Lithic refits as a tool to reinforce postdepositional analysis

Studies of archaeological assemblages recovered from palimpsests encounter difficulties related not only to their nature (the preservation of the remains), but also to the formation of the accumulation itself: the evidence of the different human occupations that the accumulation contains and its temporal resolution. Layer TD10.1 of Gran Dolina (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) is a 1-m-thick palimpsest from which 48,000 faunal remains and more than 21,000 lithic artefacts have been recovered. Several interdisciplinary studies have shown that TD10.1 is not the result of an intense and long-term occupation of the cavity, but rather the consequence of several repeated occupation events. Additionally, micro-morphological analyses demonstrate that there were only minimal postdepositional disturbances of the sedimentary context containing the artefacts. This paper presents results obtained from the study of lithic refits in a sample from the TD10.1 assemblage, posing the hypothesis that the position and relative distance separating the refitted elements show that they were in fact found in primary position. While in other cases, raw material units have been used as a tool to distinguish activity areas and occupational episodes, in this study we use refits to learn about the possible movement-or lack thereof-of the artefacts within the area of the site due to postdepositional factors. The use of refits is proposed as a support or supplement to other kinds of analyses of the postdepositional processes that affect the formation of archaeological layers.