Technological Strategies and Diversity of Management of Limestone Pebbles at the Site of Terra Amata (southeast, France) in the Context of MIS11 in Western Europe

Abstract

The open-air site of Terra Amata (Nice) is located in southeast France. The sequence yields several phases of marine transgression and regression and two main stratigraphic units with human occupation. C1 and C1b units are dated to MIS11/10, with recurrent occupations attributed to the Acheulean associated with a Middle Pleistocene fauna. Recent discoveries during the last decade show that in western Europe from MIS 12 to MIS 9, a technological threshold is recorded with behavioural innovations in technology, modes of subsistence, fire, and the earliest Neanderthal anatomical features. Terra Amata is one example offering the opportunity to investigate in depth the technological strategies used by hominins during the long interglacial of MIS 11. The lithic assemblages are characterized by a large diversity of artefacts mainly made on limestone pebbles/cobbles. Among these artefacts, there are some Large Shaped Tools –e.g. choppers, bifaces, cleavers and picks– and cores or core-related tools. These are mainly characterized by a minimal shaping and by the extensive use of simple flaking and short centripetal sequences, including occasional more elaborate centripetal and discoidal core technologies. Terra Amata illustrates the diversity of heavy-duty tools and how MIS 11 hominins managed, often minimally, limestone pebbles, available in great quantity on the site, showing high flexibility and adaptation of the technology to local features and possible evidence of regionalization. Furthermore, the technological traits at Terra Amata appear within a mixed repertoire context that includes both traditional and simple technologies and advanced occupational strategies, a pattern observed in other western European sites.