Challenging current perspectives on Late Pleistocene stone toolkits across Beringia through use-wear analysis

• Main Author: Gauvrit Roux, Eugénie
• Other Authors: Géosciences Rennes (GR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Rennes (OSUR), Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire (CReAAH), Le Mans Université (UM)-Université de Rennes (UR)-Université de Rennes 2 (UR2)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ministère de la Culture (MC)-Nantes Université - UFR Histoire, Histoire de l'Art et Archéologie (Nantes Univ - UFR HHAA), Nantes Université - pôle Humanités, Nantes Université (Nantes Univ)-Nantes Université (Nantes Univ)-Nantes Université - pôle Humanités, Nantes Université (Nantes Univ)-Nantes Université (Nantes Univ), Elie Pinta, Héloïg Barbel Le Page, Constance Thirouard
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: Late Glacial; Last Glacial Maximum; Beringia; Siberia; Alaska; Japan; Stone tools; Lithic technology; Use-wear analysis; [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; Bering Strait; Orleans; Swan Point; Arctic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04581042

International audience Microblade technologies are a structuring component of the Late Pleistocene archaeology across the Bering Strait because of their wide chronological and geographical extension. To fully understand the techno-economical strategies underlying the success of this innovative toolkit in periglacial environments, this presentation proposes a macro-regional techno-functional comparison of contexts yielding early microblade components on Hokkaïdo (Pirika), in Eastern Siberia (Kovrizhka IV) and in Interior Alaska (Swan Point). Use-wear data allow defining how tools were implemented (gesture, worked materials, hafting) and managed (sharpening, reuse, multiple uses, recycling, transport). Specific tool categories such as endscrapers were specialized in a task and had long biographies, while microblades were multipurpose tools with short lifetimes. Their high standardization and overproduction may have aimed at a fast and easy maintenance of composite tools. Chaînes opératoires were segmented at different steps (e.g., tools production and use, hide processing), facilitating the mobility of groups. These data show that in the contexts considered, the anticipation of needs was an important feature of the life of nomadic societies of hunter-gatherers.