Using microartifacts to infer Middle Pleistocene lifeways at Schöningen, Germany.

While archeologists usually favor the study of large and diagnostic lithic artifacts, this study illustrates the invaluable contribution of lithic microartifacts for interpreting hominin lifeways. Across a 64 m2 area of the Middle Pleistocene lakeshore site of Schöningen 13 II-3 in Northern Germany, we recovered a total of 57 small and micro flint artifacts, four small debris pieces, three natural fragments and three bone retouchers in close association with the skeleton of an extinct Eurasian straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus). This area lacks the type of formal knapped stone tools that would normally constitute the focus of archeological interpretations. By adopting a holistic approach, including morpho-technical analysis, experimental archeology, and use-wear and residue analyses, we demonstrate that these small and microartifacts are resharpening flakes that tell the story of the site. Fifteen resharpening flakes preserve microwear traces of processing wood. Microscopic residues of wood adhered to the former working edges of the tools corroborate this observation. Additionally, hominins used a sharp-edged, natural fragment of flint to process fresh animal tissue, which likely originates from the butchery of the elephant. These results provide unique, 300,000-year-old evidence for the functionally interconnected use of lithic, osseous and wood technologies. Furthermore, we document in-situ transformations of stone tools and the presence of both curational and expedient behaviors, thereby demonstrating the temporal depth of hominin activities at the lakeshore where the elephant died, and in the broader landscape as a whole.

Function, life histories, and biographies of Lower Paleolithic patinated flint tools from Late Acheulian Revadim, Israel.

Flint tools exhibiting modified patinated surfaces ("double patina", or post-patination flaked items) provide a glimpse into Paleolithic lithic recycling, stone economy, and human choices. Different life cycles of such items are visually evident by the presence of fresh new modified surfaces alongside old patinated ones (according to color and texture differences). New modifications testify to a gap in time between the previous life cycle of the patinated flaked item and its new one. The aim of the current study is to reconstruct the functional properties and life cycles of a sample of modified patinated flaked tools from Late Acheulian Revadim, Israel by applying use-wear and residue analyses. The results of the functional study allow a better understanding of the practical reasoning behind the collection and recycling of old flint tools, while additional inputs from theoretical and methodological advancements assist in reconstructing their probable role in the worldviews of the site's inhabitants.

An integrated study discloses chopping tools use from Late Acheulean Revadim (Israel).

Chopping tools/choppers provide one of the earliest and most persistent examples of stone tools produced and used by early humans. These artifacts appeared for the first time ~2.5 million years ago in Africa and are characteristic of the Oldowan and Acheulean cultural complexes throughout the Old World. Chopping tools were manufactured and used by early humans for more than two million years regardless of differences in geography, climate, resource availability, or major transformations in human cultural and biological evolution. Despite their widespread distribution through time and space in Africa and Eurasia, little attention has been paid to the function of these items, while scholars still debate whether they are tools or cores. In this paper, we wish to draw attention to these prominent and ubiquitous early lithic artifacts through the investigation of 53 chopping tools retrieved from a specific context at Late Acheulean Revadim (Israel). We combined typo-technological and functional studies with a residue analysis aimed at shedding light on their functional role within the tool-kits of the inhabitants of the site. Here we show that most of the chopping tools were used to chop hard and medium materials, such as bone, most probably for marrow extraction. A few of the tools were also used for cutting and scraping activities, while some also served as cores for further flake detachment. The chopping tools exhibit extraordinarily well-preserved bone residues suggesting they were used mainly for bone-breaking and marrow acquisition. We discuss the data and explore the tool versus core debate also in light of a sample of 50 flake cores made on pebbles/cobbles retrieved from the same archeological layer. The results add further pieces to the puzzle of activities carried out at Revadim and add to our knowledge of the production and use of these enigmatic tools and their role in human evolutionary history.

Animal residues found on tiny Lower Paleolithic tools reveal their use in butchery.

Stone tools provide a unique window into the mode of adaptation and cognitive abilities of Lower Paleolithic early humans. The persistently produced large cutting tools (bifaces/handaxes) have long been an appealing focus of research in the reconstruction of Lower Paleolithic survival strategies, at the expenses of the small flake tools considered by-products of the stone production process rather than desired end products. Here, we use use-wear, residues and technological analyses to show direct and very early evidence of the deliberate production and use of small flakes for targeted stages of the prey butchery process at the late Lower Paleolithic Acheulian site of Revadim, Israel. We highlight the significant role of small flakes in Lower Paleolithic adaptation alongside the canonical large handaxes. Our results demonstrate the technological and cognitive flexibility of early human groups in the Levant and beyond at the threshold of the departure from Lower Paleolithic lifeways.

Recycling for a purpose in the late Lower Paleolithic Levant: Use-wear and residue analyses of small sharp flint items indicate a planned and integrated subsistence behavior at Qesem Cave (Israel).

The purposeful production of small flakes is integral to the lithic variability of many Middle Pleistocene sites. Inhabitants of the Acheulo-Yabrudian site of Qesem Cave, Israel, systematically recycled 'old' discarded blanks and tools, using them as cores for the production of small sharp tools with distinct technological features. These recycling end-products were produced in significant quantities throughout the human occupation of Qesem Cave, and their outstanding state of preservation made possible a functional analysis with residue detection using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). An experimental program accompanying the study tested the efficiency of each tool category, and a reference collection of the organic remains was assembled. Our integrated results show that small flakes were used mainly to process soft to medium animal material through precise cutting activities that required accurate longitudinal motions. Several items show clear and exclusive contact with bone while others were used for designated steps in hide treatment processes. Plant and tuber processing are also evidenced although to a lesser extent. We show that the end products of recycling 'old' flakes reflect preconceived technological and functional characteristics produced in a targeted manner to obtain specific tools designated for anticipated practical tasks. We demonstrate the complementary role of the products of recycling within the Qesem Cave tool-kits alongside larger tools in assisting early humans in the different stages of processing animal materials. Moreover, use-wear and residue evidence indicates that Qesem hominins differentiated their activities across space in the cave. We argue that the meticulous realization of specific tasks and the deliberate, repetitive, and skilled production of tools of different sizes and shapes is one characteristic of the new mode of adaptation practiced by Acheulo-Yabrudian hominins in the Levant in order to better manipulate the available resources following the disappearance of mega-herbivores.

Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel.

For a long while, the controversy surrounding several bone tools coming from pre-Upper Palaeolithic contexts favoured the view of Homo sapiens as the only species of the genus Homo capable of modifying animal bones into specialised tools. However, evidence such as South African Early Stone Age modified bones, European Lower Palaeolithic flaked bone tools, along with Middle and Late Pleistocene bone retouchers, led to a re-evaluation of the conception of Homo sapiens as the exclusive manufacturer of specialised bone tools. The evidence presented herein include use wear and bone residues identified on two flint scrapers as well as a sawing mark on a fallow deer tibia, not associated with butchering activities. Dated to more than 300 kya, the evidence here presented is among the earliest related to tool-assisted bone working intended for non-dietary purposes, and contributes to the debate over the recognition of bone working as a much older behaviour than previously thought. The results of this study come from the application of a combined methodological approach, comprising use wear analysis, residue analysis, and taphonomy. This approach allowed for the retrieval of both direct and indirect evidence of tool-assisted bone working, at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Qesem Cave (Israel).