Final Report Summary - TRACETERRE (Tracing Neanderthal Territories: Landscape Organization and Stone Resource Management in South East France.)
The study of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens during the Palaeolithic has a long history, during which perspectives have dramatically shifted, and changing research paradigms have transformed the nature of inquiry and its methodologies. After early decades of research focused on creating classification systems for stone tools (lithics) and refining chronological frameworks, major questions of how prehistoric hunter-gatherers organized their lives on large scales still remain, questions which require truly interdisciplinary approaches to answer. TRACETERRE (Tracing Neanderthal Territories: Landscape Organization and Stone Resource Management in South East France) aimed to contributed to examining Palaeolithic landscape organization and resource management, information that is now understood to be fundamental in producing models on the cognition and scales of social networks of our ancient human ancestors.
Caves and rockshelters have traditionally formed the foundation for research, however, these types of sites do not tell the full story of landscape organization and territories. In order to make existing models on andscape use and resource exploitation more robust, it is necessary to include not only caves and rockshelter sites, but also the open-air sites where Neanderthals and early humans were engaging in various tasks, including the actual sources of the stone that was key to their everyday survival.
The core analytical focus of TRACETERRE was to survey the region for promising raw material sources to be examined in this way, combining aspects of geology, landscape, existing records from caves/rockshelters, and technological analysis. By determining activities at an open-air site and their likely age, with a geo-archaeological component, a key aim was to source exotic raw material types to their original locations in the landscape using petrographic techniques. Five key questions could be examined :
-What activities were occurring at open-air sites, in what periods?
-I n what form did stone artefacts leave/arrive at sites and what raw materials were
used)?
- What were the distances travelled for stone raw material sourcing?
- Where were open-air sites located, in relation to caves, raw material sources and
landscape features/topography?
- How did open-air raw material sites fit within wider landscape organization/territories of
Palaeolithic populations?
The project undertook fieldwork between 2013-2015, focused on the Velay region of the Massif central, where previous research into stratified sites had identified Neanderthal and later Palaeolithic utilisation of a distinctive stone, silcrete, which could be geologically traced to one particular hill near the village of Saint-Pierre-Eynac, to the west of Le Puy en Velay. Despite some previous geological investigations, and many years of informal amateur collection of artefacts from surrounding fields/hill slopes, the source had never been formally studied archaeologically. Fieldwork entailed :
- 2013 surface survey and collection from hill slopes, geological investigation
- 2014 excavation by machined trenches in field below summit, with geological investigation, and excavation at hill summit with test-pitting
- 2015 major geological survey and investigation, excavation at hill summit and full surface collection at summit site of technologically informative material
The fieldwork in 2013-2015 identified that the source of the previous collections was likely to be outcrops at the summit of the hill, rather than a site on the slopes. In 2014 a very large, extremely rich spread of artefacts was uncovered at the summit, attesting to significant human exploitation of the silcrete. Work in 2015 confirmed that the site is a large, open-air extraction and workshop locale, with possible in-situ quarrying of the underlying silcrete outcrops found in an excavated trench. While the site is very rich, the unusual nature of the stone itself seems to have led to a technologically informal approach to exploitation, combined with large amounts of fragmentation during reduction. This makes identifying technological signatures that can be attributed to chronological periods very challenging, despite silcrete within regional caves/rockshelters showing much clearer identifiable technological signatures.
However, some material suggesting Neanderthal, Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and later prehistoric use of the hill summit site has been identified. In particular, some exotic flints have also been identified, permitting the open-air source to be linked directly to other raw material sources outside the immediate region, with distances over 50 km recorded in several cases. Final assessment and analysis is taking place in preparing the two main scientific outputs, but the results so far indicate that the Rapavi silcrete source played a much more significant role in human exploitation of siliceous stone within the region than has been previously recognised within the caves and rockshelters.
Major scientific results of the project:
- First study of the use of silcrete as a stone raw material for prehistoric in a regional context in France (and more widely, Europe)
- First archaeological and geological investigation of the Rapavi silcrete source, Saint-Pierre-Eynac, Haute-Loire
- Identification and excavation of an entirely new site, representing a major stone source/surface quarry site for prehistoric occupation in the region
- As per the project objectives, the discovery of the site and the use of this material ties together multiple other archaeological locations and chronologies within the region
- Identification of exotic imported stone types at the silcrete source, fulfilling an objective of the project to uncover how stone sources are linked across wider landscapes
In summary, project milestones achieved included undertaking field survey and excavation, completing reports, first author journal paper accepted (for PhD results), establishing research networks and organising conferences, in addition to non-academic project dissemination, fulfilling multiple deliverables. The two major publications listed as main scientific output/deliverables are collaborative papers (fellow as first author), and will be submitted to special journal issues with deadlines in early 2016.
