Journal
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 36, Issue 3, Pages 850-859Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2008.11.012
Keywords
Hunting weapons; Middle Paleolithic points; Impact scars; Southern Italy; Oscurusciuto
Funding
- municipality of Ginosa (Taranto, Italy)
- Ministero, dell'Universita e della Ricerca (PAR UNISI)
- National Science Foundation [BCS-0613319]
- Frison Institute
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We present the find of impact scars on six Middle Paleolithic points from the rock shelter site of Oscurusciuto in southern Italy, dated to MIS 3. We review our knowledge of hunting weapons in the European Middle Paleolithic, the available evidence for the use of Mousterian points as spear tips and the interpretations of impact scars. Our identifications are based on comparisons to similar scars observed on experimental material and archaeological material of known function, made of the same raw materials (cryptocrystalline varieties of silica) as the points from the Oscurusciuto site. The scarce evidence available prior to Our work suggested that at least some Mousterian points were Used to tip hand-delivered spears already by MIS 6 (i.e. between 186 and 127 ka). The evidence from Oscurusciuto confirm that Neanderthals in Western Europe sometimes used Mousterian points to tip spears to hunt large and medium size mammals, like the fauna present at the Oscurusciuto site. The significance of this sample is not diminished by its small size, as indicated by a discussion of the factors that influence the frequencies of impact scars in different archaeological samples and a review of comparable evidence from residential sites of similar and younger ages. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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