Qesem Cave (AYCC), Revadim, Jaljulia (Acheulean) Site excavation director: A.Gopher, R.Barkai, Department of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University TAU LTFAPA project Chipped stone tools use-wear and residues analysis funded by MAECI and by International Agreement Project of Speinza University Qesem Cave and the open sites of Revadim and Jajiulia are located near Tel Aviv. Revadim and Jajiulia […]
https://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Qesem-Cave-site-view.jpg179270Cristina Lemorinihttps://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.pngCristina Lemorini2021-02-09 17:38:182023-02-26 16:55:00Late Lower paleolithic in Israel
Venosa Basin, Italy Site excavation director: M.H. Moncel, UMR 7194 HNHP (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD), Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle LTFAPA project: use-wear and residues analyses of chipped stone tools The site of Notarchico is the most ancient Acheulean site of Italy, one of the most ancient in Europe, dating around 700 Kya. The site […]
Qesem Cave (AYCC), Revadim, Jaljulia (Acheulean) Site excavation director: A.Gopher, R.Barkai, Department of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University TAU LTFAPA project Chipped stone tools use-wear and residues analysis funded by MAECI and by International Agreement Project of Speinza University Qesem Cave and the open sites of Revadim and Jajiulia are located near Tel Aviv. Revadim and Jajiulia […]
https://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Qesem-Cave-site-view.jpg179270Cristina Lemorinihttps://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.pngCristina Lemorini2021-02-09 17:38:182023-02-26 16:55:00Late Lower paleolithic in Israel
Venosa Basin, Italy Site excavation director: M.H. Moncel, UMR 7194 HNHP (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD), Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle LTFAPA project: use-wear and residues analyses of chipped stone tools The site of Notarchico is the most ancient Acheulean site of Italy, one of the most ancient in Europe, dating around 700 Kya. The site […]
Site excavation director: A.Gopher, R.Barkai, Department of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University TAU
LTFAPA project Chipped stone tools use-wear and residues analysis funded by MAECI and by International Agreement Project of Speinza University
Qesem Cave and the open sites of Revadim and Jajiulia are located near Tel Aviv. Revadim and Jajiulia are two Late Acheulean sites reach in flint industry characterized by bifaces and by flakes, small flakes, tools, and small tools. At Revadim, the taphonomic processes allowed to preserve numerous remains of fauna that comprise mammals of different sizes and megafuana. Both sites are really promising for the analysis of use-wear and residues. As far as Revadim concerns, various publication documented the use of the lithic industry to carry out different types of activities among which butchering seems to prevail.
The intriguing question under study is if the items of small size, that are abundant at Revadim, may have been involved in the processing of megafauna. To explore the relationship small tools-megafauna a PhD project by TAU with the collaboration with LTFAPA Sapienza (PhD candidate F.Marinelli) is in progress and is starting to produce interesting results now under in publication. Qesem Cave is an extraordinary well-preserved site, consisting of sediments some 10m deep, all assigned to the Acheulo Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC). The flint industry is blade-dominated in the Amudian sequence while scraper-dominated in the Yabrudian sequence. Many burnt bones and flint items were found at Qesem Cave. In addition, ash was found in the cave’s sediments. It appears that the use of fire was common throughout the sequence, including a repeatedly used, superimposed central hearth dated to ca. 300 ka.
use-wear on blades
The faunal assemblage includes Dama mesopotamica (dominates the assemblage), Bos, Equus, Sus, Testudo, Cervus. The absence of all body parts indicates that carcasses were first processed outside of the site and only selected parts were brought to the cave. Furthermore, cut marks were abundant indicating butchering on-site. Use-wear and residues analyses reviled that at Qesem Cave hominins used blades, Quina and demi-Quina scrapers and small items from recycling to process animal and plant materials. There is no doubt that these categories of tools were used as specialized tools-kit during butchering. In particular, Quina scrapers were used as specialized toolkit to process fresh, semi-dry and dried hide. New extraordinary data, published in 2019 and 2020, documented: 1 – the use of recycled old spheroids macro-lithic tools for the breakage of bones, probably to exploit their marrow, 2 – a complex behaviour of manipulation of animal and plant (tubers) food consisting in roasting with hot wooden ash and/or also preserving food and non-food matters using cold ash.
