Prior analyses of Neolithic flaked stone assemblages in Britain have tended to focus on the relative abundance of different implement types as a basis for inferring the structure of settlement and subsistence patterns during this period, with dorsally retouched ‘scrapers’ dominating the retouched components of most assemblages. Here we investigate the relationship between scraper morphology and reduction intensity at the classic Early Neolithic site of Hurst Fen in Suffolk, England. We hypothesize that the morphological variability underpinning the distinction between formal scraper types at Hurst Fen is largely a product of increasing reduction intensity. To test this hypothesis, we apply a range of quantitative measures of reduction intensity to a sample of 175 complete scrapers from the site, including: Kuhn’s (1990) Geometric Index of Unifacial Reduction (GIUR), Hiscock and Attenbrow's (2002; 2005) retouch curvature and retouched zone indices, perimeter of retouch, and retouched edge angle. Correlation statistics and descriptive plots of the relationship between Kuhn’s GIUR and the remaining retouch characteristics reveal universally positive and statistically significant relationships, albeit with the correlation between the GIUR and retouched edge angle markedly weaker than for the other retouch characteristics. Collectively, the results of our analyses support the hypothesis that the extent to which scrapers were reduced throughout their respective use-lives was a critical factor in the creation of morphological and, by extension, typological variability in the Hurst Fen scraper assemblage. At the same time, our data suggest that Early Neolithic knappers at Hurst Fen habitually knapped and resharpened scrapers in such a manner that a relatively low edge angle of around 60˚ was continually reproduced, raising the possibility of preconceived ‘designs’ that were primarily expressed in the morphological features of retouched edges. We propose a model of scraper reduction that accounts for most of the differences in scraper morphology at Hurst Fen and evaluate the analytical utility of Clark’s hugely influential typological scheme in view of this. We also consider the implications of our findings for interpretations of morphological patterning in British Neolithic scraper assemblages more broadly.

Eccentrics are associated with fundamentally important concepts in ancient Maya cosmology and religion. As their name implies, eccentrics are irregularly shaped, non-utilitarian, special function artifacts. Knapped from chert and obsidian, they vary in size, take many forms, and can be expediently made or masterfully crafted. In this study, we focus on eccentrics from Central Belize, specifically those from Ballcourt 2 at Xunantunich, as well as examples from caves the Roaring Creek Valley, including Actun Chapat, Actun Tunichil Mucnal, Actun Uayazba Kab, Actun Yaxteel Ahau, Je’reftheel, and Midnight Terror. To understand the uses of eccentrics in the ancient Maya world, we examine them in terms of their archaeological contexts (e.g., caches, burials, caves), dating, lithic raw material types and sources, production techniques, and meanings. This information is used to reconstruct the role of eccentrics in understanding the animate world of the Maya, as well as the embodiment of ancient Maya mythology and cosmology in these ceremonial items. The symbolism with which these artifacts are imbued is examined in relation to numerology and correspondences between Maya iconography and epigraphy. These analyses demonstrate that eccentrics play a significant role in the enactment of ancient Maya mythology and cosmology and embody critically important concepts for Maya success and survival in a natural world entangled in the supernatural. As such, they also served as inalienable possessions offered as gifts to supernatural forces and entities in times of need or crisis. Eccentrics embody and reflect the ideas of kingship, sacrifice, natural phenomena (specifically rain and lightning), celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and eclipses), maize, zoomorphic denizens of the Maya underworld (including centipedes, serpents, and scorpions), as well as representations of deities, especially K’awiil - the embodiment of lightning. Moreover, the geomorphic designs and numbers of eccentrics, which occur particularly in sets of seven, nine, and thirteen, represent locations and gateways in ancient Maya cosmological understanding of the structural universe. Significantly, the eccentrics of Xunantunich and Central Belizean caves are consistent with the use of this class of artifacts in a pan-Maya belief system.

