Neandertal Lithic Industries at La Quina

Contents

Contents Preface xxi Acknowledgments xxiii 1. An Archaeological History and Early Interpretations of La Quina 1 The Early History of the Site 1 The Early Excavations of Dr. Henri-Martin 2 The La Quina Neandertal Skeleton (H5 ) and Its Behavioral Implications 8 Excavations at La Quina from 1912 to 1922: An American Component 14 Dr. Henri-Martin’s Later Contributions: 1923–1936 18 Site Structure and Stratigraphy 18 The Lithic Industries 22 Later Reports and Work at the Station Amont 30 Dr. Henri-Martin’s Final Synthesis 32 Excavations and Studies by Germaine Henri-Martin and Her Colleagues: 1947–1975 33 A Summary of the Work and Findings of the Henri-Martins at the Station Amont 42 2. The Development and Structure of the Cooperative Excavation Project 45 The Formation of the Project: A Personal Perspective 45 The Basic Goals of the Project 46 The Condition of the Site and Preparations for Excavation 46 The Site Map, Horizontal Controls, and Artifact Recording System 49 The Field Database 52 The Revised Stratigraphic Sequence 53 The Lower Deposits 53 The Upper Deposits 56 Other Features in the Overall Geological Sequence 56 The Correlation of the Upper and Lower Profiles 57 The Correlation of the New Section with the Henri-Martins’ Stratigraphy 58 The Project Excavation Schedule: 1985–1994 59 3. The Lithic Sample: Nature and Classification 62 Background 62 General Perspectives and Major Questions 63 Major Domains of the Data 63 The Composition and Field Curation of the Sample 63 The Structure of the Lithic Databases Used in the Analysis 64 The Raw Material Categories and Their Limitations 64 Materials of Local Origin 65 Materials of Presumed Nonlocal Origin 66 The Classification of the Lithic Raw Materials Recovered in the Excavation 67 Implications of Seong-Jin Park’s Study for the Interpretation of Material Sources 67 Metric Attributes 68 Techniques of Measurement 68 Metric Attributes of Racloirs 69 Metric Classification of Small Flakes and Fragments 70 Morphological Classification of Lithic Artifacts in the Analysis 70 Typological Categories 70 Technological Categories 70 Condition Categories 70 Morphological Attributes of Racloirs 71 Morphological Categories of the Small Flakes 71 4. The Chronological and Paleoenvironmental Setting of the Prehistoric Sequence at the Station Amont 73 The Nature and Importance of the Chronological and Paleoenvironmental Evidence 73 The Sedimentological Record and the Interpretation of the Depositional History 73 Implications of Variation in Éboulis Clasts through the Sequence 76 The Faunal Sequence at La Quina 77 Results of the Palynological Analysis from La Quina 78 Tentative Correlations between the La Quina and Combe Grenal Faunal Sequence 79 viii Contents Implications of Chronometric Dating for the La Quina Sequence 81 A Synthesis of the Paleoenvironmental Setting of the Cultural Sequence at the Station Amont 85 5. A Matter of Form: Typological Aspects of the Lithic Industries 93 The Nature of Lithic Industries 93 The Nature of Typologies and the Bordes System of Classification 93 The Components of the Bordes Typology 94 A Traditional Classification of the Industrial Sequence at La Quina 96 Another View of the Traditional Typological Aspects of the Industries 100 Typological Comparisons of the Samples from Squares N5 and M5 with the Other Upper Level Samples 101 Regularities in Typological Variability and the Total Number of Flint Artifacts from Each Context 102 Other Questions Related to the Traditional Typology 104 Broken Implements and Edge-damaged Pieces 105 Flake Typologies Applied to an Analysis of the Industries 107 The Frequencies of Special Flake Types 107 The Small Flake Typology 114 The Core Typology 121 Conclusions 121 6. A Matter of Quality and Quantity: Lithic Reduction Products and Materials at La Quina 123 Some Comments on Lithic Assemblages in Archaeological Contexts 123 Some Comments on the Nature of the Qualitative Variables in the Study 125 Some Comments on the Comparisons of Metric Variability in the Study 125 Aspects of Quantitative Variation 127 The Structure of the Analysis and Pertinent Underlying Questions 127 Frequency and Mass of the Cryptocrystalline Materials 128 An Examination of Cryptocrystalline Material Reduction by Increments of Weight 130 Variation in Cortex by Material 130 Questions of Differences in Patterns of Reduction by Material 137 Variation in Reduction Products of All Cryptocrystalline Materials by Increments of Weight 137 Variation in Frequencies of Reduction Products and Materials 139 Variation of All Cryptocrystalline Material in Artifact Shape and Size 139 Variation in Dimensions of Major Artifact Classes as Categorized in BRKDN 141 Relationships between Linear Dimensions and Mass 143 Variation in Dimensions of BRKDN Categories by Material 144...