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Scraper Blank Morphology and Artifact Use-Life in the Acheulo-Yabrudian of Tabun Cave, Israel

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Abstract

Tabun Cave is a major point of reference for Paleolithic research because of both its long sequence of cultural deposits and its rich and variable artifact assemblages. Roughly one third of the Tabun sequence contains Lower–Middle Paleolithic assemblages referred to as Yabrudian, Acheulean, and Amudian. Together, these facies comprise the Acheulo-Yabrudian (AY) complex. Previous work on these assemblages focused on distinctions between these facies based on relative frequencies of diagnostic tool types—scrapers, blades, and bifaces—present within each. This study instead examines metrics and attribute data for one artifact class shared by all three facies, scrapers, to compare variation in artifact production and life histories. Because they are well represented, scrapers are an excellent measure of continuity and/or discontinuity in technological behavior throughout the AY, providing insight into the relationships between the individual facies. Results reveal broadly consistent scraper manufacture across all facies. Small-scale differences in blanks, cortex, and dorsal scar patterns occur among beds but with no apparent directional trends. While the general structure of scraper production and design remained relatively unchanged, the chaîne opératoire was gradually altered. These clearer temporal trends are seen in artifact life histories, first with a shift from single to multiple retouched edges, later incorporating more intensive resharpening of individual edges, accompanied by increase in blank size. Between 302 and 256 Ka, Acheulo-Yabrudian hominins showed high levels of continuity in methods of blank production yet flexibility in how long artifacts were in use and how that utility was extended.

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Data Availability

The data necessary to evaluate the conclusions made in this paper are presented in the tables and text. The data collected solely by the authors has been made available in a supplemental.csv file.

Code Availability

IMB SPSS Statistics 27.

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Acknowledgements

This manuscript is a revised version of Franklin’s University of Arizona MA thesis. We are incredibly grateful to Mary C. Stiner and Vance T. Holliday for their much-appreciated guidance and invaluable insights on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Additional thanks go to Arthur J. Jelinek for the use of his database for certain metrics and for his permission to conduct further research on the Tabun collections curated at the University of Arizona. We also warmly thank Jay D. Franklin for helpful comments and conversations that enhanced earlier drafts of this manuscript. We are especially grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for providing critical and helpful assessments of this paper.

Funding

Research was supported by a Lewis and Clark Fellowship and research awards funded by the Emil W. Haury Education Fund and William A. Longacre Graduate Scholarship, provided by the University of Arizona, School of Anthropology.

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  1. School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Lauren M. Franklin & Steven L. Kuhn

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  1. Lauren M. Franklin
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  2. Steven L. Kuhn
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Correspondence to Lauren M. Franklin.

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Franklin, L.M., Kuhn, S.L. Scraper Blank Morphology and Artifact Use-Life in the Acheulo-Yabrudian of Tabun Cave, Israel. J Paleo Arch 4, 20 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41982-021-00100-w

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