Burins are flexible tools that have been analysed from different perspectives, showing a wide range of technical diversity. The interpretation of this morphotype has oscillated between two dichotomies: form-function and core-tool. In this paper, we analyse the historiographical trajectory of the burin from a typological, technological, and functional perspective to develop a methodological and analytical framework for the study of this morphotype. Likewise, this work aims to propose technical attributes for the study of burins and burin-cores in order to broaden our knowledge about on-edge core reduction strategies. To this end, we have combined historiographical research on burins and burin-cores together with a general overview of the technical attributes of these artefacts in the units 6P and 7P from Cova Gran de Santa Linya. The analysis of the refits and technical attributes on the lithic assemblage show different degrees of complexity in the configuration and reduction of burin-like artefacts. Simple burins are configured on a fracture, a plane or a previous removal and do not usually record notches or lateral retouch. On the other hand, we recovered more complex artefacts that belong to the technical sphere of cores. Qualitative and quantitative data allowed understanding the technical actions involved in the reduction of the lateral edges of the flakes by 1) identifying core management actions through retouching (shaping); 2) understanding the actions for the opening of the knapping surfaces (burin facets) from the edge, 3) exploring the technical actions involved in the lateral and volumetric reduction of flakes. 4) reconstructing the knapping sequences associated with this knapping method aimed at obtaining homogeneous bladelets through different reduction phases on the edge of flakes. As a result, we aim to visualise the role of on-edge cores in the technical organisation of the Palaeolithic occupations and extend our knowledge of the technical behaviour of Upper Palaeolithic groups. Likewise, through this case study we address some of the constraints in the study of Upper Palaeolithic lithic assemblages and allow us to visualise how interpretative biases in the analysis of artefacts may remove expressions of human behaviour in past societies. By limiting these preconceptions, we could fill in some gaps in the interpretation of the archaeological record.

This paper reports on recent discoveries of prehistoric findspots inside and around the Bandhavgarh National Park and Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh, central India). These discoveries dramatically push the antiquity of a human presence in this region back from their known existence during the historic period into the prehistoric epoch. This also means that it was prehistoric people who were the first forest dwellers of the national park. The lithic scatters are marked by a variety of microlithic forms, with a strong possibility of an older, Upper Palaeolithic presence. The localities are several and are spread over about sixty square kilometres, within the core and buffer zones of the national park, some of them being close to different stretches of the Charanganga river. They suggest a prolonged hominin presence here, in time and space. One of these areas in particular, the Jwalamukhi Ashram site-complex (JMP) with multiple localities that have yielded early remains, holds immense potential for understanding the nature of prehistoric occupation in this region, their possible dates and their palaeoenvironmental contexts. Further, discoveries within the core region of the national park point to a deeper, and possibly different, relationship between prehistoric human populations in the forest, in relation to the known historical archaeological record in this region. Future work at the region will delve into characterising the nature of prehistoric occupation in the region through a study of the lithic assemblages noted and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction on the basis of the study of various environmental proxies.

This article aims to contribute to expanding knowledge about the panoply of lithic tools present in Early Holocene archaeological sites located in the Brazilian Central Plateau. These sites have traditionally been interpreted within the context of the Itaparica tradition, whose artifacts called "slugs" or "plano-convex" were used as cultural markers. Technological research over the last twenty years on lithic materials from sites typologically attributed to the Itaparica tradition has allowed a better definition of what came to be called the Itaparica techno-complex. Due to the spectacular nature of the “plano-convex” objects identified in these ancient contexts, other artifacts are usually overlooked in research. Our proposal was, therefore, to look in more detail at the subtle incisive tools that are associated (or not) with “plano-convex” artifactual structures in the collections of two sites from the southwest region of the Central Plateau: the GO-JA-01 site (Diogo Lemes), dated from 12717 - 12143 cal. (Beta-3699), and the site MT-SL-31 (Morro da Janela), dated from 11994 - 11316 cal (Beta-78053). We could see that they are, very often, structured on other technical production principles and associated with specific operational schemes. We based our research on the Techno-functional Approach. This approach allows us to identify the coherences that are established within a volumetric structure (a specimen) in terms of its structuring subsets -minimally, the transformative edge(s) and the possible prehensive unit(s) - in light of their functional potential. Furthermore, it allows us to think about the technical meaning of artefactual structures by reinserting them into the set of which they are part (a population), providing data on the techno-functional consistency of the collections. In methodological terms, the identification of the operational schemes was carried out based on the diacritical analysis of the negatives present in the artifact, with the production modes being highlighted based on the technical principles of affordance, debitage and shaping. We were able to group the sharp tools from these collections into five techno-functional categories: unifacial shaped tools from normalized blanks (limaces); unifacial shaped tools on regularized blanks; tools shaped on blanks of cobble; tools with restricted modification; regularized and non-regularized blanks. We were also able to identify in the collections the representative occurrence of unexhausted cores with the presence of small negatives, which led us to infer the production of even smaller blanks which, however, were not detected in the collection. Furthermore, we identified the presence of discoid D-type debitage related to some of the tools. These technological details obtained with the investigation of the aforementioned archaeological sites of the Central Plateau, when considered in the light of spatial, chronological and paleoenvironmental information, allow us to consider the scenarios concerning the population dynamics of that period. The tools categories evidenced in this paper, added to the techno-cultural particularities found in other Central Plateau sites and expands the Itaparica toolbox. They bring about a greater understanding of the Techno-cultural diversity of the technical memories of the human groups that occupied the extensive area of the Central Plateau, enabling further investigations into the connections of technical knowledge between regions.

