Strike-a-lights

Reports: medieval--post-medieval malting kilns at `Mill Street' by Martin Brann & Neil McGavin (ed David Bowler) (918--30); early medieval buildings at `King Edward Street' by Peter Clark & Linda Blanchard (ed David Bowler) (931--8); investigations into possible Dominican Friary site at `Kinnoull Street' by David Bowler & Derek Hall (939--47) including cemetery evidence; `Blackfriars House' by David Bowler & Derek Hall (947--54). The artefacts section, by B Ford (959--79) includes notes on: `Horse equipment' by B Ellis (963); `Numismatica' by N Holmes (965); `Porous ceramic material' by C Underwood (965); `Stone shot' by M Brann (966); `Doorway pediment' by N Cameron & D Bowler (966); `Ceramic building material' by D W Hall (968, 970); `Textiles' by H Bennett (971); `Leather' by C Thomas & A Walsh~(971). There are details of `The human skeletal remains from Kinnoull Street' by M Bruce (ed A Cox) (979--85), `Animal bone' by C Sm...

The aim of this summary paper is to review the success of chemical sourcing in the study of the Scottish medieval Whiteware and Redware ceramic industries and outline the methods and protocols that the authors feel should be used to take the technique forward.

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Analyse de sensibilité à des changements morphologiques du complexe de l'épaule : application aux gestes de percussion au cours de débitage oldowayen Sensitivity analysis to morphological changes of the shoulder complex: application to percussion gestures during oldowan debitage

Étude des liens entre la latéralité et la dextérité chez les humains dans une perspective de mieux comprendre l'évolution de la dextérité humaine Study of the links between laterality and dexterity in humans in a perspective to better understanding the evolution of human dexterity

We assessed the chemical composition of more than 40 fragments of glass vessels from the Roman Period cemeteries in the Crimean piedmont-Druzhnoe, Neyzats, and Opushki, using X-ray spectral microanalysis. The results suggest that the glass from all the cemeteries belonged to the soda-lime-silica group, based on natural soda. The samples fall in glass groups "Levantine I", "HIMT", and "Roman glass", typical of central and peripheral Roman manufacture in 0-500 AD. Most vessels are made of glass with a high content of iron, manganese, and titanium, as in the HIMT group, most common in Europe since 300 AD. The likely workshops are those in the Syro-Palestinian area, northern Egypt, and Sinai, pointing to contacts of the northern Pontic with other parts of the Greco-Roman world. The composition of glass from all the three cemeteries is the same, suggesting that the sub-mountainous Crimea imported glassware from the same workshops.

The Late Scythian archaeological complex Chervony Mayak (past name is Bizyukiv monastery) is situated near the eponymous village of Beryslav district in Kherson region. It consists of the hill-fort and burial ground and is the historical and cultural site of national importance (by official ranking). The site is known since the nineteenth century. It was mentioned in the works of prince Myshetsky and N.F. Nogachevsky. The first plan of the hill-fort was taken by the military engineer A.P. Chirkov, and Kherson archaeologist V.I. Goshkevich has made the description and map of the site. The first graves were discovered randomly in nineteenth century in the monastery yard and southward of it. In 1975 the burial ground, known today as Chervony Mayak necropolis, has been discovered northeastward of the hill-fort. It was partly explored in 1976-1977 and during 1986-1988 by Moscow archaeologists Drs. Erast Symonovich and Olga Gei. In total they excavated 108 burials. Since 2011 the burial ground is studied by the Late Scythian expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of NASU headed by Dr. Aleksandr Symonenko. The funerary constructions of Chervony Mayak necropolis are represented by catacombs (crypts) with multiple and single burials (107), niche graves (25) and rectangular or oval pits (35). Among the grave goods there were iron weapons (long swords, spear-and arrow-heads), Roman red-slip fine ware and Scythian handmade pottery, gold earrings, bronze adornment and personal items (fibulae, bracelets, mirrors), necklaces made of carnelian, jade, amber, and glass beads. Some graves contained the items typical for the Baltic Germanic cultures. Earliest burials of the necropolis were accompanied by the fibulae of Mid-La Tène scheme and can be dated to the late 2 nd-1 st centuries BC. The Roman imported goods (red-slip pottery and fibulae) allow us to date the most of graves to the 1 st-first half of the 2 nd century AD. Several assemblages ought to be dated to the late 2nd-first half of the 3 rd century AD.

The Laboratory Of Conservation of Metal Objects at the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Lodz receives various relics discovered during archaeological excavations for conservation and analysis. One of such items was an object found in early-medieval cemetery in Lubień, and described as covering of a knife scabbard. After a thorough analysis and various tests, it turned out that it was an entirely different object than had been originally assumed, namely an openwork strike-a-light rarely encountered in Polish territories during the early medieval period. Among corrosion products there was a silver cross denarius from 4th quarter of the 11th c. It appears that in the process of careful observation and conservation intervention the current state of research can change as well and new knowledge can be acquired concerning burial deposits.

