Çatalhöyük is a well-known site located in Central Anatolia that was occupied for 2,000 years; the Neolithic East Mound dates from 7400 BCE to 6000 BCE and the Chalcolithic West Mound covers the first half of the 6th millennium BCE. The Pottery Neolithic village extends over many hectares suggesting a dense population in ancient times. The Neolithic village is especially known for the evidences of rituals and symbolism expressed by burials, wall paintings and mural art. Çatalhöyük is a key site for understanding the social and economic change that characterized the first farming communities of the Near East. A huge team of specialists, directed by J.Hodder, is working from many years to analyze the stratigraphy, the ecofacts and artifacts that form the site.
From 2013 the LTFPA is part of the Çatalhöyük research team with a research project aimed at understanding the social and economic role of chipped stone tools found in the Neolithic village using a use-wear approach. In particular, the project is focused on the study of the activities carried out inside and outside the buildings as a means for clarifying the role of different type of spaces in the social life of the village with a chronological perspective.
use-wear chipped stone tools
The chipped stone tools coming from the internal and external areas pertaining to various buildings from the North and South Areas of East Mound were studied or are under study. Generally, these lithic tools were used for a great variety of activities related to the processing of plants, animal, and mineral materials. Crafts activities related to the production of small stone objects, as beads or similar, are often present both inside and outside the buildings. The study of “special buildings” characterized by elaborated installations, as building 77, showed a lack of activities carried out in its spaces with lithic tools that confirms a different use than the domestic one ascribed toother buildings.
Lemorini C, D’Errico D., De Angelis A. Highlighting specialization in prehistoric societies with a use-wear approach Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia (neolithic phases) and Arslantepe, East Anatolia (EbA phase) in comparison In R.Peake, S.Bauvais, C.Hamon, C.Mordant (eds.) Specialised productions and specialists, Proceedings of the session n° XXXIV-2 of the XVIII° UISPP World Congress, Société préhistorique française, 2020 (Séances de la Société préhistorique française, XXXIV-2), ISSN : 2263-3847 – ISBN : 2-913745-83-0DECEMBER 27, 2020
Torre della Chiesaccia, Casetta Mistici (Copper Age, Latium Italy)
References
Lemorini C. Caricola I., Nunziante Cesaro S. 2020 4.4. – Le punte foliate dai contesti funerari di Torre della Chiesaccia (Roma): analisi delle tracce d’uso e dei residui d’uso In G.Carboni, A. Anzidei (eds. ) Roma prima del mito. Abitati e necropoli dal Neolitico alla prima metà dei metalli nel territorio di Roma (VI-III millennio a.C.), pp. 437-444. Archeopress, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-78969-308-9
Caricola I, Lemorini C. 2020 4.6 – I pugnali litici da Torre della Chiesaccia e Casetta Mistici (Roma): analisi preliminare delle tracce d’uso In G.Carboni, A. Anzidei (eds. ) Roma prima del mito. Abitati e necropoli dal Neolitico alla prima metà dei metalli nel territorio di Roma (VI-III millennio a.C.), pp. 449-453. Archeopress, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-78969-308-9
Celant A. Lemorini C., Nunziante Cesaro S. 2020 4.5 – Analisi delle tracce d’uso e dei residui organici di una punta foliata dal corredo della tomba 8 di Casetta Mistici In G.Carboni, A. Anzidei (eds. ) Roma prima del mito. Abitati e necropoli dal Neolitico alla prima metà dei metalli nel territorio di Roma (VI-III millennio a.C.), pp. 445-448. Archeopress, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-78969-308-9
Metal Age metal industries recently studied at LTFAPA
References
Petitti P., Rossi F., Lemorini C., Pellegrini A. 2020 Le punte di lancia del lago di Mezzano (Valentano, VT): uno sguardo d’insieme Atti del XIV PPE 7-8-9 settembre 2018 Valentano, Pitigliano, Marciano.
https://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.png00Cristina Lemorinihttps://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.pngCristina Lemorini2021-02-09 18:15:082021-06-18 05:56:50Other Metal Age lithic industries recently studied at LTFAPA
Site excavation director: prof. F.Balossi-Restelli, Sapienza University of Rome
Chipped stone tools and macro-lithic tools use-wear and residues analyses
Moreover, LTFAPA is dealing also with the technological and functional study with traces analysis of the macro-lithic tools of the Arslantepe sequence, from Late Chalcolithic to Hittites Age. A PhD project (A.De Angelis PhD candidate Sapienza) is now focused on the macro-lithic tools of the village EBA VIB2 and their role in this community in both the domestic and the public spheres.
