Harold L. Dibble

Interpretation of Middle Paleolithic Scraper Morphology

In Bordess typology for the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, he defines four major classes of side scrapers: single, double, convergent, and transverse forms. Data from three Middle Paleolithic assemblages, one from Iran and two from France, suggest that these scraper classes may be interpreted as representing stages in reduction of flake blanks through continued reuse and remodification.

Middle paleolithic scraper reduction: Background, clarification, and review of the evidence to date

The hypothesis that the principal varieties of Middle Paleolithic scrapers reflect varying degrees of resharpening and rejuvenation, rather than discrete emic types, has generated considerably controversy over the past decade. While there have been certain misunderstandings surrounding the proposed models of scraper reduction, this controversy also reflects different approaches taken by prehistorians in interpreting lithic artifacts. Placing the notion of scraper reduction in the context of lithic processes generally known as the Frison Effect, this article presents the background and intellectual context of this interpretation and attempts to clarify the models themselves and their test implications. It also reviews and summarizes data generated by several independent tests of the hypothesis and presents new data bearing on this question.

Platform variability and flake morphology: A comparison of experimental and archaeological data and implications for interpreting prehistoric lithic technological strategies

At the heart of research on prehistoric lithic assemblages are two fundamental questions. First, what were the processes by which prehistoric flintknappers produced their implements? And second, why did they produce the forms they did? In the current literature a great deal of attention is paid to the factors that govern the design of various retouched types (e.g., Binford 1980; Torrence 1983, 1989; Bamforth 1986; Bleed 1986; Bousman 1993; Andrefsky 1994; Kuhn 1994), their production (e.g., Sollberger 1977; Flenniken 1978; Bradley and Sampson 1986; Whittaker 1994; Shott 1996), and their mainte nance (e.g., Gallagher 1977; Hayden 1977, 1979; Dibble 1984, 1987, 1995b; Barton 1988, 1990, 1991; Neeley and Barton 1994). Increasingly, however, attention is being paid to the technology of blank production; in fact, many believe that this is the most potentially informative avenue of research (e.g., Tixier et al. 1980; Inizan 1992; Sellet 1993).

Reduction Sequences in the Manufacture of Mousterian Implements of France

The Mousterian of France, which represents the Middle Paleolithic in that region, has had a long history of research. Nonetheless, it is clear that many fundamental issues relating to our understanding of this period are still to be resolved. Most of these have to do with problems that are common to all aspects of Pleistocene prehistory: chronology and intersite correlation, the interpretation of assemblage variability, and the relationship between biological and behavioral-cultural development. Recent attempts to integrate marine sedimentological sequences reflecting global climatic change with the more localized terrestrial records (Laville et al. 1983; Texier et al. 1983; Turon 1984; Wolliard 1978; Wolliard and Mook 1982) are promising, though at this time still tentative. Different opinions still exist regarding the Mousterian variability question (Bordes 1961b; Binford 1973; Binford and Binford 1966; Mellars 1969; Rolland 1981), though no single explanation has been fully demonstrated. And the diversity of approaches and conclusions apparent in recent publications regarding human biocultural evolution (Orquera 1984; White 1982; see papers in Trinkaus 1983) suggests that future research in this area will continue to be of great importance. Clearly, there is still much to be done before regional syntheses of this material can be raised to a higher level of interpretation and explanation. Toward that end, this chapter focuses on the second of these basic problems, namely the meaning, in terms of prehistoric behavior, of particular typological differences among assemblages.

The age of three Middle Palaeolithic sites: Single-grain optically stimulated luminescence chronologies for Pech de l'Azé I, II and IV in France

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements were made on individual, sand-sized grains of quartz from Middle Palaeolithic deposits at three sites (Pech de lAzé I, II and IV) located close to one another in the Dordogne region of southwest France. We were able to calculate OSL ages for 69 samples collected from these three sites. These ages reveal periods of occupation between about 180 and 50 thousand years ago. Our single-grain OSL chronologies largely support previous age estimates obtained by thermoluminescence dating of burnt flints at Pech IV, electron spin resonance dating of tooth enamel at Pech I, II and IV and radiocarbon dating of bone at Pech I and IV, but provide a more complete picture due to the ubiquitous presence of sand-sized quartz grains used in OSL dating. These complete chronologies for the three sites have allowed us to compare the single-grain ages for similar lithic assemblages among the three sites, to test the correlations among them previously proposed by Bordes in the 1970s, and to construct our own correlative chronological framework for the three sites. This shows that similar lithic assemblages occur at around the same time, and that where a lithic assemblage is unique to one or found at two of the Pech sites, there are no deposits of chronologically equivalent age at the other Pech site(s). We interpret this to mean that, at least for these Pech de lAzé sites, the Mousterian variants show temporal ordering. Whether or not this conclusion applies to the wider region and beyond, the hypothesis that Mousterian industrial variation is temporally ordered cannot be refuted at this time.

The Lithic Assemblages

Prior to excavating Pech IV, we studied Bordes’ collection from his 8 years of excavation at the site.

Stratigraphy, deposits, and site formation

From the outset of the Pech IV project, geoarchaeology played an integral role in the excavations.

Two million years of flaking stone and the evolutionary efficiency of stone tool technology

Temporal variability in flaking stone has been used as one of the currencies for hominin behavioural and biological evolution. This variability is usually traced through changes in artefact forms and techniques of production, resulting overall in unilineal and normative models of hominin adaptation. Here, we focus on the fundamental purpose of flaking stone—the production of a sharp working edge—and model this behaviour over evolutionary time to reassess the evolutionary efficiency of stone tool technology. Using more than 18,000 flakes from 81 assemblages spanning two million years, we show that greater production of sharp edges was followed by increased variability in this behaviour. We propose that a diachronic increase in this variability was related to a higher intensity of interrelations between different behaviours involving the use and management of stone resources that gave fitness advantages in particular environmental contexts. The long-term trends identified in this study inform us that the evolutionary efficiency of stone tool technology was not inherently in advanced tool forms and production techniques, but emerged within the contingencies of hominin interaction with local environments.Stone tools are taken as signatures of hominin behavioural evolution, but we don’t know how exactly they conferred advantages in adaptation. Here a two-million-year dataset of stone flakes reassesses the evolutionary efficiency of this technology.