Late Mesolithic notched blades from Western Europe and North Africa: technological and functional variability

Bernard Gassin (1) , Juan Gibaja (2) , Pierre Allard (3) , Toomaï Boucherat (4) , Émilie Claud (5) , Ignacio Clemente , Colas Guéret (6) , Jérémie Jacquier (7) , Rym Khedhaier (4) , Grégor Marchand (7) , Niccolo Mazzucco (3) , Antoni Palomo (8) , Unai Perales (9) , Thomas Perrin (1) , Sylvie Philibert (1) , Amelia Rodríguez (10) , Loïc Torchy (1)

1 TRACES - Travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés
2 Dpto de Arqueología y Antropología. Institución Milá y Fontanals.
3 PréTech - Préhistoire et Technologie
4 LAMPEA - Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique
5 Inrap - Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives
6 ArScAn - Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité
7 CReAAH - Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire
8 UAB - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona = Autonomous University of Barcelona = Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
9 UPV / EHU - University of the Basque Country = Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
10 ULPGC - Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria

During the 7th and 6th millenniums BC, major changes occurred over a widespread area in the lithic industries of the late Mesolithic. We focused our research on notched blades and bladelets knapped by pressure or indirect percussion. We managed to define this technical process by showing that these notches result from voluntary retouch, with variability in retouch modes and in uses (different operating processes and worked materials). It is a simple technical concept, connected to the recurring mode of operation, but with varied functional purposes that comes out as a result of this survey carried out in France, Belgium, Spain, Morocco and Tunisia.

Mots clés: experiments; Notched blades; Late Mesolithic; retouch; scraping tools

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Bernard Gassin, Juan Gibaja, Pierre Allard, Toomaï Boucherat, Émilie Claud, et al.. Late Mesolithic notched blades from Western Europe and North Africa: technological and functional variability. International Conference on Use-Wear Analysis, 2012, Faro, Portugal. pp.224-231. ⟨hal-02021727⟩