Early Middle Paleolithic Blade Lithic Technology from the Site of Via San Francesco (Liguria, Northwestern Italy): Geoarchaeology, Chronology, and Cultural Features

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of Liguria: Recent Research and Insights" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During MIS 5, in northwestern Europe, there are lithic assemblages characterized by the application of laminar methods performed on volumetric cores through a careful maintenance of lateral and distal convexities. In southern Europe, although blades are reported in several Mousterian contexts, nothing comparable to what has come to light in the above-mentioned sites has been identified to date. An exception is the site of Via San Francesco, which is characterized by a high production of laminar blanks, obtained both from Levallois cores and from prismatic and pyramid-shaped cores based on a volumetric concept, but also by the presence of back knives, burins, and endscrapers. New dating places it at an early phase or earlier than MIS 5. Although echoing what has been observed further north, especially in France and Belgium, this site has so far no comparisons with other techno-complexes from Liguria or southern Europe, remaining a “unicum” that raises interesting questions regarding its maker, whether it can be traced back to Neanderthal communities that developed culturally and technologically innovative strategies, or whether it could be linked to the spread of Levantine technologies in Europe, or finally, to early and episodic incursions by groups of anatomically modern humans

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of Liguria: Recent Research and Insights   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35808.0