VARIABILITY WITHIN MODE 2 TECHNOLOGY: EXPANDING CRITERIA FOR TECHNOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-06

Various methods of lithic analysis have been developed and used in the understanding and interpretation of lithic techno-complexes through time – typological, technological, functional, reduction sequences, chaîne opératoire and others. Each method established its own criteria for the classification and categorisation of techno-complexes. Recent developments, which favour a more holistic understanding of hominin behaviour and capacities, question previously established criteria for technological attribution, and command a reinvestigation into previously investigated and studied lithic assemblages. Until recently, simplistic typological criteria such as the presence/absence of bifaces, defined the technological attribution of lithic techno-complexes into a Mode 2 ascription. This study, by reinvestigating two distinct lithic techno-complexes of Western Europe (i.e. Isernia La Pineta, southern Italy) and South Asia (e.g. Mahadeo Piparia, Central India) respectively, seeks to address their technological characterisation and attribution through a more expansive database and along recently accepted criteria for technological attribution currently followed in Western Europe, Africa and the Levant. The study addresses the question of variability among Mode 2 techno-complexes along various parameters by subjecting the lithic assemblages of these two sites to technological and chaîne opératoire analyses, complementing their previous typological analysis, in order to reclassify them as Mode 2 assemblages, from their earlier Mode 1 attribution. By invoking a wide array of technological and behavioural parameters, this study will outline the importance of understanding the variability within, among and between Mode 2 techno-complexes, and the need to reinvestigate previously studied assemblages along expanded criteria for technological attribution.


Author(s): Srinivas, Akash (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research - IISER, Mohali)