Another line of research was opened with three dissertations, respectively BA and MA dissertations on the production techniques of the stone beads from the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age levels of Arslantepe and a MA dissertation regarding the interpretation of the weaving techniques at Late Chalcolitic 5 VIA using an integrated approach of experimental archeology and traces analysis applied to the seals impressions on clay, “cretulae”, found in the storage areas of the administrative building. The weaving techniques were also investigated through the analysis of the spindle-whorls made of pottery and of bone found in various phases of the sequence of Arslantepe.
use-wear on macro-lithic tools
References
Laurito R., Lemorini C., Perilli A. (2014), Cap. 10, Making Textiles at Arslantepe, Turkey, in the 4th and 3rd Millennia BC. Archaeological Data and Experimental Archaeology. In: C.Breniquet, C.Michel (eds.), Wool economy in the ancient Near East and the Aegean. From the beginnings of sheep husbandry to institutional textile industry, Ancient Textile Series, vol. 17, Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 151-168.
Piccione, P.; Alvaro, C.; Bartosiewicz, L.; Lemorini, C.; Masi, A.; Sadori, L. 2015. Distribution of artifacts and ecofacts in an Early Bronze Age house in Eastern Anatolia: Space use and household economy at Arslantepe VI B2 (2900–2750 BCE). In Journal of Archeological Sciences Reports vol 4, pp. 8-22. http//doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.035.
Balossi Restelli, F., Conati Barbaro C., Lemorini C., Mori, L., D’Errico D. 2017 Bread in Prehistory. Looking for the path of an extraordinary invention. In Manetti C. , Rufo F. (a cura di) Berad. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Collana Sudi e Ricerche 57, Università di Roma Sapienza.
Lemorini C, D’Errico D., De Angelis A. Highlighting specialization in prehistoric societies with a use-wear approach Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia (neolithic phases) and Arslantepe, East Anatolia (EbA phase) in comparison In R.Peake, S.Bauvais, C.Hamon, C.Mordant (eds.) Specialised productions and specialists, Proceedings of the session n° XXXIV-2 of the XVIII° UISPP World Congress, Société préhistorique française, 2020 (Séances de la Société préhistorique française, XXXIV-2), ISSN : 2263-3847 – ISBN : 2-913745-83-0
La Polledrara di Cecanibbio (Lower Paleolitich site, Italy)
Chipped stone tools use-wear analysis
References
Santucci E., Marano F., Cerilli E., Fiore I., Lemorini C., Palombo M.R., Anzidei A.P., Bulgarelli G.M., (2016), Palaeoloxodon exploitation in the late Middle Pleistocene site of Polledrara di Cecanibbio (Rome, Italy), Quaternary International 406, pp. 169-182, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.042.
Lemorini, C.; Santucci, E.; Caricola, I.; Nucara, A.; Nunziante-Cesaro, S.. (2022) Life Around the Elephant in Space and Time: an Integrated Approach to Study the Human-Elephant Interactions at the Late Lower Paleolithic Site of La Polledrara di Cecanibbio (Rome, Italy), JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD AND THEORY. – ISSN 1072-5369. – (2022). [10.1007/s10816-022-09584-4]
Valle Giumentina (Lower and Middel Paleolitich site, Italy)
Chipped stone tools use-wear analysis
References
E. Nicoud, D. Aureli, M. Pagli, S. Agostini, G. Boschian, C. Chaussé, U. Colalelli, J.-P.Degeai, F. Fusco, M. Hernandez, C. Kuzucuoglu, C. Lahaye, C. Lemorini, P. Mazza, N. Mercier, V. Robert, M.-A. Rossi, V. Villa, C. Virmoux, A. Zupancich, 2014 Valle Giumentina (Abruzzes, Italie). Deuxième mission : étude des comportements techno-économiques au Pléistocène moyen,dansChronique des activités archéologiques de l’École française de Rome, 2014, [En ligne] URL : http://cefr.revues.org/1081
Nicoud E., Aureli D., Pagli M., Villa V., Chaussé C., Agostini S., Bahain J.-J., Boschian G., Degeai J.-Ph., Fusco F., Giaccio B., Hernandez M., Kuzucuoglu C., Lahaye, C. Lemorini C., Limondin-Lozouet N., Mazza P., Mercier N., Nomade S., Pereira A., Robert V., et al. (2015), Preliminary data from Valle Giumentina Pleistocene site (Abruzzo, Central Italy): A new approach to a Clactonian and Acheulian sequence, Quaternary International 406, pp. 182-194 doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.08.080
La Ficoncella (Lower Paleolitich site, Italy)
Chipped stone tools use-wear analysis
References
Aureli A., Contardi A., Giaccio B., Jicha B., Lemorini C., Madonna S., Magri D., Marano F., Milli S., Modesti V.,Palombo M.R,Rocca R. 2015 Palaeoloxodon and Human Interaction: Depositional Setting, Chronology and Archaeology at the Middle Pleistocene Ficoncella Site (Tarquinia, Italy). PLOSone, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124498
Aureli D., Rocca R., Lemorini C., Modesti V., Scaramucci S., Milli S., Giaccio B., Marano F., M.R. Palombo, Contardi A., (2016), Mode 1 or mode 2? “Small tools” in the technical variability of the European Lower Palaeolithic: The site of Ficoncella (Tarquinia, Lazio, central Italy), Quaternary International 393, pp. 169-184, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.07.055.
Fontana Ranuccio (Lower Paleolithic site, Italy)
Chipped stone tools use-wear analysis
References
Marinelli F., Lemorini C., Zampetti D. 2019 La funzione degli “small tools” nell’ambito delle industrie litiche scheggiate Acheuleane della penisola italiana: il caso studio del sito laziale di Fontana Ranuccio (FR), Ipotesi di Preistoria 11, pp. 57-72. https://doi.org/10.6092/ISSN.1974-7985/9896
https://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.png00Cristina Lemorinihttps://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.pngCristina Lemorini2021-02-09 17:53:472023-02-26 16:53:35Other Paleolithic lithic industries recently studied or under study at LTFAPA
Site excavation director: A.Gopher, R.Barkai, Department of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University TAU
LTFAPA project Chipped stone tools use-wear and residues analysis funded by MAECI and by International Agreement Project of Speinza University
Qesem Cave and the open sites of Revadim and Jajiulia are located near Tel Aviv. Revadim and Jajiulia are two Late Acheulean sites reach in flint industry characterized by bifaces and by flakes, small flakes, tools, and small tools. At Revadim, the taphonomic processes allowed to preserve numerous remains of fauna that comprise mammals of different sizes and megafuana. Both sites are really promising for the analysis of use-wear and residues. As far as Revadim concerns, various publication documented the use of the lithic industry to carry out different types of activities among which butchering seems to prevail.
The intriguing question under study is if the items of small size, that are abundant at Revadim, may have been involved in the processing of megafauna. To explore the relationship small tools-megafauna a PhD project by TAU with the collaboration with LTFAPA Sapienza (PhD candidate F.Marinelli) is in progress and is starting to produce interesting results now under in publication. Qesem Cave is an extraordinary well-preserved site, consisting of sediments some 10m deep, all assigned to the Acheulo Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC). The flint industry is blade-dominated in the Amudian sequence while scraper-dominated in the Yabrudian sequence. Many burnt bones and flint items were found at Qesem Cave. In addition, ash was found in the cave’s sediments. It appears that the use of fire was common throughout the sequence, including a repeatedly used, superimposed central hearth dated to ca. 300 ka.
use-wear on blades
The faunal assemblage includes Dama mesopotamica (dominates the assemblage), Bos, Equus, Sus, Testudo, Cervus. The absence of all body parts indicates that carcasses were first processed outside of the site and only selected parts were brought to the cave. Furthermore, cut marks were abundant indicating butchering on-site. Use-wear and residues analyses reviled that at Qesem Cave hominins used blades, Quina and demi-Quina scrapers and small items from recycling to process animal and plant materials. There is no doubt that these categories of tools were used as specialized tools-kit during butchering. In particular, Quina scrapers were used as specialized toolkit to process fresh, semi-dry and dried hide. New extraordinary data, published in 2019 and 2020, documented: 1 – the use of recycled old spheroids macro-lithic tools for the breakage of bones, probably to exploit their marrow, 2 – a complex behaviour of manipulation of animal and plant (tubers) food consisting in roasting with hot wooden ash and/or also preserving food and non-food matters using cold ash.
