Large-Scale Analyses Show Flexible Paths of Aurignacian Lithic Production at Vogelherd Cave in Lone Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Examining Spatial-Temporal Variation in the Lithic Technology of the Early Upper Paleolithic" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Aurignacian marks the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic in southern Germany. During this time blade and bladelet production became the central focus of the stone knapping. Lithic technology of the Swabian Aurignacian is nowhere better documented than at Vogelherd. Here Riek’s original excavation in 1931 and Conard’s excavations in the site’s backdirt (2005–2023) have produced by far the largest lithic assemblage from this technocomplex. However, diverse core typologies and views on lithic reduction make characterizations and comparisons of Aurignacian assemblages difficult. In this talk we provide an overview of multiple modes of lithic reduction documented at Vogelherd. With such a large lithic assemblage we are able to place various types of cores within a fluid system of reduction. Due to the exceptionally large number of artifacts from Vogelherd, we are able to identify important characteristics of the Swabian Aurignacian that were previously considered marginal features. To gain insights into the chaînes opératoires from Vogelherd, we analyze the cores, tools, all debitage products, raw material units, and hundreds of lithic refits. This enables us to look beyond typological categories and to gain a much more comprehensive understanding of reduction processes, which should facilitate regional and interregional comparative analyses.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Examining Spatial-Temporal Variation in the Lithic Technology of the Early Upper Paleolithic   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38098.0