A Review of Splintered Pieces from Two Lithic Assemblages in Mediterranean Europe: Grotta Della Serratura (Marina di Camerota, Italy) and Cueva de Nerja (Málaga, Spain)

ABSTRACT

The interest of this paper lies in the analysis of variability detected within the group of splintered pieces, establishing distinctions within this broad category. A technological and traceological reading has been used for this purpose. These analyses have been applied to two geographically distant, chronologically disparate assemblages, which make up our case study, Grotta della Serratura, (Italy) and Cueva de Nerja (Spain). Addressing these assemblages together has allowed us to compare the different contexts in which they developed. We have found that the presence of these pieces can be correlated with different points in the chaîne opératoire, knapping, retouch or use; they may all be found at the same site or may be the consequence of a single phase. We have taken these sites as the basis for defining the different categories. This work is therefore intended to be used as a reference for researchers studying lithic assemblages containing such pieces.

KEYWORDS:

• Splintered pieces
• Upper Palaeolithic
• Mediterranean area
• lithic technology
• lithic use-wear

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the équipe AnTET, which on several occasions helped during the experimental phase. We would also like to thank Paula Jardón for her comments. M.V.C. was supported by a Post-Doctoral Fellowship “APOST-DOC, Generalitat Valenciana-European Social Fund”. M.B.V. was supported by a Pre-doctoral Fellowship of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Bladelets: L ≥ 2l; l < 12 mm.

Additional information

Funding

This work has benefited from the research programs of the Direcció General de Universitat, Investigació i Ciència of the Generalitat Valenciana (Project: Aico/2018/125, Aico 2020/97).

Notes on contributors

Margarita Vadillo Conesa

Margarita Vadillo Conesa has completed his doctoral thesis in 2018 at the University of Valencia under the supervision of Professor J. Emili Aura Tortosa. She focused her work on the analysis of the lithic production systems of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition levels of Coves de Santa Maira. This site is located in the mid-central zone of the Iberian peninsula. She has collaborated with European teams such as the CNRS in Nice, the University of Florence and the University of Cologne, with the objective to establish comparisons with other sets of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in different contexts of the western Mediterranean. Currently is a postdoctoral researcher of the APOSTDOC-Generalitat Valenciana-European Social Fund program. This Postdoctoral Project is being developed between the University of Valencia and the CNRS of Nice. At this stage, his line of research focuses on the functional analysis of lithic industries, especially focusing on the group of armatures, the typological group most represented in these sets.

Giulia Ricci

Giulia Ricci obtained in 2018 a PhD in co-tutelage between the University of Florence and the University of Paris X (équipe AnTET). For the thesis she studying the question of traditions and technical innovations among hunter-gatherers from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene of two sites in the South of Italy (Grotta della Serratura and Grotta del Cavallo). Her research focuses on the study and interpretation of lithic technical systems in their different dimensions (knowledge, territories, structures). She is particularly interested in the processes of cultural transformation from the Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic in Southern Italy and in Provence. Following a post-doc funding in 2019, she started studying the role of the Last Glacial Maximum in the evolution of human societies by focusing on the technical traditions of the Robberg industry of South Africa. Her analysis is based on the Heuningneskrans site (Limpopo province). She is currently working at the Lampea - Aix en Provence - studying on these topics. The project, funded by the Fondation des Treilles, focuses on the technocomplex of the Robberg, which is characterized by an almost exclusive production of bladelets and microbladelets and an intensive use of the bipolar technique.

Mariel Bencomo Viala

Mariel Bencomo Viala is a Phd student with a grant of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports. Her work focuses on the use wear-analysis in the Middle Palaeolithic. Her Bachelor's Degree Dissertation focused on a bibliographical analysis on the importance of the traceological contributions to the context of the Middle Palaeolithic in Europe. After, she obtains the Master's Degree in “Professional Archeology and Heritage Management” from the University of Alicante with a work focused on a case study on lithic tools from the El Abric del Pastor deposit. Actually, her PhD is focused on the use-wear analysis of the S.U. Xa from the El Salt field (Alcoi, Alicante) under the direction of J. Emili Aura Tortosa, Paula Jardón Giner and Bertila Galván Santos.

J. Emili Aura Tortosa

J.Emili Aura Tortosa Graduated from the University of Salamanca (1983). Phd. In History from the University of Valencia (1988). His work has focused on the analysis of the relationships between the ecological, technoeconomic and social processes of the hunter-gatherer-fisher societies of the Iberian Mediterranean region. (ca. 37 - 7 ka Cal BP). The lines of work developed are the organization of archaeological sequences from the Upper Paleolithic, Epipaleolithic and Mesolithic, with special attention to the description of the Badegoulian, Magdalenian, Mesolithic, lithic and bone industries and their radiocarbon chronology. Likewise, he has analyzed the economy of hunters in the Mediterranean area, with attention on small prey, plants, marine and paleodiet resources, as well as its relationship with the mobility of human groups. Its evolution has been related to paleoenvironmental and paleogeographic changes. To the previous topics, the study of funeral and decoration practices among the last prehistoric hunters has recently been incorporated, paying attention to the diversity of practices, their evolutionary changes and their contextualization. He is a member of international committees (UISPP) and member of the Editing Committee of scientific journals. Outside of the academic field, he has been technical director of the Museu Arqueològic Municipal d'Alcoi.

Fabio Martini

Fabio Martini was professor of Palethnology and Prehistoric Ecology at the University of Florence; he is honorary professor at the same University. At the University of FlorenceDelegate for the reception of persons with disabilities of the SUeF SchoolFounder and Director of the magazine “Florentia. Studi di archeologia” Coordinator of the Archaeology Section of the University of Florence President of the Degree Course in Archaeology Member of the SAGAS Department (Dipartimento di Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Arte, Spettacolo dell'Università degli Studi di Firenze) moreover President and Director of the ”Museo e Istituto Fiorentino di Preistoria“ Member of the ”Accademia di Scienze e Lettere - La Colombaria” Director of the “Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche” (from 2000 to 2006) President of the Italian Institute of Dendrochronology The main interests concern the archaeology of the origins in its historical-cultural aspects, from productions to symbolic manifestations. Specialist of the Italian Palaeolithic, he is the author of monographs and studies that mainly concern the most ancient human population of central-southern Italy and the islands, prehistoric art and the funerary rite. He conducts excavations in central-southern Italy and coordinates research and studies on Italian and East African prehistory.