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Lithic refitting and intrasite artifact transport: a view from the Middle Paleolithic

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Abstract

The intrasite mobility of lithic artifacts is one of the most relevant issues that can be approached from the spatial study of refitting. In many sites, researchers have determined that some artifacts were abandoned at a considerable distance from the place where they were produced. Once natural causes of a post-depositional nature are ruled out, the most likely hypothesis to explain these movements is intentional displacement by humans. However, the interpretation of such intentional movements is particularly difficult, since the intrasite mobility of lithic artifacts can be related to at least four different factors: (a) refuse disposal strategies, (b) functional complementarity between different activity areas, (c) social relations between different domestic units, and (d) recycling. Each of these factors has different implications concerning questions as important as the spatial organization within campsites or contemporaneity between activity areas. To address this issue, it is necessary to have a representative sample of transport episodes and to analyze aspects such as the connection length, the directionality of the movements, the type of artifacts transported, and the activities carried out both in the place of origin and in the place of destination. As an example, in this work, we analyze the long-distance displacements identified in different Middle Paleolithic levels from the Abric Romaní (Capellades, Spain).

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments.

Funding

Excavations at the Abric Romaní were performed with the support of the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Ajuntament de Capellades, Oficina Patrimoni Cultural-Diputació de Barcelona, Tallers Gràfics Romanyà-Valls, Bercontres-Centre de Gestio Medioambiental SL, and the Constructora de Calaf SAU. Funding for this research was provided by a Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad grant (HAR2016-76760-C3-1-P) and an AGAUR grant (2017-SGR-836). M.V, M.G.CH., and B.G.S. research is funded by CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. A.B. is beneficiary of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action grant agreement PREKARN no. 702584.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Manuel Vaquero, M. Gema Chacón, Bruno Gómez de Soler & Eudald Carbonell

  2. Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Manuel Vaquero, M. Gema Chacón, Bruno Gómez de Soler & Eudald Carbonell

  3. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Francesca Romagnoli

  4. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, Gordon Square 31-34, London, Great Britain, WC1H 0PY, UK

    Amèlia Bargalló

  5. UMR7194 – HNHP (CNRS – MNHN –UPVD – Sorbonne Universités), 1 rue René Panhard, 75013, Paris – Musée de l’Homme, 17 Place du Trocadéro, 75016, Paris, France

    M. Gema Chacón

  6. Department of Human Evolution, Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Andrea Picin

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  1. Manuel Vaquero
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Vaquero, M., Romagnoli, F., Bargalló, A. et al. Lithic refitting and intrasite artifact transport: a view from the Middle Paleolithic. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 4491–4513 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00832-5

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