AN ENDURING CLASSIFICATION OF THE RAW MATERIALS FROM THE UPPER PALAEOLITHIC AND EPIPALAEOLITHIC SITES IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER BISTRIȚA VALLEY (NORTHEASTERN ROMANIA): OVERVIEW AND REASSESSMENT.

In the late 1950s to mid-1960s publications regarding the Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic sites from the Middle and Lower Bistrița Valley (Northeastern Romania) several raw material categories were acknowledged: Audia black schist and silicified glauconitic sandstone from the Audia Beds (Lower Cretaceous) opened on Hangu Valley; menilite from the Lower Oligocene deposits found between Bicaz and Piatra Neamț (Bisericani area); good quality flint of various colours from the Middle Prut Valley (Prut flint). This raw materials classification endured the changes faced after 1990 by the Romanian Palaeolithic research and remained in use until today. The current contribution tackles the reassessment of this classification by re-examining the thin section collection intended to back the initial raw material categories from Ceahlău Basin. Also, the bulletins of petrographic analysis for the legacy thin section collection and the associated archive documents were reviewed. This reassessment confirmed most of the raw materials recognised in the initial classification, highlighting the existence of at least 14 raw material categories and the absence of the Oligocene menilite. Through the way it has been presented here, the reassessment was directly linked to the Romanian Palaeolithic research history and impacted a well-established archaeological classification of lithic raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]