Socio-economic impacts include media coverage within a popular science magazine, reporting of the project in online blogs on fellow’s personal website, improving local regional heritage understanding and links with archaeological amateurs, and through linked activities, the establishment of a science outreach project, Trowelblazers.com highlighting the role of women in the geosciences (with diverse collaborations).
Please see attachment for some summary archaeological results concerning fieldwork, technology of artefacts, and identification of imported exotic flint types.
Caves and rockshelters have traditionally formed the foundation for research, however, these types of sites do not tell the full story of landscape organization and territories. In order to make existing models on andscape use and resource exploitation more robust, it is necessary to include not only caves and rockshelter sites, but also the open-air sites where Neanderthals and early humans were engaging in various tasks, including the actual sources of the stone that was key to their everyday survival.
The core analytical focus of TRACETERRE was to survey the region for promising raw material sources to be examined in this way, combining aspects of geology, landscape, existing records from caves/rockshelters, and technological analysis. By determining activities at an open-air site and their likely age, with a geo-archaeological component, a key aim was to source exotic raw material types to their original locations in the landscape using petrographic techniques. Five key questions could be examined :
-What activities were occurring at open-air sites, in what periods?
-I n what form did stone artefacts leave/arrive at sites and what raw materials were
used)?
- What were the distances travelled for stone raw material sourcing?
- Where were open-air sites located, in relation to caves, raw material sources and
landscape features/topography?
- How did open-air raw material sites fit within wider landscape organization/territories of
Palaeolithic populations?
The project undertook fieldwork between 2013-2015, focused on the Velay region of the Massif central, where previous research into stratified sites had identified Neanderthal and later Palaeolithic utilisation of a distinctive stone, silcrete, which could be geologically traced to one particular hill near the village of Saint-Pierre-Eynac, to the west of Le Puy en Velay. Despite some previous geological investigations, and many years of informal amateur collection of artefacts from surrounding fields/hill slopes, the source had never been formally studied archaeologically. Fieldwork entailed :
- 2013 surface survey and collection from hill slopes, geological investigation
- 2014 excavation by machined trenches in field below summit, with geological investigation, and excavation at hill summit with test-pitting
- 2015 major geological survey and investigation, excavation at hill summit and full surface collection at summit site of technologically informative material
The fieldwork in 2013-2015 identified that the source of the previous collections was likely to be outcrops at the summit of the hill, rather than a site on the slopes. In 2014 a very large, extremely rich spread of artefacts was uncovered at the summit, attesting to significant human exploitation of the silcrete. Work in 2015 confirmed that the site is a large, open-air extraction and workshop locale, with possible in-situ quarrying of the underlying silcrete outcrops found in an excavated trench. While the site is very rich, the unusual nature of the stone itself seems to have led to a technologically informal approach to exploitation, combined with large amounts of fragmentation during reduction. This makes identifying technological signatures that can be attributed to chronological periods very challenging, despite silcrete within regional caves/rockshelters showing much clearer identifiable technological signatures.
However, some material suggesting Neanderthal, Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and later prehistoric use of the hill summit site has been identified. In particular, some exotic flints have also been identified, permitting the open-air source to be linked directly to other raw material sources outside the immediate region, with distances over 50 km recorded in several cases. Final assessment and analysis is taking place in preparing the two main scientific outputs, but the results so far indicate that the Rapavi silcrete source played a much more significant role in human exploitation of siliceous stone within the region than has been previously recognised within the caves and rockshelters.
Major scientific results of the project:
- First study of the use of silcrete as a stone raw material for prehistoric in a regional context in France (and more widely, Europe)
- First archaeological and geological investigation of the Rapavi silcrete source, Saint-Pierre-Eynac, Haute-Loire
- Identification and excavation of an entirely new site, representing a major stone source/surface quarry site for prehistoric occupation in the region
- As per the project objectives, the discovery of the site and the use of this material ties together multiple other archaeological locations and chronologies within the region
- Identification of exotic imported stone types at the silcrete source, fulfilling an objective of the project to uncover how stone sources are linked across wider landscapes
In summary, project milestones achieved included undertaking field survey and excavation, completing reports, first author journal paper accepted (for PhD results), establishing research networks and organising conferences, in addition to non-academic project dissemination, fulfilling multiple deliverables. The two major publications listed as main scientific output/deliverables are collaborative papers (fellow as first author), and will be submitted to special journal issues with deadlines in early 2016.
Socio-economic impacts include media coverage within a popular science magazine, reporting of the project in online blogs on fellow’s personal website, improving local regional heritage understanding and links with archaeological amateurs, and through linked activities, the establishment of a science outreach project, Trowelblazers.com highlighting the role of women in the geosciences (with diverse collaborations).
Please see attachment for some summary archaeological results concerning fieldwork, technology of artefacts, and identification of imported exotic flint types.
