White, Mark;
Rawlinson, Aaron;
Foulds, Freddie;
Dale, Luke;
Davis, Rob;
Bridgland, David;
Shipton, Ceri;
(2024)
Making a U-turn on the Purfleet Interchange: Stone Tool Technology in Marine Isotope Stage 9 Britain and the Emergence of the Middle Palaeolithic in Europe.
Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology
, 7
(1)
, Article 13. 10.1007/s41982-024-00177-z.
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Abstract
This paper re-examines earlier Palaeolithic core technology from British sites assigned to MIS 11, 9, and 7 using primarily a châine opératoire approach, with the objective of better understanding the earliest occurrence and distribution of Levallois and other prepared-core technologies across the Old World. Contrary to previous interpretations (White and Ashton in Current Anthropology, 44: 598–609, 2003), we find no evidence for a true Levallois concept in MIS 11 or MIS 9 in Britain. Cores previously described as ‘simple prepared cores’ or ‘proto-Levallois’ cores show neither evidence of core management nor predetermination of the resulting flakes. They can instead be explained as the coincidental result of a simpler technological scheme aimed at exploiting the largest surface area of a core, thereby maximising the size of the flakes produced from it. This may be a more widespread practice, or a local solution derived from existing principles. Levallois appears fully formed in Britain during terminal MIS 8/initial MIS 7. Consequently, Britain does not provide evidence for an in situ evolution of Levallois, rather we argue it was introduced by new settlers after a glacial abandonment: the solution to the emergence and significance of Levallois lies in southern Europe, the Levant and Africa.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Making a U-turn on the Purfleet Interchange: Stone Tool Technology in Marine Isotope Stage 9 Britain and the Emergence of the Middle Palaeolithic in Europe |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s41982-024-00177-z |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41982-024-00177-z |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Social Sciences, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Anthropology, Archaeology, Levallois, Simple prepared cores, Hierarchically worked cores, Lower-Middle Palaeolithic transition, Europe, Africa, Western Asia, LEVALLOIS TECHNOLOGY, SOUTHERN BRITAIN, HUMAN OCCUPATION, WESTERN-EUROPE, MISLIYA CAVE, QESEM CAVE, MIS 8, PLEISTOCENE, TRANSITION, CORE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10193026 |
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