Journal of Lithic Studies

We ended the 2023 field season with a bang! In the final days before winter snow, our Secrets of the Ice team had a heart-stopping moment at one of our Jotunheimen Mountain sites.

We discovered an extraordinarily well-preserved arrow!😮 Check it out:
• Arrowhead made of grey quartzite
• Black pitch covering the arrowhead, sinew, and wooden shaft
• Stunning preservation with a wealth of information about ancient archery

We believe this beauty dates back to the Bronze Age! A radiocarbon sample is being processed as we speak. Stay tuned for the official date!🙂

Find of the day at Nunalleq was this caribou antler carving tool handle, with a polished stone burin and a porcupine molar carving bit with hafted in place. Polished burins were used on antler and ivory while bits like porcupine molars and teeth from rodents or even ground dog canines were probably used to carve wood.

Spatial organisation within the earliest evidence of post-built structures in Britain New research from the world famous Mesolithic site of Star Carr uncovers organisation of different activities inside the earliest known post-built structures in Britain

A complete wooden bowl, found upside down on a house floor at the Nunalleq site today. The ownership mark of the bowl's maker has been obscured by cut marks left behind when the bowl's base was used as a cutting board. Nearly every flat wooden surface on artifacts found in Nunalleq houses has been used the same way, necessary to protect the ground slate edges of uluaqs and other knifes.

Discovery of 1200 lithics at Eyvanekey (🇮🇷) suggests that the northern Iranian Central Desert was a key route for Pleistocene hominin dispersal.

🆓 https://buff.ly/43NAVOw

Giant armadillo fossil reveals humans were in South America a surprisingly long time ago | CNN Cut marks found on giant armadillo fossils suggest the presence of early humans in what’s now Argentina more than 20,000 years ago — far earlier than once thought.

The next edition of the ADS Newsletter will be send out next week!

To find out more, read this post on the ADS news page https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/news-events/signup-ads-newsletter/ and sign via the ADS website - https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/

Previous editions of the Newsletter can be accessed via the ADS website https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/about/ads-newsletter/

Exploring a remote upland lithic scatter in the Cairngorms.

Sgòr an Eòin | Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Society-funded Research Sgòr an Eòin Exploring a remote upland lithic scatter in the Cairngorms. Professor Graeme Warren FSAScot led a team of students and volunteers to carry out fieldwork in the Cairngorms around the site of a Mesolithic lithic scatter. Excavations at Sgòr an Eòin took place T...

Forthcoming book, 'The Oxford Handbook of Mesolithic Europe',
edited by Liv Nilsson Stutz, Rita Peyroteo Stjerna, and Mari Tõrv

Available to preorder from: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-mesolithic-europe-9780198853657?cc=gb&lang=en&

Map of Stone personal ornaments found in burials across Neolithic South-west Asia. They were likely worn in piercings, suggesting body perforation was a widespread tradition in the prehistoric Near East.

🆓 https://buff.ly/3V38QjD

Interested in a fully-funded PhD opportunity? Are you a lithic nerd wanting to understand more about how people have used important cultural landscapes in the desert? Join the Desert to the Sea Project looking a residues and usewear on lithic assemblages from the Western Desert.... help make reference collections working with traditional owners on their country, great multidisciplinary team of researchers. All fieldwork costs covered and research protocol agreements in place. Opportunity of a lifetime!!
https://researchdegrees.uwa.edu.au/projects/z2x83

New in Current Research in Ohio Archaeology --

Identifying and Mapping the Chaine Operatoire: ASC’s Phase III Investigations of a Cobble Chert Quarry/Workshop site, Brown County, Ohio

Kevin R. Schwarz, ASC Group, Inc.

