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A Levallois point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting weapons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Eric Boëda
Affiliation:
Université de Paris X, Nanterre, Département d'Ethnologie/Préhistoire, 200 Avenue de la République, 92001 Nanterre Cedex, France
J. M. Geneste
Affiliation:
Service Régional d'Archéologie d'Aquitaine, 54 rue Magendie, 33000 Bordeaux, France
C. Griggo
Affiliation:
UMR 9933 CNRS Université de Bordeaux I, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France
N. Mercier
Affiliation:
Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, Laboratoire mixte CNRS-CEA, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
S. Muhesen
Affiliation:
Ministère de la Culture, Direction Génerale des Antiquités et des Musées, Damascus, Syria
J. L. Reyss
Affiliation:
Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, Laboratoire mixte CNRS-CEA, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
A. Taha
Affiliation:
Musée d'Ethnographie de Palmyre, Palmyra, Syria
H. Valladas
Affiliation:
Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, Laboratoire mixte CNRS-CEA, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

Abstract

The hunting methods of the Neanderthals are rarely evident in detail in the archaeological record. Here, the rare and important discovery of a fragment of broken Levallois point, embedded in the neck-bones of a wild ass, provokes plenty of discussion of the methods of hafting and killing game in the Middle Palaeolithic of Syria.

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Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1999

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