Establishment of an experimental framework for the recognition of technical production and use stigma on basalt

Abstract

Two stratigraphical units (US2 and US4) of the Bois-de-Riquet site at Lézignan-la-Cèbe (Hérault-France) have yielded basalt industries of apparently very ancient chronologies: the first is older than 0,8 Ma (US4) and the second older than 1 Ma (US2). Although basalt raw materials are well-known from numerous Paleolithic sites, including many of great antiquity, their interpretation is sometimes made difficult by the paucity of documented information about the traces left by the knapping and use of this material. Correspondingly, we have undertaken a series of experiments in order to evaluate the contraints and technical solutions for the production modes identified from the archeological material and in accordance to a wide range of variables (conception, procedure, block morphology and size, hammerstone type and experimenter). The results considerably increase the repository of technical stigma for each of the concepts and design modalities considered in keeping with the different variables and allow to identify useful criteria for better understanding the origins of intentional stigma on basalt. Similarly, experiments on use-wear patterns (cutting skins, disarticulation and fracture on fresh bone) enrich the the corpus of referent traces linked to each of these different activities, both on the stone tools (traceological studies) and on the worked bones (taphonomical analysis). Repositories of this lithic/bone interface involving the use of basalt as a processing material are poorly developed and published. Comparison with the archeological material should henceforth prove easier and more founded. The aim of this communication is to present the established protocol and the main results obtained by its application.