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Early Holocene Climate Change and the Adoption of Pressure Technique in the Maghreb: The Capsian Sequence at Kef Zoura D (Eastern Algeria)

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Book cover The Emergence of Pressure Blade Making

Abstract

The introduction of pressure bladelet production during the Capsian is documented at Kef Zoura D where Typical Capsian precedes Upper Capsian both chronologically and stratigraphically. The technological change is contemporaneous with the 8,200 cold events, changes in subsistence and the increased use of non-local flint. The implications of these data for our understanding of Maghreb prehistory are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All calibrations in this paper use CALIB 6.0.1 and Intcal09.14c or Marine09 as appropriate (Reimer et al. 2009). Calibrated dates are given as cal B.P. (at 1σ) and uncalibrated dates as B.P.

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Acknowledgements

The excavations at Kef Zoura D were funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to DL. Subsequent laboratory research benefited from this grant and additional financial help from the University of Alberta. Permission to conduct the field research came from the Ministère de l’Education Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique and the Ministère de l’Information et de la Culture in Algiers. The Centre National de Recherches Préhistoriques, Anthropologiques et Historiques, Alger (then known as the Centre de Recherches Anthropologiques, Préhistoriques et Ethnographiques) provided essential logistical assistance. NR’s work was funded by a post-doctoral grant from les Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) which also supplied funding for her participation at the Pan-African Congress, Botswana 2005, where an earlier version of this paper was first presented. We thank Pierre M. Desrosiers for producing the figures and especially the drawings in Fig. 4.4. DL continues to be grateful to both Mary Jackes and Peter Sheppard for their ongoing collaboration in the analysis of Kef Zoura D.

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Rahmani, N., Lubell, D. (2012). Early Holocene Climate Change and the Adoption of Pressure Technique in the Maghreb: The Capsian Sequence at Kef Zoura D (Eastern Algeria). In: Desrosiers, P. (eds) The Emergence of Pressure Blade Making. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2003-3_4

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