Until recently, the extreme Eastern part of the Northern Pyrenean Piedmont was a "vacuum" on the distribution map of the Solutrean. As a matter of fact, only two sites, the Embullas cave and Espassoles open-air site, reported the Solutrean on the Pyrénées-Orientales territory which covers an area of over 4000 square kilometers.
 There is no explanation to justify this situation, since this zone is flanked by two important Solutrean areas. Indeed, further South, just beyond the Pyrenees there are a number of Solutrean sites in Spanish Catalonia: l’Arbreda and Reclau Viver caves in the Serinya region. For hundred and forty kilometers towards the North East, a set of remarkable Solutrean sites spread over Eastern Languedoc along the right bank of the Rhône: the Oullins, Chabot, Pâques and La Salpétrière caves in the Gard and Ardèche regions. Along the Mediterranean coast, between these two clusters, the Solutrean presence is more discreet, in the form of a discontinuous structure of sites (la Roque cave, the Col de Gigean site and the caves of Bize and La Crouzade).
 The publication in 2014 of the open-air site of the Vigne Bertrand at Vingrau (Pyrénées Orientales, France), close to the Espassoles site, revived the interest for the Corbières zone, a low mountainous area near the Pyrenees.
 The Ruisseau de la Boulière 2, located very close to the first two sites, confirms the Solutrean presence in this micro-zone. The Eastern Corbières appear today as an identifiable landmark of the Solutrean before crossing the Pyrenees. On the other hand, the discovery of a Montaut type bifacial asymmetrical point in the site leads us to suggest the hypothesis of east-western mobility, along the northern and/or southern Pyrenean piedmonts. The existence of such connections has already been reported on the basis of techno-typological convergences between Aragón (Cueva de Chaves) and Hérault (La Salpétrière) lithic industries.

Stone structures called parapetos are a highlighted feature of the archaeological record in central-western Santa Cruz, Patagonia. More than 500 have been registered so far with varied sizes and shapes and clustered in different amounts. They are located in basaltic plateaus, over 700 masl. These hunter-gatherer structures are believed to be mainly related to hunting activities though some sites have revealed a more general function. Radiocarbon dates reveal that they are a typical Late Holocene technology.
 This work discusses the characteristics of lithic materials recovered in these particular sites with a specific spatial and temporal distribution in Patagonia. We evaluate the existence of variability in lithic artefacts related to stone structures recovered in different areas: Pampa del Asador (Cerro Pampa), Guitarra Plateau, Asador Plateau and the Strobel Plateau. Diverse types of hunting blind sites have been included: isolated structures and grouped ones located in different topographic and ecological contexts. Materials were recovered from inner and outer surfaces of structures as well as from stratigraphic contexts. The sample includes tools, debitage and cores; more than 10000 lithic artefacts are included.
 Results show that there are similarities in the characteristics of artefacts discarded in parapetos from different areas. However, variability in the type and characteristics of artefacts in each assemblage could account for a wider array of activities being carried out in parapetos from the northern sector of the region under study. Thus, strategies for occupying highlands during the Late Holocene differed.
 The evidence discussed summarises more than 20 years of on-going investigations in the region. It provides exceptional information based on systematic analysis of a significant sample of lithic artefacts in hunting blinds.

