Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5113844 | Quaternary International | 2016 | 16 Pages |
Abstract
The Acheulean site of la Noira was fossilized beneath the Fougères fluviatile formation dated by the ESR method at 655 ± 55 ka. Coarse deposits were left at the base after the end of the Cher incision and served as raw material deposits for hominins. The occupation level has yielded bifaces, cores and a flake assemblage in lacustrine millstone. The systematic recording of about 6 500 lithic objects brought to light the reasons underlying the presence of the diverse materials, and elucidated hominin choice of lacustrine millstone for knapping flakes and shaping bifacial pieces. The systematic study of all the materials enabled us to advance hypotheses concerning some of the behaviour identified at the site: sorting of raw materials affected by frost, cursory peripheral knapping of slabs of up to a metre long with hammers weighing several kilogrammes, breaking up of large slabs over 10 cm long and displacement of the fragments. This analysis assesses hominin behaviour and the management and exploitation of raw material deposits at 700 ka.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Geology
Authors
Jackie Despriee, Gilles Courcimault, Marie-Hélène Moncel, Pierre Voinchet, Hélène Tissoux, Simon Puaud, Xavier Gallet, Jean-Jacques Bahain, Davinia Moreno, Christophe Falgueres,