Use-wear on scrapers
Use-wear on tools from recycling
References
C.Lemorini, M.C.Stiner, A.Gopher, R.Shmelmitz, R.Barkai (2006), Use-wear analysis of an Amudian laminar assemblage from the Acheuleo-Yabrudian of Qesem Cave, Israel, Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 921-934. https://doi..org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.10.019
Shahack-Gross R., Berna F., Karkanas P., Lemorini C., Gopher A., Barkai R. (2014), Evidence for the repeated use of a central hearth at Middle Pleistocene (300 ky ago) Qesem Cave, Israel, Journal of Archaeological Science 44, pp. 12-21, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.11.015
N., Solodenko; A., Zupancich; S., Nunziante Cesaro; O., Marder; Lemorini, Cristina; R., Barkai 2015. Fat Residue and Use-Wear Found on Acheulian Biface and Scraper Associated with Butchered Elephant Remains at the Site of Revadim, Israel. pp.1-17. PlosOne. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118572
Lemorini C., Venditti F., Assaf E., Parush Y., Barkai R., Gopher A. (2015), The function of recycled lithic items at late Lower Paleolithic QesemCave, Israel: An overview of the use-wear data, Quaternary International 361, pp. 103-112, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.07.032
Barkai R., Lemorini C., Vaquero M. (2015), The origins of recycling: a Paleolithic perspective, Quaternary International 361, pp. 1-3, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.044
Lemorini C., Bourguignon L., Zupancich1 A., Gopher A., Barkai R. (2016), A scraper’s life history: Morpho-techno-functional and use-wear analysis of Quina and demi-Quina scrapers from Qesem Cave, Israel, Quaternary International 398, pp. 86-93, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.05.013
Zupancich A., Lemorini C., Gopher A., Barkai R. (2016), On Quina and demi-Quina scraper handling: Preliminary results from the late Lower Paleolithic site of Qesem Cave, Israel, Quaternary International 398, pp. 94-102, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.101
Zupancich A., Nunziante-Cesaro S., Blasco R., Rosell J., Cristiani E., Venditti F., Lemorini C., Barkai R. Gopher A. 2016 Early evidence of stone tool use in bone working activities at Qesem Cave, Israel, Scientific Reports 6. http//doi:10.1038/srep37686.
Venditti F., Cristiani E., Nunziante-Cesaro3 S. Agam A., Lemorini C., Barkai R. 2019 Animal residues found on tiny Lower paleolithic tools reveal their use in butchery, Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49650-8
Assaf E, Caricola I, Gopher A, Rosell J, Blasco R, Bar O, Zilberman, E., Lemorini, C., et al. (2020) Shaped stone balls were used for bone marrow extraction at Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0230972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230972
Lemorini C., Cristiani E., Nunziante Cesaro S., Venditti F., Zupancich A., Gopher A. The use of ash at Late Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel—An integrated study of use-wear and residue analysis, PlosOne (2020). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237502
Mathias, C.; Lemorini, C.; Marinelli, F.; Sanchez-Dehesa Galan, S.; Shemer, M.; Barkai, R.. (2023 Bulb retouchers half a million years ago: New evidence from late Acheulean Jaljulia, Israel, JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE: REPORTS. – ISSN 2352-409X. – 47:(2023), p. 103821. [10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103821]
https://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Qesem-Cave-site-view.jpg179270Cristina Lemorinihttps://www.ltfapa.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/logo2_trasp_H140.pngCristina Lemorini2021-02-09 17:38:182023-02-26 16:55:00Late Lower paleolithic in Israel
Site excavation director: M.H. Moncel, UMR 7194 HNHP (MNHN-CNRS-UPVD), Département Homme et Environnement, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
LTFAPA project: use-wear and residues analyses of chipped stone tools
The site of Notarchico is the most ancient Acheulean site of Italy, one of the most ancient in Europe, dating around 700 Kya. The site consists of an imponent 7 m-thick sequence of fluvial sediments including various archaeological levels excavated during the ‘80s-’90s of the last century. Recently, new excavations were promoted by M.H. Moncel and her team. LTFAPA lab. is part of this team and has in charge the use-wear analysis of the lithic industry in collaboration with B. Hardy (Kenyon College, USA) who carries out the residues analysis. The recent paper published in Scientific Reports of Nature, documents the preservation of use-wear and residues on small flakes and small tools that were used for different activities, apparently without some prevailing activity. It is worth mentioning that plant and, especially, wood working are well represented, testifying activities not only related to food processing.
