PalethnologieArchéologie et sciences humaines 10 | 2019L’acquisition et le traitement des matières végétales etanimales par les néandertaliens : quelles modalités etquelles stratégies ?

Stone tool reference collectionÉmilie Claud, Céline Thiébaut, Aude Coudenneau, Marianne Deschamps,Vincent Mourre, Michel Brenet, Maria Gema Chacón‑Navarro, DavidColonge, Cristina Lemorini, Serge Maury, Christian Servelle and FlaviaVenditti

Electronic versionURL: http://journals.openedition.org/palethnologie/4070DOI: 10.4000/palethnologie.4070ISSN: 2108-6532

PublisherPresses universitaires du Midi

Electronic referenceÉmilie Claud, Céline Thiébaut, Aude Coudenneau, Marianne Deschamps, Vincent Mourre, Michel Brenet, Maria Gema Chacón‑Navarro, David Colonge, Cristina Lemorini, Serge Maury, Christian Servelle and Flavia Venditti, « Stone tool reference collection », Palethnologie [Online], 10 | 2019, Onlinesince 01 November 2019, connection on 13 March 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/palethnologie/4070 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/palethnologie.4070

Palethnologie est mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pasd'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International.

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Traces of use were therefore preserved on resharpening flakes detached from bifaces used to scrape and plane dry wood. While sufficiently well preserved to be interpreted on experimental examples, identifying use-wear traces on resharpening flakes from archaeological contexts can be limited by their small size (less than 3 cm) and the fact that only three flakes exhibited use- related wear.

Both bifaces used to dig exhibited use-wear traces away from the edge, in zones unaffected by the resharpening episodes. Although this wear was less well developed compared to the original traces on the edges, its morphology and distribution are sufficiently diagnostic to identify the bifaces as having previously worked a very supple abrasive material. Following the two experi-ments, 22 flakes bore traces of previous use: 9 on the platform and dorsal surface and 13 uniquely on the dorsal surface. Fifteen flakes were detached during the first resharpening phase and 7 from the second, the latter exhibited use-wear traces in the distal portion of the dorsal surface rather than on the platform and proximal area. Two flakes with unprepared platforms can be described as lip flakes, meaning that their thick platforms have marked lips. These two features (complete and lip flakes) seem to be connected to a mode of use that significantly alters the edges (scarring, edge-rounding, polishes, high edge angles). In fact, unlike bifaces used in woodworking, the experimenter detached complete flakes without systematic platform preparation during the first phase of resharpening. All of the flakes were small (less the 2 cm) and, despite a clear difference in the results obtained for bifaces used in butchery and scraping wood, the proportion of resharpening flakes exhibiting traces of use remained low (n=22, approximately 10 %).

In sum, both resharpened bifaces and associated resharpening flakes exhibited use-wear traces. The likelihood of observing these traces varies, however, according to their nature, particularly their extent: the more extensive the wear, the more frequently residual use-related evidence can be observed. With that said, the proportion of flakes with use-related wear remains low. For example, no residual traces of use were observed on bifaces or flakes used in butchery.

This differential preservation of use-wear traces therefore poses a problem for interpretations based on non-quantifiable observations. It should, however, be born in mind that some parts of the edge are not resharpened and thus may provide evidence of previous activities regardless the extent of the original use-wear. The identification of residual use-wear evidence is, in the end, limited by the small proportion of flakes that preserve traces of use and, especially, their small size. These artefacts are, in fact, more susceptible to breakage and transport, notably by surface water run-off. Moreover, when preserved and recovered during excavations, their study often requires the sieve residue to have been sorted.

11 - Synthesis of the lithic tools reference collections (É. Claud, C. Thiébaut, A. Coudenneau, M. Deschamps, V. Mourre)

The reference collection of lithic tools constituted in the context of the Research Program totals 510 active areas, used for butchery (164 areas), acquiring and working of wood (149 areas), shooting on carcasses (107 points), hide working (49 areas), hard animal material working (bone, antler, horn, shellfish, 32 active areas), and to a lesser extent grass harvesting (4 areas) and soil digging (5 areas). Flint and quartzite are the most used raw materials, alongside some elements in ophite, schist and volcanic rock.

Among the items used, there are unretouched and retouched points (198 areas), bifaces (108 active areas and 5 transported bifaces), unretouched flakes (most of them in quartzite: 69 areas), notched pieces (67 areas) and flake cleavers (52 tools).

Practicing different activities, according to various modes of action and, to a lesser extent, of prehension, made it possible to confront the constraints and advantages of the different tested

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tools types. A general remark can be formulated for quartzite, whatever the activity carried out: the cutting edges get dirty quickly and require regular cleaning during work in order to preserve their efficiency.

With few exceptions, the tools have been relatively well adapted to the intended objective. Some tools, however, seemed to us to have more advantages than others. We are summarizing below the constraints and advantages encountered during the main activities.

