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After years of intense fieldwork, our knowledge about the Neolithisation of the Pyrenees has considerably increased. In the southern central Pyrenees, some previously unknown Neolithic sites have been discovered at subalpine and alpine altitudes (1,000–1,500 m a.s.l.). One of them is Cueva Lóbrica, 1,170 m a.s.l., which has an occupation phase with impressed pottery dated ca. 5400 cal BCE. Another is Coro Trasito, 1,558 m a.s.l., a large rock shelter that preserves evidence of continuous occupations in the Early Neolithic, 5300–4600 cal BCE. Evidence of human occupation at higher altitudes has also been documented. In the Axial Pyrenees, at the Obagues de Ratera rock shelter, 2,345 m a.s.l., an occupation has been dated to around 5730–5600 cal BCE. At Cova del Sardo, in the Sant Nicolau Valley, at 1,780 m a.s.l., a series of occupations have been excavated, dated to ca. 5600–4500 cal BCE. These sites allow us to discuss patterns of occupation of the mountainous areas between the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Recent data suggest that the last hunter–gatherer occupied all altitudinal stages of the Pyrenees, both in the outer and inner ranges. A change in the settlement pattern seems to have occurred in the Early Neolithic, which consisted of a concentration of occupations in the valley bottom and mid-slopes, in biotopes favourable to both herding and agriculture.

Few studies have combined the analysis of use-wear traces, traceology, and the proteomic taxonomic identification method Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS). Traceology provides information on the usage, in this case, of bone artefacts, while ZooMS allows for taxonomic identifications where diagnostic features are otherwise gone. The approaches therefore offer complementary information on bone artefacts, allowing for insights into species selection strategies in bone tool manufacture and their subsequent use. Here we present a case study of 20 bone artefacts, mainly bone points, from the Early Neolithic cave site of Coro Trasito located on the southern slope of the Central Pyrenees. Hitherto, studies on Early Neolithic bone artefacts from the Iberian Peninsula have suggested based on morphological assessments that Ovis aries/Capra hircus constituted the majority of the bone material selected for bone tool production. However, the taxonomic identification in this study suggests that, at this site, Cervidae was selected equally to that of O. aries/C. hircus. Furthermore, bone artefacts made from Cervidae specimens seem to be utilised in a wider range of artefact types compared to O. aries/C. hircus. Coro Trasito's bone artefact species composition is probably site-specific to some degree, however, morphological assessments of bone artefacts might not be representative and could be biased towards certain species. Therefore, research on bone artefacts' usage could possibly gain new insights by implementing ZooMS in combination with traceology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hunter-gatherers who inhabited the lowlands of eastern South America during the Holocene had to adjust their territorial behavior to climatic and environmental fluctuations. These prehistoric societies implemented a broad economic strategy that focused on the natural resources of floodplain environments and exploited them using hunting technology characterized by the specialized manufacture of projectile points in knapping stone. As a product of a long historical process, this cultural tradition was responsible for technical innovations and an important variability in the shapes and dimensions of the projectile points. These changes seem to have been stimulated by multicausal processes, among which the following should be considered: the decrease in size of the Holocene fauna, the hunting conditions in flooded environments, the availability of lithic raw materials and the experimentation of new propulsion techniques. The technical hunting system sought to solve the problems posed by mobility through the recycling of damaged projectiles. This article analyzes a set of 25 projectile points from different chrono-stratigraphic units from the Rincón de los Indios archaeological site in eastern Uruguay. The macro- and microscopic analyses (5× to 72× and 50× to 400×) carried out show apical fractures that confirm they are projectile points used in throwing weapons. Additionally, microscopic studies identified traces and use wear that allow aspects of their use as well as different stages in the life history to be recognized. The spatial distribution of the traces and some residues suggest that these weapons were hafted. It is also clear that they underwent an intense recycling process (trying to restore their symmetry) as they were damaged during their employment. Results suggest that these projectile points were transported for use in a leather container (carcaj). Some specimens are arrowheads used with bow, a great innovation in the lowlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The date of the first settlement of the Americas remains a contentious subject. Previous claims for very early occupation at Pedra Furada in Brazil were not universally accepted (see Meltzer et al. 1994). New work at the rockshelter of Boqueirao da Pedra Furada and at the nearby open-air site of Vale da Pedra Furada have however produced new evidence for human occupation extending back more than 20 000 years. The argument is supported by a series of [sup.14]C and OSL dates, and by technical analysis of the stone tool assemblage. The authors conclude that the currently accepted narrative of human settlement in South America will have to be re-thought. The article is followed by a series of comments, rounded off by a reply from the authors. Keywords: Pedra Furada, Serra de Capivara, settlement of the Americas, taphonomy, lithic technology, cobble tools, quartz tools, dating methods, Introduction Late Pleistocene human occupation in South America has been the focus of incessant debate for more than 20 years. Human presence in South America before 11 000 cal BC [...]

