Lithic raw material sources as a basis for reconstructing prehistoric mobility patterns: Case studies from the Final Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic in Central Europe

Abstract

Analysis of prehistoric lithic artefacts helps to answer a wide array of questions concerning archaeological contexts and prehistoric human behaviour. Typological studies allow for a chronological and partly also cultural attribution of the sites, while the analysis of raw materials used is fundamental for the reconstruction of mobility patterns, communication networks and land use of Stone Age communities. Within the framework of two projects funded by the German Research Foundation, and a regional initiative of Werner Schön, it was possible to determine the origin of the raw materials of 32 inventories from the Late Glacial and Early Holocene in northwest and southern Germany. The petrographic analysis was conducted by the geologist and petro-archaeologist Jehanne Affolter. In addition, data of more than 60 Stone Age assemblages from Switzerland as well as western and southern Germany were recorded, that had already been published elsewhere.
The origin of the flint raw materials from most of these inventories was determined using the micro-facial method. Some inventories, where the raw material sources were determined exclusively macroscopically, are also tentatively mapped to complement the chronological sequence.
GIS-based maps of the raw material sources from the aforementioned regions are compiled and raw material catchment areas of the Stone Age sites are mapped. The area calculations of the raw material catchments revealed a diachronic alternation of larger and smaller areas, which above all suggest culturally determined cycles in the range of mobility and communication networks.

• Late and Final Palaeolithic
• Mesolithic
• Switzerland
• central europe
• lithic raw material catchments
• lithic raw material sources
• neolithic
• south-eastern France
• south-western Germany
• western germany

Resources

• Gehlen_et_al_Paleomaps_Appendix_1_References_160122.doc
• Gehlen_et_al_Paleomaps_Appendix_1_table_sites.xls
• Gehlen_et_al_Paleomaps_Appendix_2_raw_mat_sources.xls

Bibliography

Gehlen, B., Affolter, J., Scharl, S., Schön, W., Fischer, A., Grunert, M., Meiborg, C., Mischka, D., Treude, E., Uthmeier, T. (2022): Lithic raw material sources as a basis for reconstructing prehistoric mobility patterns: Case studies from the Final Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic in Central Europe. CRC 806, DOI: 10.5880/SFB806.79