Technological variability and Change in the Lithic Assemblages from M5 at Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia

Summary

Recent excavations in the M5 Sector of Dmanisi recovered a series of stratified lithic assemblages dated to the Upper Olduvai subchron (1.85-1.78 Ma) and early Upper Matuyama Chron (1.78-1.76 Ma). These materials from all of Dmanisi's nine major strata provide the most detailed record of lithic acquisition and use from the site. Highly diverse raw materials were acquired and transported to the site from both bedrock and alluvial sources, in contrast to many contemporaneous sites in East Africa, where a high degree of raw material selectivity is frequently reported. The earlier assemblages from Stratum A are dominated by use of alluvial cobbles of tuff, rhyolite and basalt, and are characterized by quite intensive core reduction, resulting in numerous small flakes and small, exhausted cores. Assemblages from Stratum B indicate shifts in raw material preference, lower degrees of reduction intensity, and production of higher frequencies of retouched tools. Throughout the sequence there is evidence for importation of larger flakes made of high quality material that were produced elsewhere. Overall, these assemblages from Dmanisi provide evidence of technological variability related to occupational intensity, differential raw material preference and probable functional variability.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage