Techno-Functional Implication on the Production of Discoid and Levallois Backed Implements

ABSTRACT

The technological dichotomy between Discoid and Levallois methods, which accompanies the Mousterian assemblages for most of the Middle Paleolithic, is a debated topic because of the implications for Neanderthals’ behavioral complexity. We here propose and discuss the possible reasons supporting the Levallois-Discoid shift, considering part of the late Mousterian sequence of Grotta di Fumane. Among these, we include the strategies of resource exploitation and territorial mobility, and the productivity and effectiveness rates between the two methods. Though both highlighting differences, these cannot justify a sharp change in production strategies. Looking specifically at the technological objectives, we compared a category of common products: the backed artefacts. This category includes similar tools, but morpho-functional differences suggest different degrees of efficiency. The comparison helped to better define the Discoid and Levallois technologies in their functional and potential objectives, whose variations may have influenced the alternating pattern in the technological choices here recorded.

KEYWORDS:

• Mousterian
• lithic technology
• 3D technology
• Neanderthals
• Middle Paleolithic
• backed tools

Acknowledgments

Fieldwork and research at Fumane is coordinated by University of Ferrara (M.P.) in the framework of a project supported by the Ministry of Culture – Veneto Archaeological Superintendence, public institutions (Lessinia Mountain Community - Regional Natural Park, Fumane Municipality, Veneto Region - Department for Cultural Heritage) and by private associations and companies. The doctoral studies of Davide Delpiano were supported by a scholarship funded by the University of Ferrara. The authors are very grateful to Annie Melton for the revision of the English text. Author Contributions: D.D. and M.P. conceived the research; D.D., M.P., J.G. analyzed data; D.D., M.P. and J.G. wrote and edited the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Davide Delpiano

Davide Delpiano is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Ferrara, where he achieved his PhD in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Marco Peresani. His doctoral project focused on the analysis of late Middle Paleolithic European lithic assemblages (G-Complex of Sesselfelsgrotte, Units A9-A10-A11 of Grotta di Fumane, layer 7 of La Rochette) under the perspective of backed tools, in order to investigate late Neanderthals innovative techniques and behavioral complexity. He makes use of digital techniques for documentation and analysis of sites and artefacts, competences that allowed to investigate new perspectives in the comprehension of sites formation dynamics and knapping technologies.

Jacopo Gennai

Jacopo Gennai has an MA degree in Quaternary, prehistory, and archaeology from the University of Ferrara, where he used lithic technology to analyze the elongated Levallois component of units A10-A11. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Cologne under the supervision of Prof. Jürgen Richter. He is part of the Collaborative Research Centre 806 – Our Way to Europe, in which he is in charge to investigate the supposed Eastern dispersal trajectory of Anatomically Modern Humans by analyzing Early Upper Paleolithic assemblages from Al-Ansab 1 (Jordan), Românești-Dumbrăvița I (Romania), and units A2-A1 of Grotta di Fumane.

Marco Peresani

Marco Peresani (PhD 1993, University of Bologna) is an associate professor in anthropology at the University of Ferrara and coordinates projects on the human population in the Alps and central Italy during the Paleolithic and the Mesolithic. His main focuses are the Middle Paleolithic–Upper Paleolithic transition and Late Glacial to Early Holocene hunter–gatherer settlement dynamics. Using lithic technology as his primary research tool, he infers cases of behavioral variability. He has coauthored over 250 articles and books on lithic technologies from these different periods.