Thumbnail Image
Item

Knapping tools in Magdalenian contexts: New evidence from Gough’s Cave (Somerset, UK)

; 
Crété, Lucile
; 
Galway-Witham, Julia
; 
Parfitt, Simon A
Citations
Altmetric:
Advisors
Editors
Spinapolice, Enza Elena
Other Contributors
Affiliation
EPub Date
Issue Date
2021-12-23
Submitted Date
2021-06-22
Subject Terms
palaeoanthropology
archaeology
horses
teeth
deer
antlers
radioactive carbon dating
scanning electron microscopy
Collections
Science
Show all metadata
Files
Thumbnail Image
Published version
Adobe PDF, 9.8 MB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Other Titles
Abstract
Our knowledge of the recolonization of north-west Europe at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum depends to a large extent on finds from Gough’s Cave (Somerset, UK). Ultra-high resolution radiocarbon determinations suggest that the cave was occupied seasonally by Magdalenian hunters for perhaps no more than two or three human generations, centred on 12,600 BP (~14,950–14,750 cal BP). They left behind a rich and diverse assemblage of Magdalenian lithic and osseous artefacts, butchered animal bones, and cannibalised human remains. The faunal assemblage from Gough’s Cave is one of the most comprehensively studied from any Magdalenian site, yet new and unexpected discoveries continue to be made. Here, we record previously unrecognized flint-knapping tools that were identified during a survey of the Gough’s Cave faunal collection at the Natural History Museum (London). We identified bones used as hammers and teeth manipulated as pressure-flakers to manufacture flint tools. Most of the pieces appear to be <jats:italic>ad hoc</jats:italic> (single-use?) tools, but a horse molar was almost certainly a curated object that was used over an extended period to work many stone tools. This paper explores how these knapping tools were used to support a more nuanced understanding of Magdalenian stone-tool manufacturing processes. Moreover, we provide a standard for identifying minimally-used knapping tools that will help to establish whether retouchers and other organic stone-working tools are as rare in the Magdalenian archaeological record as current studies suggest.
Citation
Bello SM, Cre´te´ L, Galway-Witham J, Parfitt SA (2021) Knapping tools in Magdalenian contexts: New evidence from Gough’s Cave (Somerset, UK). PLoS ONE 16(12): e0261031. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261031
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Journal
PLOS ONE
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10141/623395
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0261031
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Embedded videos
Type
Journal Article
Item Description
Copyright: © 2021 Bello et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article.
NHM Repository
Series/Report no.
ISSN
1932-6203
EISSN
1932-6203
ISBN
ISMN
GovDoc
Test Link
License
openAccess
cb
Sponsors