In the context of woodworking, unretouched flakes proved less suitable for sawing than denticulates with micro- and medium denticulation, which made it possible to achieve the stated objective: sawing a trunk or a branch. Long cutting edges, generally rectilinear in plan and espe-cially in profile and thin blanks facilitate the working. Unsurprisingly, acquiring by percussion gesture proved much faster than sawing, especially in the case of hafted tools. The hafted bifaces allowed to achieve the stated objectives (felling of a tree) but the number of blows required was greater than with hafted flake cleavers. The different tests of lateral hafting of the bifaces did not allow us to find a stable hafting system over the duration of the experiment, while some flake cleavers remained in their handle during all their functioning time. For the latter, hafting into straight handles, in the manner of axes, allowed faster felling than the use of curved handles, of the adz type, for comparable varieties and trunk diameters. The morphology of the active area seemed to condition the stability of the flake cleaver in the handle: a rectilinear or slightly convex and symmetrical delineation is preferable to a very convex, asymmetrical or two sides delineation cutting edge. Despite the strong scarring of the cutting edges for each experiment, the flake cleavers remain relatively efficient. The large size of the handles, adapted to that of the flake cleavers and not allowing to carry out precise gestures, was an obstacle to the shaping of wooden elements although handles of smaller dimensions, usable with one hand, had been produced for this activity. Regarding the scraping of wood, rectilinear or concave cutting edges in delineation, with biplane or plano-concave section, seem better adapted. On the contrary, using quartzite notches, or flint notches with a convexity (convexo-concave or convex-plane section) on the flat face, appeared unsuitable for this functioning mode, because the cutting edge failed to cut into the material.

During our butchery activities, the presence of a pointed part (point or denticle) has proved very useful for penetrating the flesh, for example to disarticulate and to incise the hide at various stages of skinning by applying concentrated pressure on a reduced portion of the cutting edge. For removing the hide, the use of pointed or angular active parts was of less interest. For defleshing, a long cutting edge, unretouched or retouched, was well suited although the removal of the meat of the hind limbs can be achieved without problem with pseudo-Levallois points of small dimen-sions. With regard to disarticulation, although the presence of denticles may facilitate the cutting of tendons, the relatively obtuse angle of some denticulate cutting edges and the thickness of their blanks has sometimes been an obstacle to penetrating between the articular surfaces. Unlike flint blanks, quartzite blanks required frequent cleaning. Their cutting edge also seems to become blunted and lose sharpness faster than flint blanks. Flake cleavers, too large too massive and presenting a difficult prehension and a limited maneuverability, appeared inappropriate for butchery cutting. On the other hand, their use to fracture the rib cage, hafted in percussion, made it possible to reach the objective very quickly. Their use in percussion made it possible to fracture, in just a few blows, bovine femurs to extract the marrow. Bifaces with convergent edges have proved very effective for all stages of butchery; the point, the regular retouching of the edges and the acute to moderately open angle give them good penetration capacity, and a significant sharp edge and resistance. Those with distal transverse edge have also proved useful for butchery cutting, with one of the lateral edges and the angle formed with the distal edge, but also for butchery in percussion, with the transverse distal edge, for the purpose of defleshing or disarticulating. On the other hand, an abrupt decrease in sharpness was noted for bifaces used in percussion to cut

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meat or tendons in the context of these activities. We did not test the use of hafted bifaces for rib cage fracturing so we cannot compare their efficiency with flake cleavers for this functioning mode, but two converging-edges bifaces used with bare hand in percussion allowed to fracture the rib cage of a red deer.

Except for piercing and softening straps, hide working requires regular and convex cutting edges, whether unretouched or retouched. They allow applying sufficient pressure on the hide to deflesh it, shave it or thin it, without the risk of piercing it. The use of flint notches as stationary tools adapted to the width of the straps for softening was a success. As with butchery cutting, the large dimensions of the flake cleavers, even held with bare hands, made these tools difficult to handle for hide working, compared to simple unretouched quartzite flakes.

The use of handles was a definite advantage in the case of bifaces and flake cleavers used in percussion for acquiring wood and fracturing of the rib cage. The hafting of two small pseudo- Levallois points (used for butchering the bison) in a simple partially split handle was also appre-ciable. The handle, whose manufacture was very quick (split handle, without bindings or adhesives) and which was well adapted to the size of the points, did not interfere with the penetration of the tool in the flesh. Apart from several particular situations (percussion gestures, small size items) and, of course, from the hunting points, the use of handles did not bring a neat gain in efficiency. Their manufacture has sometimes been relatively time-consuming, especially in the case of large tools. In particular, this was the case for the bifaces used in butchery cutting, for which the handle had to be both large enough to hold the tool and sufficiently fine, therefore adjusted to the tool, not to affect its ability to penetrate the flesh.

The use-wear study of experimental tools, at low and more rarely at high magnification (quartzite flakes reference collection), confirmed the informative potential of the utilization traces born by the various tool types.

