Basis of Percussion Flaking. American Antiquity 37 : 3460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speth, J. 1974 Experimental Investigations of Hard-Hammer Percussion Flaking. Tebiwa 17 : 736.Google Scholar
Speth, J. 1981 The Role of Platform Angle and Core Size in Hard-Hammer Percussion Flaking. Lithic Technology 10 : 1621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiner, M. C, and Kuhn, S. L. 1992 Subsistence, Technology, and Adaptive Variation in the Middle Paleolithic. American Anthropologist 94, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taschini, M. 1970 La Grotta Breuil al Monte Circeo. Per un impostazione dello studio del Pontiniano. Origini 4 : 4578.Google Scholar
Taschini, M. 1979 L'industrie lithique de Grotta Guattari au Mont Circe (Latium) : Definition culturelle, typologique et chronologique du Pontinien. Quaternaria 21 : 179247.Google Scholar
Tozzi, C. 1970 La Grotta di S. Agostino (Gaeta). Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 25 : 3087.Google Scholar