Use-wear analysis of discoid-conception lithic industries.

The thesis presents data and interpretations relevant to the Lower and Middle Paleolithic with the aim to define if there were functional differences between the discoid and the Levallois products and, furthermore, to define the possible reasons that led prehistoric people to the employment of the discoid or of the Levallois knapping method. This work consists in the use-wear analysis of the lithic industries from eight sites located in Portugal, Italy and Spain: Pirro Nord (FG, Italy), Guado san Nicola (IS, Italy), Ciota Ciara (VC, Italy), Can Garriga (Gerona, Spain), Pedra Dreta (Gerona, Spain), Riparo Tagliente (VR, Italy), Lagoa du Bando (Maçao, Portugal), Fenx (Rodao, Portugal). The results of these work permit to obtain new data about the type of human occupation of the sites and highlight that, in general, there were not clear differences in the use or production of the blanks made through the two methods. We also come to the definition of the prehistoric sites as chaotic systems. Which means that we are facing a dynamic system highly dependent on the initial conditions and with a non-linear evolution where a little change in the initial conditions determines finite and important changes both in the final results and in the evolution of the system over time. Then, the only way to try to understand the technological choices that determined the choice of a particular knapping method rather than another is to reduce the influence of all the non-cultural variables.

leggi in inglese