Use-wear on scrapers
Use-wear on tools from recycling
References
C.Lemorini, M.C.Stiner, A.Gopher, R.Shmelmitz, R.Barkai (2006), Use-wear analysis of an Amudian laminar assemblage from the Acheuleo-Yabrudian of Qesem Cave, Israel, Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 921-934. https://doi..org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.10.019
Shahack-Gross R., Berna F., Karkanas P., Lemorini C., Gopher A., Barkai R. (2014), Evidence for the repeated use of a central hearth at Middle Pleistocene (300 ky ago) Qesem Cave, Israel, Journal of Archaeological Science 44, pp. 12-21, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.11.015
N., Solodenko; A., Zupancich; S., Nunziante Cesaro; O., Marder; Lemorini, Cristina; R., Barkai 2015. Fat Residue and Use-Wear Found on Acheulian Biface and Scraper Associated with Butchered Elephant Remains at the Site of Revadim, Israel. pp.1-17. PlosOne. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118572
Lemorini C., Venditti F., Assaf E., Parush Y., Barkai R., Gopher A. (2015), The function of recycled lithic items at late Lower Paleolithic QesemCave, Israel: An overview of the use-wear data, Quaternary International 361, pp. 103-112, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.07.032
Barkai R., Lemorini C., Vaquero M. (2015), The origins of recycling: a Paleolithic perspective, Quaternary International 361, pp. 1-3, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.044
Lemorini C., Bourguignon L., Zupancich1 A., Gopher A., Barkai R. (2016), A scraper’s life history: Morpho-techno-functional and use-wear analysis of Quina and demi-Quina scrapers from Qesem Cave, Israel, Quaternary International 398, pp. 86-93, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.05.013
Zupancich A., Lemorini C., Gopher A., Barkai R. (2016), On Quina and demi-Quina scraper handling: Preliminary results from the late Lower Paleolithic site of Qesem Cave, Israel, Quaternary International 398, pp. 94-102, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.101
Zupancich A., Nunziante-Cesaro S., Blasco R., Rosell J., Cristiani E., Venditti F., Lemorini C., Barkai R. Gopher A. 2016 Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel, Scientific Reports 6. http//doi:10.1038/srep37686.
Venditti F., Cristiani E., Nunziante-Cesaro3 S. Agam A., Lemorini C., Barkai R. 2019 Animal residues found on tiny Lower paleolithic tools reveal their use in butchery, Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49650-8
Assaf E, Caricola I, Gopher A, Rosell J, Blasco R, Bar O, Zilberman, E., Lemorini, C., et al. (2020) Shaped stone balls were used for bone marrow extraction at Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0230972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230972
Lemorini C., Cristiani E., Nunziante Cesaro S., Venditti F., Zupancich A., Gopher A. The use of ash at Late Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel—An integrated study of use-wear and residue analysis, PlosOne (2020). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237502
Mathias, C.; Lemorini, C.; Marinelli, F.; Sanchez-Dehesa Galan, S.; Shemer, M.; Barkai, R.. (2023 Bulb retouchers half a million years ago: New evidence from late Acheulean Jaljulia, Israel, JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE: REPORTS. – ISSN 2352-409X. – 47:(2023), p. 103821. [10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103821]
https://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Qesem-Cave-site-view.jpg179270Cristina Lemorinihttps://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.pngCristina Lemorini2021-02-09 17:38:182023-02-26 16:55:00Late Lower paleolithic in Israel
Site excavation director: M.H. Moncel, UMR 7194 HNHP (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD), Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
LTFAPA project: use-wear and residues analyses of chipped stone tools
The site of Notarchico is the most ancient Acheulean site of Italy, one of the most ancient in Europe, dating around 700 Kya. The site consists of an imponent 7 m-thick sequence of fluvial sediments including various archaeological levels excavated during the ‘80s-’90s of the last century. Recently, new excavations were promoted by M.H. Moncel and her team. LTFAPA lab. is part of this team and has in charge the use-wear analysis of the lithic industry in collaboration with B. Hardy (Kenyon College, USA) who carries out the residues analysis. The recent paper published in Scientific Reports of Nature, documents the preservation of use-wear and residues on small flakes and small tools that were used for different activities, apparently without some prevailing activity. It is worth mentioning that plant and, especially, wood working are well represented, testifying activities not only related to food processing.
References
Moncel M.H, , Santagata, C., Pereira, A., Nomade, S., Voinchet, P., Bahain,J.-J., Daujeard, C., Curci, A., Lemorini, C. et al. “The origin of early Acheulean expansion in Europe 700 ka ago: new findings at Notarchirico (Italy). Scientific Reports 10, 13802 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68617-8
Moncel, MH., Lemorini, C., Eramo, G. et al. A taphonomic and spatial distribution study of the new levels of the middle Pleistocene site of Notarchirico (670–695 ka, Venosa, Basilicata, Italy). Archaeol Anthropol Sci15, 106 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01809-1
The LTFAPA project at the site of Notarchirico is now part of the ERC Advanced Research Project LATEUROPE (PI M.H.Moncel) https://lateurope.cnrs.fr/
This Site uses technical cookies, to ensure its technical functioning and analyse visitor information in aggregate form. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of thes type of cookies. For more information on cookies, , please click on the following link “Cookie settings”.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