References
Moncel M.H, , Santagata, C., Pereira, A., Nomade, S., Voinchet, P., Bahain,J.-J., Daujeard, C., Curci, A., Lemorini, C. et al. “The origin of early Acheulean expansion in Europe 700 ka ago: new findings at Notarchirico (Italy). Scientific Reports 10, 13802 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68617-8
LTFAPA project: use-wear and residues analyses of chipped stone tools and macro-lithic tools of the Oldowan sites of Kanjera South, Nyayanga, Sari River.
The Homa Peninsula is a region located insouthwestern Kenya, reach in anthropic evidences of Early Stone Age. Three Oldowan sites, ranging from 2.600 – 2 Mya, are currently under study: the fully excavated site of Kanjera South and the two sites of Nyayanga and Sari River. The intensive survey and excavation of the archeological occurrences of the Homa Peninsula for more than two decades and the related analyses, allowed to obtain a detailed picture of the local paleoenvironment at that time, of the fauna exploitation, of the lithic raw material exploitation and the knapping techniques that hominins carried out to make lithic tools. Lithic raw material consists of a great variety of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic and metasomatised), the 28% of which are non-local and collected in stream and river conglomerates no closer than 10-13 km from Kanjera South and Nyayanga. The core production modes change in relation to the exploited raw material. At Nyayanga, besides the chipped stone tools, macro-lithic tools, made of the same imported raw material, are present.
The great state of preservation of the lithic industry, extremely rare in so ancient contexts and probably caused by the fast deposition of the artifacts, allowed to set up a research project of use-wear analysis and residue analyses in collaboration with the National Museum of Nairobi.
Amazing data resulted from the use-wear analysis were already published in 2014 and 2019. Quartz, quartzite, rhyolite and fenetized chipped stone tools from Kanjera South were used not only for butchering but also for cutting and processing a variety of plants as wood, herbaceous plants and tubers. These data shed new light on the behavior of so ancient hominins suggesting that they were strongly familiar with plants exploitation.
The research project is going on with the analysis of the chipped stone tools and the macro-lithic tools of Nyayanga that are revealing extraordinary results now under publication.
References
Lemorini C., Plummer T.W., Braun D.R., Crittenden A.N., Ditchfield P.W., Bishop L.C., Hertel F., Oliver J.S., Marlowe F.W., Schoeninger M.J., Richard Potts R. (2014), Old stones’ song: Use-wear experiments and analysis of the Oldowan quartz and quartzite assemblage from Kanjera South (Kenya), Journal of Human Evolution, pp. 10-25. https://doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.03.002
Lemorini C., Bishop L. C., Plummer T. W., Braun D. R., Ditchfield P W., Oliver J. S. 2019 Old stones’ song—second verse: use-wear analysis of rhyolite and fenetized andesite artifacts from the Oldowan lithic industry of Kanjera South, Kenya, Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, volume 11, 9, pp 4729–4754. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00800-z
Thomas W. Plummer, James S. Oliver, Emma M. Finestone, Peter W. Ditchfield, Laura C. Bishop, Scott A. Blumenthal, Cristina Lemorini, Isabella Caricola ….and and Richard Potts (2023) Expanded geographic distribution and dietary strategies of the earliest Oldowan hominins and Paranthropus, Science}, 379}, 663, 561-566}. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abo7452.
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