Spatial Distribution of Stone Tools at Peyre Blanque

Summary

Ancient people’s organization of their social space can inform us about the kinds of activities that take place on a site. However, before making any cultural interpretations, the site’s stratigraphic and formation processes need to be considered. The goal of this research is to examine how lithic tools are spatially arranged at Peyre Blanque to gain a better understanding of the site organization and how stratigraphic processes may have affected the artifacts. Peyre Blanque is an open-air camp related to an early phase in the Middle Magdalenian ̶ roughly between 18,000 BP and 20,000 BP ̶ located in southern France, north of Fabas, Ariège (Lacombe et. al. 2012). Most artifacts are plot-pointed using a total station, so their horizontal and vertical location is known. Information about the stone tools, including their spatial location, classification "type" (such as a burin or scraper for example), maximum width, maximum length, weight, and contextual notes of nearby objects and features (such as roots and burrows) were examined. The artifacts are mapped in ArcGIS and some statistical analyses were used. There are several clusters of tools that show a differentiation of space at Peyre Blanque that appear to be more cultural than post-depositional in nature.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 19959