Levallois technique

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Core stone and cut made of Silex, Haute-Saone

The Levallois technique ( Levallois technique or Schildkern technique ) was the typical knock-off technique of the Neanderthals when working with flint in Europe . In northern Central Europe, the Levallois technique was first documented during the Acheuléen in the run-up to the Saale Ice Age around 200,000 years ago, where it usually occurs as a subset within the Acheuléen find inventories. Since the mid-1960s, prehistorians have defined the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic (= Middle Paleolithic ) with the first appearance of Levallois basic forms, as this is considered to be the "Mode III technique" in a five-stage development model of stone processing techniques, the Acheuléen as "Mode II technology ".

The processing technique was first described by Victor Commont in 1909. Henri Breuil described Levalloisia in 1931 as an independent cultural stage. Finds from Levallois-Perret , a city northwest of Paris, served as the type locality . Today the Levalloisien is no longer used as a chrono step. Instead, the Levallois technique is seen as a machining technique in the European Acheuléen , Moustérien and Châtelperronia . Similar or identical techniques have been documented in Africa and Asia for at least 300,000 years.

Technological characteristics

Levallois core and preferred target tee

This technology is characterized by an elaborate preparation of the core stone before a tee can be won with a single targeted blow (also called "shield core technique"). The reductions achieved in this way are often very large and thin and have sharp edges all around. This cutting technique rationalized the use of stone as a raw material and led to the refinement of the tools made with it. In addition to the Levallois target tees, blades , points and scrapers were also manufactured .

More recently it has been discussed that Levallois types of the early Middle Stone Age in Africa formed the starting point for a separate development: While such tools in sub-Saharan Africa are associated with Homo sapiens , in Europe Neanderthals developed the Levallois concept further independently. It was only a few years ago that Levallois types with early representatives of Homo sapiens were found in North Africa ( Djebel Irhoud ) and in the Levant ( Misliya Cave ) . There have been signs of the association of Levallois tools with Homo sapiens for a long time from the Es Skhul site in Israel , but they came from a comparatively flat stratigraphic sequence and were therefore considered poorly archaeologically documented.

Victoria West Technique

This technique, named after a site in South Africa, has long been regarded as the proto-Levallois technique . The core from which the haircuts were made is broader rather than long. A more recent study shows no genealogical connections to inventories with Levallois technique in Europe and describes them more appropriately as Para-Levallois technique . Therefore there is no reason to locate the genesis of the Levallois technique in South Africa.

Levallois tips

Making a Levallois tip

Some processors are of the opinion that Levallois points are the actual target products of the entire Levallois technique. A guide ridge is created on the dismantling side of the core by counter-rotating or aligned negative negatives, which enables the pointed shape of the Levallois tip.

The use of Levallois points for hunting spears can be proven with a finding from Syria , where such a projectile point was still in the vertebrae of an African donkey . The find was made in Moustérien layers.

At the same time there is evidence of saddle glue on a Levallois point in Syria. The bitumen , which occurs naturally in the Levant and Syria , offered a freely available adhesive that was already in use around 50,000 years ago.

Criticism of the Levallois concept

Since in the past decades the Levallois technique, the technique of the “prepared core”, on the one hand already included the presence of centripetal negative marks, on the other hand only the preformed shield core, until a few decades ago there was great subjectivity in the addressing of Levallois basic forms. In an experiment in 1986, an inventory from Ault (Northern France) was independently examined by three experienced archaeologists for its Levallois content, with only 69% agreement being achieved in the address. So there was a subjective factor in the classification of Levallois basic shapes compared to other teeing techniques.

Find places in Germany

Levallois core with waste

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Bosinski : Tees with faceted striking surface in Middle Paleolithic finds. Find reports from Schwaben NF 17, 1965, pp. 5-10.
  2. ↑ Gerhard Bosinski: The Middle Paleolithic finds in western Central Europe. Fundamenta A 4. Böhlau, Cologne / Graz 1967.
  3. ^ Gerhard Bosinski: The Transition Lower / Middle Paleolithic in Northwestern Germany. In: A. Ronen (Ed.): The transition from lower to middle Paleolithic and the origin of modern man. In: British Archaeological Reports 151 (International Series). 1982, pp. 165-175.
  4. ^ A b Robert Foley, Marta Mirazón Lahr: Mode 3 Technologies and the Evolution of Modern Humans . In: Cambridge Archaeological Journal . 7, No. 01, 2008, ISSN  0959-7743 , p. 3. doi : 10.1017 / S0959774300001451 .
  5. ↑ For details on the development of the terminology, see Section 1.1 History of the term 'Levallois' and the problem with blades , in: Dorota Wojtzak: The Early Middle Palaeolithic Blade Industry from Hummal, Central Syria. Dissertation, Bael 2012, pp. 15–26.
  6. ^ François Bordes: Levalloisien et Moustérien. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France. Volume 50/4, 1953, pp. 226-235.
  7. ↑ Naomi Porat, Michael Chazan, Rainer Grün, Maxime Aubert, Vera Eisenmann, Liora Kolska Horwitz: New radiometric ages for the Fauresmith industry from Kathu Pan, southern Africa: Implications for the Earlier to Middle Stone Age transition . In: Journal of Archaeological Science . 37, No. 2, 2010, ISSN  0305-4403 , pp. 269-283. doi : 10.1016 / j.jas.2009.09.038 .
  8. ↑ Kumar Akhilesh, Shanti Pappu, Haresh M. Rajapara, Yanni Gunnell, Anil D. Shukla, Ashok K. Singhvi: Early Middle Palaeolithic culture in India around 385–172 ka reframes Out of Africa models . In: Nature . 554, No. 7690, 2018, ISSN  0028-0836 , pp. 97-101. doi : 10.1038 / nature25444 .
  9. ↑ AJH Goodwin: South African stone implement industries. In: S. Afr. J. Sci. Volume 23, 1926, pp. 784-788.
  10. ↑ Stephen J. Lycett: Are Victoria West cores “proto-Levallois”? A phylogenetic assessment. In: Journal of Human Evolution , Volume 56, No. 2, February 2009, pp. 175-191. doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2008.10.001 .
  11. ↑ Eric Boëda , JM Geneste, C. Griggo: A Levallois Point embedded in the vertebra of a wild ass (Equus africanus): hafting, projectiles and Mousterian hunting weapons . In: Antiquity. Volume 73, 1999, pp. 394-402.
  12. ↑ Eric Boëda, Jacques Connan, Daniel Dessort, Sultan Muhesen, Norbert Mercier, Hélène Valladas, Nadine Tisnérat: Bitumen as a Hafting Material on Middle Palaeolithic Artefacts. In: Nature. Volume 380, 1996, pp. 336-337.
  13. ↑ cf. Bordes 1980
  14. ↑ Dieter Schäfer : Fundamentals of the technological development and classification of pre-Upper Palaeolithic stone artifacts in Central Europe . Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission 74, 1993.
  15. ↑ Marie Perpere: Apport de la Typometry à la définition of éclats Levallois. In: Búlletin de la Société préhistorique francaise. 83, 1986, pp. 115-118.

literature

  • Eric Boëda: Le concept Levallois: variabilité des méthodes. Monograph du CRA 9. Paris 1994.
  • François Bordes: Le débitage Levallois et ses variantes. In: Bulletin de la Société Pré-historique Francaise. No. 77, 1980, pp. 45-49.
  • Gerhard Bosinski : The Middle Palaeolithic: Stone processing - stone tool forms and groups of forms - processing of wood, bones and antlers - jewelry. In: E.-B. Krause (Ed.): The Neanderthals. Fire in the ice. 250,000 years of European history. Gelsenkirchen 1999, pp. 74-104.
  • Harold L. Dibble , Ofer Bar-Yosef (Ed.): The Definition and Interpretation of Levallois Technology. In: Monographs in World Archeology. No. 23, Prehistory Press, Madison (WI) 1995.
  • Philip Van Peer: The Levallois Reduction Strategy. In: Monographs in World Archeology. No. 13, Madison (WI) 1992.

Web links

Commons : Levalloistechnik  - collection of images, videos and audio files