San Quirce is an open‐air archaeological site situated on a fluvial terrace in the Duero basin (Palencia, northern Iberia). This paper presents new and consistent chronologies obtained for the sedimentary sequence using post‐infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR‐IR) dating of K‐feldspars and single‐grain thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT‐OSL) dating of quartz. The new dating results indicate that the sequence is older than ~200 000 years and place San Quirce Level III within marine isotope stages (MIS) 8 and 7, between 274 ± 13 ka and 238 ± 13 ka. The main lithic assemblage at San Quirce comes from Level III. The predominant tool types found in this level are hammerstones, manuports and flakes, with a small proportion of cores and a significant presence of denticulates. Adaptation to local environmental conditions resulted in distinctive cultural habits, which were embedded in the cultural tradition of hominins occupying the site during the final third of the Middle Pleistocene. San Quirce preserves a simple cultural tradition that was employed by local hominins to engage in a diverse array of activities, and highlights the cultural diversity that appears to have been a characteristic feature of the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic transition 300–200 ka. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a considerable amount of information on the Pleistocene human occupation of South Arabia has been gathered by archaeologists over the course of the last decades, little is known about the Upper Palaeolithic period and its local specificities. This is evidently a function of the still poor archaeological record for this period and the difficulties in finding stratified and therefore datable occurrences in general. Here, we present the traceological and technological analysis of the stone tools from one of the few archaeological sites in Oman dating between 33,000 to 30,000 years ago, which has yielded a small but important assemblage of backed tools initially suggested to be projectiles. The bi-pointed backed micro-blades from Mutafah 1 share specific technological and morphological features making it germane to suggest comparable operational sequences for the manufacture of these pieces. Our analysis, which identified specific traces of use related to both hunting and domestic activities, as well as microscopic residues on the backed micro-blades, indicates that the Mutafah 1 tools were part of a toolkit with wide applications reflecting the highly opportunistic nature of the Upper Palaeolithic human occupation of South Arabia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mousterian level of the Doline of Cantalouette 2, with a mean age of 60 000 years, is remarkable for its richness, composition and recurrent structuring of activities in space (Bourguignon et al. 2008). It also delivers a range of lithic tools used in percussion tasks. In addition to a large range of knapping hammers (on quartz pebbles, flakes or flint cores), massive flint flakes have also been used with percussion gestures for working perishable materials such as animal carcasses and plants. We will focus our present article exclusively on this last type of use. The lithic production activities of this Late Mousterian mainly involved an algorithmic knapping system, based on recurrent unidirectional series and obtained according to sub-parallel fracture planes following one or more surfaces. Thick flakes, often with lateral asymmetry, were obtained from one or more circumscribed percussion planes (opposite or perpendicular), which are very rarely prepared. More rarely, a preferential Levallois knapping system, oriented towards export of the products, was also implemented. At some distance from the knapping station the main production was made almost exclusively for immediate use with or without a preparation of the active and handling parts by retouching, (Bourguignon et al. 2008). From this lithic production, it was made a selection of massive flakes easily handled with bare hands. These blanks often came from the first stages of the operating chain (cortical) and were used in percussion tasks. On the basis of a macroscopic selection of the - often unretouched - cutting edges with stigmas of crushing, micro-flaking or scarring, a functional analysis was carried out according to the analytical methodology developed by Semenov (1964). As the tools were very large items, we produced replicas of the working edges on acetate for additional analysis with microscope. Two types of percussion activities were registered, one focused on butchering tasks and the other on woodworking. For the butchering activities, these large, massive flakes were used as cleavers, chopping knives or butchering blades. On the edges of these tools, large scars are documented, resulting from striking the bones during the disarticulation or chopping of animal parts. Hard/semi-hard vegetal and woody plant materials were also worked by percussion gestures, mainly in order to slim them. Some very large lithic tools suggest a two-handed grip. In those cases, only one of the edges is used. On the smaller items, which can be held with one hand, the number of active parts is greater (at least two). These active parts are often denticulate (presenting a number of notches, retouched or not). The use-wear polishes concentrate on these areas. In some cases, these denticulations were prepared previously to use. For other tools, denticulations may also be the consequence of the impact on the material during the percussion tasks. These two registered activities will, therefore, be presented here, detailing and illustrating the stigmas and use-wear polishes relating to each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current archaeological paradigm proposes that the first peopling of the Americas does not exceed the Last Glacial Maximum period. In this context, the acceptance of the anthropogenic character of the earliest stone artefacts generally rests on the presence of projectile points considered no more as typocentric but as typognomonic, since it allows, by itself, to certify the human character of the other associated artefacts. In other words, without this presence, nothing is certain. Archaeological research at Piauí (Brazil) attests to a Pleistocene human presence between 41 and 14 cal kyr BP, without any record of lithic projectile points. Here, we report the discovery and interpretation of an unusual stone artefact in the Vale da Pedra Furada site, in a context dating back to 24 cal kyr BP. The knapping stigmata and macroscopic use-wear traces reveal a conception centred on the configuration of double bevels and the production in the same specimen of at least two successive artefacts with probably different functions. This piece unambiguously presents an anthropic character and reveals a technical novelty during the Pleistocene occupation of South America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the Franco-Brazilian mission, established in 2008 at the request of and in collaboration with Brazilian researchers, was to address the issue of the earliest peopling of South [...]

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