Final Middle Paleolithic of Mongolia

Are Upper Paleolithic blade cores more productive than Middle Paleolithic discoidal cores? A replication experiment.

It is widely believed that the change from discoidal flake production to prismatic blade-making during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe led to enhanced technological efficiency. Specifically, blade-making is thought to promote higher rates of blank production, more efficient and complete reduction of the parent core, and a large increase in the total length of cutting edge per ...

Recovery of Mammalian DNA from Middle Paleolithic Stone Tools

One of the primary goals of archaeology is to understand past human behaviour. Although stone tools comprise the vast majority of cultural artefacts for most of the archaeological record, their uses in prehistory are poorly understood. The application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify DNA molecules can help establish a physical link to ancient tool use in processing biological m...

Re-evaluation of Scrapers Reduction Model Using Geometric Index of Reduction (Mar-Tarik Middle Paleolithic Assemblages)

Paleolithic lithic assemblages are traditionally described on the bases of presence of a variety of tool types(typology) and of different knapping technologies. In this study we tried to investigate whether the presence ofdifferent groups of scrapers in the Mar-Tarik site assigned to the Middle Paleolithic represent specific function orjust different stages of the reduction process and constant...

The Chaine Operatoire Approach in Middle Paleolithic Archaeology

Time for the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe.

The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition is a key period of change in the prehistory of the Old World and one of the most studied issues in paleoanthropology, as the nature of the transition(s) is still, after at least a century of archaeological research, largely unknown. Many of the issues at stake in the transition relate to the problem of building a reliable chronology for this period, wh...