Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
From flint to quartz: Organization of lithic technology in relation to raw material availability during the pioneer process of Scandinavia
Stoneslab.
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Archaeology.
Statens historiska museum.
Statens historiska museum.
2016 (English)In: Quaternary International, ISSN 1040-6182, E-ISSN 1873-4553, Vol. 424, p. 32-57Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Formal technologies and intensified reduction are often seen as responces to increased mobility and low abundance of lithic raw material of good flakeability and controllability. In this paper we discuss an alternative explanation to this hypothesis using the change in tool raw material experienced by flint using pioneers as they had to go from a formal blade technology to a simple flake technology as they settled in Scandinavia. The region is dominated by quartz and we used use-wear data as a means to evaluate the role of this type of raw material compared to the use profile of flint assemblages in the home territories of the pioneers. Although the technology changed through simplification and loss of formal production rules due to the low workability of quartz, we conclude that changes in the foraging range into areas of bad quality tool raw materials, does not need formalization of the technology. The quartz in our sample was used for a wide variety of activities in every aspect comparable to the range of uses identified in the contemporaneous blade assemblages based on flint. Instead of formalization of the lithic technology to cope with bad quality raw materials, it was diversified and simplified but without interfering with the organisational dimensions and design criteria of the bone technology.

 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2016. Vol. 424, p. 32-57
Keywords [en]
Pioneer settlement, Scandinavia, lithic technology, use-wear, quartz, diversification, technological organization
National Category
Archaeology
Research subject
Archaeology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-263561DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2015.10.062ISI: 000390534400005OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-263561DiVA, id: diva2:858645
Available from: 2015-10-02 Created: 2015-10-02 Last updated: 2019-01-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Knutsson, Kjel

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Knutsson, Kjel
By organisation
Archaeology
In the same journal
Quaternary International
Archaeology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 541 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf