Session: #256

Regular session

Lithics represent one of the best lines of evidence to investigate human-environment interactions over time and space as Pleistocene toolmakers focalized a significant amount of their activities around raw material sources, which remain, by and large, observable in the present-day.
Seminal ethnoarchaeological studies have established that hunter-gatherers can be characterized as foragers and collectors according to their mobility, settlement, and subsistence practices. In turn, this has allowed archaeologists to classify site functions according to behavioral information, cultural traditions, and the distribution of natural resources.
Recent advances in the characterization of lithic raw materials have identified the utility of multi-scalar approaches to derive practical information. A combination of macro-/microscopic analytical methods complemented with geochemical analyses represents an ideal means by which archaeologists can glean deeper insights into the provenance, exploitation, and management of raw materials, which can have the overall effect of facilitating the identification of prehistoric mobility patterns and settlement dynamics.
In this session, we want to bring together specialists from across sub-disciplinary boundaries irrespective of time periods, regions, or rock types to serve as a forum to improve lithic raw material studies and expand upon the inferential insights they can offer.

Pleistocene, sourcing, lithic raw materials characterization, mobility patterns, settlement dynamics

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Bruno Gómez de Soler (Spain) ^1,2

María Soto (Spain) ^3,4
Julien Favreau (Canada) ⁵