page_title: Levallois technique
section_title: Asia
hierarchical_section_title: Levallois technique / Locations / Asia
caption_attribution_description: English: Middle Paleolithic Levallois flake from Niasar, Kashan, Iran
context_page_description: The Levallois technique is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed by precursors to modern humans during the Palaeolithic period.
  It is named after 19th-century finds of flint tools in the Levallois-Perret suburb of Paris, France. The technique was more sophisticated than earlier methods of lithic reduction, involving the striking of lithic flakes from a prepared lithic core. A striking platform is formed at one end and then the core's edges are trimmed by flaking off pieces around the outline of the intended lithic flake. This creates a domed shape on the side of the core, known as a tortoise core, as the various scars and rounded form are reminiscent of a tortoise's shell. When the striking platform is finally hit, a lithic flake separates from the lithic core with a distinctive plano-convex profile and with all of its edges sharpened by the earlier trimming work.
  This method provides much greater control over the size and shape of the final flake which would then be employed as a scraper or knife although the technique could also be adapted to produce projectile points known as Levallois points.
context_section_description: Syria/Israel: Excavated within a stratigraphic column containing tools from this culture.
  Iran: Levallois products have been discovered in Middle Paleolithic sites of the Zagros region including Bisitun cave, Warwasi, Darai, Kunji, Do-Ashkaft. There are a number of Middle Palelithic sites in Central Iran that yielded Levallois flakes and blades including Mirak, Niasar, and Parvadeh  .
  Afghanistan: Implements located in the Haibak valley.
  North-east Asia: The extension of the Levallois method to this part of the world now seems undoubtedly with recent evidence at Shuidonggou (Northern China) in Mongolia and Altai-Siberia, dating from the Late Pleistocene.
  Hong Kong: Wong Tei Tung in Sai Kung located in the east New Territories.
  Pakistan: The Soanian techno-complex from the Soan Valley located in northern Pakistan, has been identified as a Mode-3 Levallois complex.
  China: Evidence of Levallois  technology from the lithic assemblage of the Guanyindong Cave site in southwest China, dated to approximately 170,000–80,000 years ago, is presented by Hu et al. (2018). The first discovered blade site in China was in Shuidonggou in 1923 by Lincent and Teihard de Chardin. When they excavated the location, twelve localities were founded and had an age range of roughly 40,000 – 10,000 BP. Out of the twelve localities, SDG1 proved to be most important with the discovery of numerous unique, elongated blanks and Levallois-like cores found.
  India: the stratified prehistoric site of Attirampakkam, India, has shown that processes signifying the end of the Acheulian culture and the emergence of a Middle Palaeolithic culture occurred at 385 ± 64 thousand years ago. (ka)
caption: A Levallois flake from Niasar, Kashan
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