Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Neolithic and Chalcolithic Large Blades. Identifying and Defining Exceptional Lithic Products
Content:
In Neolithic and Chalcolithic Europe, large flint and obsidian blades stood out from most of the contemporary lithic productions. In some cases these might be a few exceptional blades produced on the fringes of normal debitage by mobile knappers, whilst in others they might represent large-scale production on dedicated sites. Either way, the large blades are distinctive by their size and more broadly by the technical investment they display.
Their very uneven distribution across Europe – from Bulgaria to Portugal and from Italy to Denmark – is surprising and inevitably raises the question of the appearance of these exceptional blades: local, autonomous development and/or technical transmission from another part of Europe?
The organizers of this session wish to bring together observations from across Europe, with a particular focus on:
- the general archaeological context: culture, chronology, places of production (household, settlement, dedicated workshops…), distribution areas.
- the technical specificities of the debitage: acquisition and selection of rocks, shaping the core, removals preparation, debitage techniques. Any further information regarding the criteria used for debitage technique diagnosis would be highly appreciated.
The ultimate aim of the session is to draw up a panorama of the emergence and decline of large flint and obsidian blades across the continent.
Keywords:
Lithic technology, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Lithic Blades
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Thomas Guichet (France) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Jean-Philippe Collin (Belgium) 3,4,2
Affiliations:
1. Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne
2. UMR 8215 Trajectoires
3. Université Libre de Bruxelles
4. CreA-Patrimoine
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