Assessing geometric microliths as cultural markers through an analysis of shape variation and projectile performance
Journal: Scientific Reports
Year: 2025

European geometric microlith shape variation is often used as a marker of cultural differences between groups of Mesolithic hunter gatherers and/or Neolithic farmers. Indeed, the 2D plan-view shape of these lithics is known to vary in spatially and temporally systematic ways between archaeological sites. Such differences are well evidenced in the Iberian Peninsula between the 9th and 8th millennia BP. Here we test an alternative hypothesis for the structured variation observed in geometric micro