The Early Middle Palaeolithic of Britain : origins, technology and landscape
This thesis examines technological behaviour during the early British Middle Palaeolithic (Late OIS 9-7), as reflected by lithic artefacts. The British data-set, whilst containing few high-resolution sites providing information relevant to ethnographic-scale behavioural reconstruction, actually forms a valuable corpus of well-contextualised locales within a tightly constrained chronostratigraphic framework. Lithic artefacts from these sites can be used to address broader questions concerning the emergence and nature of particular ~Middle Palaeolithic~ behaviours; specifically, the emergence of, and variability within, Levallois technology in Britain, and increasing complexity in the organisation of technology in the landscape. The assemblages analysed in this thesis comprise the nine best-preserved British sites dated to this period, which can be placed within secure chronological, geographical and ecological contexts. Whilst previous surveys have emphasised the typological composition of such assemblages, this thesis considers the specific technological behaviours evident at particular locales, in terms of which stages of lithic reduction are represented, what specific Levallois preparatory and exploitation
Scott, Rebecca
The Early Middle Palaeolithic of Britain : origins, technology and landscape. This thesis examines technological behaviour during the early British Middle Palaeolithic (Late OIS 9-7), as reflected by lithic artefacts. The British data-set, whilst containing few high-resolution sites providing information relevant to ethnographic-scale behavioural reconstruction, actually forms a valuable corpus of well-contextualised locales within a tightly constrained chronostratigraphic framework. Lithic artefacts from these sites can be used to address broader questions concerning the emergence and nature of particular ~Middle Palaeolithic~ behaviours; specifically, the emergence of, and variability within, Levallois technology in Britain, and increasing complexity in the organisation of technology in the landscape. The assemblages analysed in this thesis comprise the nine best-preserved British sites dated to this period, which can be placed within secure chronological, geographical and ecological contexts. Whilst previous surveys have emphasised the typological composition of such assemblages, this thesis considers the specific technological behaviours evident at particular locales, in terms of which stages of lithic reduction are represented, what specific Levallois preparatory and exploitation
early middle_palaeolithic britain origin technology_landscape examines technological behaviour early british middle_palaeolithic late reflect lithic_artefact british data_set whilst contain high_resolution site provide_information relevant ethnographic scale behavioural reconstruction actually form valuable corpus well contextualised locale within tightly constrain framework lithic_artefact site use address broad_question concern emergence nature particular middle_palaeolithic behaviours specifically emergence variability_within levallois technology britain increase complexity organisation technology_landscape assemblage_analyse comprise best preserved british site date_period place_within secure chronological_geographical ecological context whilst previous survey emphasise typological composition assemblage considers specific technological behaviour evident particular locale term stag lithic reduction represent specific levallois exploitation