Data about Palaeolithic peopling, settlement dynamics and techno-economy of the south-western margin of the Alpine region are sketchy. In this area, the lack of systematic research and the scarcity of lithic raw materials, spread the idea that Piedmont was not inhabited during Palaeolithic. In 2009, the re-starting of the excavations at the Ciota Ciara cave, gave rise to new questions and to the development of research projects at a regional scale. The Ciota Ciara cave is the only Middle Palaeolithic site object of multidisciplinary and systematic investigations. Its lithic assemblage, analysed through a techno-economic approach, allows to understand in detail the technological choices and the land mobility of the Neanderthal groups on a local and sub-regional scale. Other Middle Palaeolithic assemblages are known in the region and are all issued from surface collections. They come from the northern part of the region, from Vaude Canavesane, Trino, Baragge biellesi and Colline Novaresi. The technological study of these assemblages led to the identification of strong similarities in the technological choices of the Middle Palaeolithic human groups: they based their technology on the exploitation of vein quartz, a rock diffused all over the regional territory, from time to time accompanied by other local (spongolite, rhyolite, metamorphic rocks, jasper) and allochthonous (radiolarite and flint) lithic resources, with technological adaptation to their quality and mechanical properties both when it comes to predetermined methods (Levallois and discoid) and when expedient reduction sequences are used. Concerning Upper Palaeolithic, the only lithic assemblage issued from an archaeological excavation (and therefore with a clear stratigraphic context) is that from the Epigravettian site of Castelletto Ticino. Other lithic artefacts referable on a techno-typological basis to Upper Palaeolithic are from Trino and Colline Novaresi. As for Middle Palaeolithic, the techno-economic approach used in the analysis of these lithic assemblages, allow to have, for the first time, reliable data at a regional scale. In this work we present the data obtained after about ten years of research in Piedmont: they outline a scenario where, even in the limits of analysis mostly based on materials issued from surface collections, we can see both clear differences between the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic technological behaviours and hypothesise the land mobility of the hunter-gatherers’ groups that inhabited the region.

This research deals with the modes of chert exploitation in Sardinia during the Neolithic, combining information on major chert sources identified across the island with the technological analysis on several stratigraphic reliable series. It focuses on the changes in raw material selection and on the evolution of technological behaviours between the 6th and the 4th millennium BCE. The data collected in this work allowed us either to shed a light on the role this lithic resource played in the production systems of Neolithic communities in Sardinia, and to catch differences in the modes of procurement, depending on the chronology and location of the sites. During the Early Neolithic, lithic raw material circulation in Sardinia did not occur through organized networks, but it seems to have relied on the high mobility of the local groups. It is only at the end of the 5th millennium BCE that well-organized exchange circuits started operating. These involved mainly obsidian and this raw material apparently consolidated in time, due to the role carried out by San Ciriaco and Ozieri Middle to Late Neolithic cultures in the control and development of the Monte Arci obsidian supply. Chert was never involved in these networks and was mainly exploited locally and opportunistically. However, from the end of the Neolithic, some outcrop in the Oligo-Miocene basin of Perfugas was exploited on a supra-local scale and for a relatively short period.

Cal Sitjo is a new archaeological sequence located in a chert-rich region of the NE Iberian Peninsula, in the town of Sant Martí de Tous (Anoia, Barcelona). The area has undergone significant anthropisation and several archaeological sites (e.g., Vilars de Tous), quarries and workshops for the exploitation of chert (e.g., La Guinardera) have been documented, corresponding to different periods. The abundance of chert made this region an almost obligatory passageway for hunter-gatherer communities such as those occupying the nearby cliffs of Cinglera del Capelló (Capellades), located at a direct distance of 15 km, as well as an ideal settlement for later farming communities.
 Discovered in 2019, the first excavation campaign was carried out in the fall of 2020. Dates have been obtained from a known sequence of around 8 m, providing a chronological framework that ranges from the Mesolithic to the Middle Neolithic. The preliminary results of this excavation have brought to light lithics, ceramics and charcoals from the Neolithic levels (Levels 3 and 4), and faunal, lithic and charcoal remains from the Mesolithic levels (cleaning section).
 Our preliminary results confirm that this sequence is an ideal location for a diachronic study of the evolution from the last hunter-gatherers to the first farmers, from a paleoenvironmental and technological perspective, as well as in terms of chert management and distribution in a territory with a great abundance of this raw material.