Abstract:
This current research article involves controlled surface collection and analysis of a cobble chert quarry/workshop site in Brown County. The Yates site, 33BR154, is one of 29 sites associated with the expansion of the Brown County Landfill, near Georgetown in southwest Ohio. The Yates site is a habitation site and a low-intensity prehistoric quarry where Native Americans exploited glacial chert cobbles, which consisted of Bisher or Brassfield cherts. This study undertook a chaine operatoire analysis and spatial statistical analysis designed to understand the lithic tool production strategies at play at this site. It was shown through these analyses that technological choices were enacted that resulted in the production of bifacial tools, but also expediently produced flake tools. The study provides a window on the complexities of prehistoric decision-making and agency within a technical productive system.

https://ohioarchaeology.org/file_download/inline/b593b661-cef2-4558-8f7f-7397ae2979b6

Searching for New Associate Editors

The Journal of Lithic Studies is currently looking for new associate editors to join the layout team. The main role of the layout team is to prepare articles to have a standardised format. This is a volunteer position (as are all positions at the journal) but we request that applicants are available to help with various tasks (depending on the interests of the person) for at least 4 hours per month. The work load at the journal varies a lot. Sometimes we have nothing to do for a few weeks, and other times we have several articles to take care of at the same time. Considering the time that it takes to train new editors, we ask also that applicants are sure that they will be available for at least half a year (of course, longer is better).

As noted, these are volunteer (unpaid) positions. We do offer practical training in the various aspects of running the journal as well as experience about how academic journals function.

If you are interested, please send us an email to introduce yourself. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Best regards,
Otis Crandell

Editor
Journal of Lithic Studies

Email: [email protected]

A puzzling mix of artifacts raises questions about Homo sapiens' travels to China A reexamined Chinese site points to a cultural mix of Homo sapiens with Neandertals or Denisovans.

One of many beautiful lithics found at Wadi Abu Subeira, Egypt

Five lithic workshops have been identified at the site, suggesting early hominins occupied the Eastern Desert in multiple phases during the Earlier and Middle Stone Ages.

🆓 https://buff.ly/49jb9Cx

Over 200 lithic artefacts have been found at Pilauco in Chile's Lake Region dating to 17,300–12,800 cal BP. 3D analysis proves that they are human-made, suggesting human occupation in north-western Patagonia prior to the Younger Dryas period.

🆓 https://buff.ly/3uV39tq

Clovis people may have also used Clovis points to butcher animals A team of archaeologists and anthropologists from multiple institutions in the U.S. has found evidence that the Clovis, an early North American population, may have used so-called Clovis points for more than spearpoints—they may have also used them to cut up the animals they brought down.

NEW Discovery of 1200 lithics at Eyvanekey (🇮🇷) suggests that the northern Iranian Central Desert was a key route for Pleistocene hominin dispersal.

🆓 https://buff.ly/43NAVOw

Irina Olevska is conducting a survey among professionals from the Heritage & archaeology sector about their personal attitude towards the damage & destruction of archaeological sites. Deadline for participation is 31 March. To participate in the survey about you personal attitude on the danage/destruction of archaeological sites follow the link (EAA members): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSft01SHZzAoGUuHjC1jUVe2Un0lJZI5f6l2i0hIkIcPEb2t6Q/viewform (Non-EAA members): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNYOTXQcZMu09mvFY-l90Q4mbT4EpGlExi-N7dVB4bXVQYQA/viewform
Please help to create reliable numbers on this topic!

Illustration (for attention) from Pixabay.

Stone tools found in Ukraine could be evidence of earliest human presence in Europe Researchers suspect stone tools may have been fashioned by human ancestors Homo erectus

Happy 80th Birthday Archaeology Scotland.

Happy 80th Birthday Archaeology Scotland and Council for British Archaeology | Archaeology Scotland We celebrate the origins, on the 8th of March 1944, of Archaeology Scotland and Council for British Archaeology (CBA). Our origins are marked by the first meeting of the CBA taking place, with participation of the CBA Regional Groups, including representatives from the Scottish Regional Group. The C...

'JLS', vol 10, no 1 (2023).

Vol 10 No 1 (2023): Journal of Lithic Studies | Journal of Lithic Studies

'JLS', vol 9, no 1 (2022).

Vol 9 No 1 (2022): Journal of Lithic Studies | Journal of Lithic Studies