From petrographic analysis to stereomicroscopic characterisation: a geoarchaeological approach to identify quartzite art
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ORIGINAL PAPER
From petrographic analysis to stereomicroscopic characterisation: a geoarchaeological approach to identify quartzite artefacts in the Cantabrian Region Alejandro Prieto 1,2
&
Iñaki Yusta 3 & Alvaro Arrizabalaga 2
Received: 8 June 2019 / Accepted: 6 November 2019 / Published online: 14 January 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Several isolated studies have tried to understand quartzite from an archaeological perspective by applying two different methodological approaches. The first one is based on non-destructive characterisation, aiming to understand human procurement and management of quartzite, without solid geoarchaeological criteria. The second characterised the material from archaeological sites using only petrographic or geochemical perspectives of a limited sample. Currently, both perspectives are unconnected, creating a methodological gap that needs to be solved to study the procurement and management of quartzite in greater depth. The present study, mainly methodological, will explore the gap between petrographic analysis and non-destructive characterisation. Doing so, we could fill this vacuum of information and generate a solid geoarchaeological basis to characterise not only a sample but complete assemblages. To this end, we analyse the lithic assemblages at El Arteu and El Habario, two Middle-Palaeolithic sites in the Cantabrian Region, northern Spain. We summarise the main results derived from petrographic analysis, but especially we will focus on non-destructive criteria to characterise the lithic surfaces of archaeological quartzite using stereoscope microscopy. This process allows us to understand the complete assemblage but also, through technological characterisation, understand the management of different quartzite petrogenetic types in both sites. Keywords Lithic technology . Management of raw material . Quartzite . Petrology . Stereomicroscope . Geoarchaeology
Introduction Quartzite in archaeology The study of raw materials used for lithic implements is a well-known topic of research in prehistoric archaeology. Since the beginning of this scientific discipline, petrological description and classification of rocks transformed into
artefacts was carried out by the first prehistorians, such as Juan Villanova i Piera or Édouard Lartet (Pelayo López and Gonzalo Gutiérrez 2012). The characterisation of these raw materials has become more detailed and frequent since the 1950s through the use of classic petrological methodologies and because of increasing archaeologist interest in new perspectives to understand prehistoric societies (Polanyi 1957). Both perspectives converge in the characterisation of obsidian
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00981-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Alejandro Prieto [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Institute of Prehistory and Protohistory, Department of Classical World and Asian Cultur
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