The interest of taking into account macro-traces was underlined for each of the reference collections. Observations at low magnification allow the identification of fractures, scars and rounding that are often diagnostic of the motion carried out and of the hardness of the material worked. Some activities, such as butchery, produce very characteristic scars, also identified on all types of studied tools and raw materials: triangular morphology, oblique orientation, bending initiation and step termination, distributed discontinuously and located on both faces. They are often associated with other scar morphologies (mostly semicircular and trapezoidal). The tools used for hide working, for their part, carry little or no scars, always small in size, and a more or less marked rounding, depending on the duration of use, the state of the hide or the presence of abrasive particles. Woodworking, even in percussion, produces relatively few, semicircular, trapezoidal or quadrangular scars, with clearly bending initiation, which increases the cutting angle of the edge used. Macro-rounding of the cutting edge was observed on quartzite tools that scraped wood, as well as on denticulates used for sawing dry wood. The working of hard organic materials such as bone, antler or bone cleaning by scraping produces on the contrary numerous and superimposed scars. Some convergence has been observed between the marks produced by the working of a hard material such as bone and hardwood, materials that may have similar hardness, depending on the species / variety, the age of the animal (immature / adult) and the state of the support (fresh, dry, heated). This convergence has been observed particularly in the case of unretouched quartzite flakes used for scraping (wood, bone) and of quartzite and ophite flake cleavers used in percussion for acquiring wood and fracturing the rib cage.

Nevertheless, within all the reference collections, some tools, sometimes representing up to a third of the tools making up the reference collection (for notched pieces) have no macro-traces or traces that are too tenuous to be considered as characteristic and interpretable in archaeological context. These tools were used for cutting meat or skinning, without contact with bone or cartilage,

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to scrape fresh and soft wood, and to a lesser extent for hide defleshing. Low durations of use and open cutting angles limit the formation of traces and therefore their ability to be recognized. To identify these functioning modes, a microscopic approach is essential. However, it is possible only in the case where the preservation of microscopic surfaces and cutting edges is correct, which is unfortunately not always the case in the studied assemblages (see Part II, chapter 2). Thus, these activities are probably underestimated when restoring activities carried out by Neanderthal groups.

The creation of specific reference collections for a raw material, quartzite, and for several types of tools made it possible to illustrate the peculiarities of each in terms of their wear behavior, particularly the development of macro-traces.

Thus, on the bifaces and the points, use scars appeared less numerous and smaller in size than on the unretouched flakes. They are also less elongated in the case of longitudinal actions. Denticulates used for sawing and butchery cutting have the particularity of developing scars and rounding on the denticles, the most prominent parts, which therefore wear out more significantly. In the case of an active zone comprising a pointed part (unretouched and retouched points, bifaces, …), the use-wear tends to concentrate at the level of the point and of the cutting edge adjacent to it, their intensity decreasing when moving away from it. The distribution of use-wear related to scraping actions seemed less dependent on the morphology of the cutting edge, which varies little according to the tool types.

Let us note that the quartzite blanks from the Nive and Garonne Rivers have developed macrowear and micro-traces characteristic of their utilization mode. The micro-traces on flint are not transposable to quartzite, hence the interest of a specific reference collection. Indeed, the matrix generally does not show any polish, the traces have to be looked for on each crystal, hence the need for an examination with a 50 lens (500 × magnification). On this material, the legibility of the traces depends on the size of the crystals (fine-grained quartzite versus medium-grained quartzite): the macro-traces are easier to read on fine-grained quartzite than on medium-grained quartzite, and, conversely, the scarcity of the matrix on medium-grained quartzite makes the reading of micro-traces easier.

The reference collection of points made it possible to highlight the formation, on the latter, of a new type of fracture that can be diagnostic of an impact, the apical scarring. It also allowed putting in perspective the diagnostic aspect of bending fractures with tongue and step termination since these can also result from other activities than hunting or from natural phenomena (Pargeter, 2011). The presence of fractures on the points used as projectile insets for hunting is far from systematic, and among the fractures observed, only a small number of them could be considered as diagnostic. The number of pieces showing potentially diagnostic traces of an impact within the same series (very anecdotal or not), the overlapping of retouches by fractures in the case of retouched points, as well as the taphonomic and economical context of the occupations are crucial data to be able to offer a reasonable functional interpretation of the artifacts bearing traces compatible with a use as hunting points.

Concerning the question of identifying of a particular stage within the butchery (skinning, defleshing, disarticulation, tendon removal), it turns out that the latter have produced macro- traces that are not significantly different from each other. In fact, it is mainly the accidental contact with bones or cartilage that creates the scars typical of butchery, and these are likely to form at all stages of the butchery. A macro-rounding is sometimes observed on the tools used for skinning, but its intensity, always low, limits its interest for the interpretations of the archaeological material because it could be mistaken with a slight natural rounding. Only micro-traces (see Part II, chapter 2.6 for quartzite and Claud, Thiébaut in Thiébaut et al., 2011 for flint: 230-258) might make it possible to identify the different stages of butchery in the event that the tool was used for a particular stage.