The Levallois technique is traditionally believed to have been invented by archaic humans in Africa around 300,000 years ago, then transferred to Europe and refined during the Mousterian period, around 100,000 years ago. This is because Levallois is considered a logical evolution of the bifacial tool making that spread with the migration of human groups from Africa to the Levant. However, there are numerous controversial sites in Europe and Asia whose dating is uncertain, while recent discoveries and research suggest a potentially independent origin from Africa. For example, in Armenia, the coexistence with Acheulean bifacial technology suggests a direct transition to Levallois, as well as a more direct diffusion into the Levantine regions.
During the transition from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Middle Palaeolithic, a succession of different technologies gradually transformed and reworked the Acheulean bifacial tradition, leading to a significant shift not only in technological history but also in the behavioural instinct toward experimentation and the search for new solutions to improve the production of tools essential to human survival. The reduction in the weight and size of artefacts also led to the recycling and reuse of old tools to meet new needs, producing thinner flakes and multifunctional edges. From this scenario, the Levallois technology emerged, a different concept of standardised production based on the study and preliminary chipping of pebbles or blocks of rock to create cores with hierarchical surfaces from which predetermined products such as flakes, blades, or points could be obtained.
Misliya and Tabun caves in Israel document the emergence of Levallois technology in the Levant. Misliya represents a key site for understanding this technological transition and the evolution of Levallois technology (Zaidner, Weistein-Evron 2020), given the discovery of a Homo sapiens jawbone of the Early Middle Palaeolithic level, which may indicate the African provenance of Levallois technology.
From Clactonian to Levallois. Some distinctive Clactonian tools found at Pyrgos/Mavroraki may support the possibility of a technological transition from the Clactonian Late Lower Palaeolithic to the Levallois Early Middle Paleolithic, demonstrating a shift from simple, opportunistic flake production to preconceived, highly controlled tool shaping (F. Audouze,1999; G. Monnier, 2006). The theory is based on the hypothesis that the Clactonian production of irregular tools, obtained by strong percussions of wide-angle striking platforms, could have suggested the invention of the Levallois industry, starting a technological evolution towards cognitive leap in artefact production, allowing for the creation of diverse and specialised tools usable in different environments.
The exploited cores provide a complete history of Levallois production. Their presence at Pyrgos/Mavroraki testifies to the existence of a Middle Palaeolithic rest station, where tools were produced using cobble stones collected nearby.
- Core no. Q1043, weighing 890 grammes, is the largest flint specimen discovered in the site, providing educational information on the entire core preparation process and its subsequent circular exploitation in the production of flakes used as points, scrapers, blades, and backed knives. The two opposing, almost parallel platforms both preserve the cortex in the central portion corresponding to the distal and proximal parts of the core, while in the proximal area opposite the pyramidal apex, a large convex detachment of a preferential flake with a cortical back and a naturally serrated edge is evident. Furthermore, the perfectly preserved patina suggests that the core was not reused in later periods.
Core no. 2208 (198 gr.) is what remains of another large, prepared core with evident scars from the detachment of flakes and Levallois points, which shows an episode of refitting with flake no. Q524.
The most exploited and exhausted nuclei, typologically called "turtle nuclei", such as no. Q785, no. Q605, no. Q1032, and no. Q501, illustrate the progressive exploitation of the nucleus down to the smallest splinters.
Another recurring evidence of the Levallois exploitation system is the detachment of a preferential cortical core flake, that, like nos. Q686, Q1056, Q1052, Q499, e Q1055, was often reused as centripetal scraper thanks to the jagged and denticulate edges left by the progressive around detachment.
Quartz Levallois. Regarding the use of quartz as a material for the manufacture of sharp tools, since flint is the primary rock used at Levantine sites, while quartz is absent, we hypothesised that at Pyrgos/Mavroraki, the use and knowledge acquired in the processing of spheroids influenced the creation of smaller tools up to the Middle Palaeolithic, including the Levallois industry. The production of quartz tools is, in fact, part of a distinguishable complex that highlights a systematic and deliberate flaking strategy that continues uninterrupted from the Acheulo-Yabrudian period to the Levallois industry.
The first production comprises cortical and subcortical flakes, with a predominance of irregular prismatic shapes and roughly set morphologies with elongated, discoidal, and triangular flakes.
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