An archaeological excavation was carried out across an area proposed for re-development at Goosecroft Road, Stirling. The investigations uncovered the foundations of a substantial stone wall in the south-west corner of the site, and another wall further to the south, that probably relate to the nearby location of a medieval Dominican friary. Historical research provides additional background information (see Appendix 1). In addition, a burial was uncovered closely associated with the friary. Medieval midden deposits and possible boundary divisions were also discovered. The recovery of artefacts as well as radiocarbon dating evidence suggests these deposits and features are from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. In addition, an environmental sampling programme revealed that deep organic rich deposits originated in the early Neolithic, provided an insight into the changing environment around Stirling through to the medieval period (See Appendix 2).

We present here the first direct evidence for regular fire making by Neandertals. Isolated zones of macroscopic and microscopic traces suggesting repeated percussion and/or forceful abrasion with a hard mineral material were identified on dozens of large late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools using microwear analytical techniques. These bifaces were curated tools used for relatively long periods of time, and therefore possess a higher probability of preserving traces from multiple uses, including more infrequent activities. Both the distribution and nature of the observed mineral polish and associated striations are in many respects comparable to those obtained experimentally by obliquely percussing fragments of pyrite (FeS2) against the flatter 'faces' of a biface to make fire. The striations are always oriented roughly parallel to the long axis of the tool and are in some cases crosscut by subsequent flake removals, together arguing against a taphonomic origin for these traces. Such a percussive method is effective at regularly producing sparks that are easily directed towards tinder material while leaving the edges of the tool sharp for other tasks. These directional percussive and frictive use wear traces are present on bifacial tools recovered from archaeological layers primarily attributed to the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition (MTA) technoculture (ca. 50,000 years BP) at multiple sites throughout France. We discuss findings from five of these sites: Chez-Pinaud/Jonzac (Charente-Maritime) and Pech de l’Azé I, Fonseigner, Bout des Vergnes and Meyrals in the Dordogne. The use of bifaces as strike-a-light tools is a technocultural feature shared among the MTA peoples that represents the ‘smoking gun’ attesting to Neandertal fire making capabilities.

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List of illustrations iv List of tables v SAIR 68 | v 41. Selected stone tools 42. The grindstone, quern fragment and bullaun stone 43. Selected lithics 44. Ground plans of probably medieval chapels and their enclosures on Mull LIST OF TABLES 1. Radiocarbon dates 2. Summary cemetery data 3. Plant remains from Trench 2 4. Plant remains from Trench 3 5. Plant remains from Trench 4 6. Plant remains from Trench 8 7. Plant remains from Trench 10 8. Samples from Time Team excavations, OGT organic tempered ware (handmade tradition, transitional red/OGT fabric that appears to be in between handmade and redware fabric tradition) 9. Summary of vitrified material assemblage 10. Summary of vitrified material by trench (SM smelting; SHB smithing hearth base; RS runned slag; AM iron slag and vitrified ceramic amalgam; US unclassified slag; FAS fuel ash slag; VC vitrified ceramic) 11. Summary of vitrified material by context type (see Table 10 caption for abbreviations) 12. Summary of iron assemblage 13. Distribution of nail head-types by trench. Abbreviations: FS Flat, sub-rectangular; FR Flat, round; DS Domed, sub-rectangular; DR Domed, round; SR small, round; T-shaped head; U/K unknown (head missing) 14. Distribution of clenched, curved or straight shanks by trench. The ten unknowns are where the nail shank is broken just below the head. 15. Assemblage distribution by trench 16. Iron object type by context type 17. Summary of coarse stone assemblage by trench 18. Multifunctional cobble tool wear-types 19. Contexts of stone tools 20. General lithic artefact list 21. Reduction sequence of all unmodified and modified pieces of debitage 22. Percussion techniques applied to produce the site's technologically definable unmodified and modified flakes and blades 23. Distribution of all worked and unworked lithic objects SAIR 68 | 1

At the beginning of the 1980s, a single fi nd of a fl int dagger was made in Brzoza (northern Kuyavia, Poland).
The dagger was investigated in terms of raw material profi le, typological, technological and use-wear analyses. It was established that it was made of Scandinavian Cretaceous fl int and may be classifi ed into the subtype VIA (acc. Lomborg) or subvariant BBII2a (acc. Libera). The chronology of the dagger tends to be placed towards the end of the Early Bronze Age or the beginning of the Older Bronze Age in Poland (ca 1700-1500 cal BC). By means of use-wear analysis, diversifi ed and well-developed usage traces were recognized on the surface of the dagger. Some of them resulted in an obverse and inverse retouch indicative of secondary treatment.
Here it appears that the dagger from Brzoza may be considered as an import from the western-Baltic production centre. Before deposition, the dagger had also been frequently used as a strike-a-light

Fire use appears to have been relatively common among Neandertals in the Middle Palaeolithic [1]. Evidence for this practice
ranges from occasional fragments of heated flint or charred/combusted bone to many tens of layers of combustion features stacked
atop one another, depending on the frequency and degree of burning, the depositional setting and the preservational conditions.
However, the means by which Neandertals procured their fire — either through the collection of natural fire or by producing it
themselves using tools — is still a matter of debate [see 2]. Presented here is the first direct evidence for regular fire production
by Neandertals (Sorensen et al., in prep.). Using microwear analysis in conjunction with experimental data, dozens of late Middle
Palaeolithic bifacial tools have been identified that exhibit isolated zones of macroscopic and microscopic traces suggesting
repeated percussion and/or forceful abrasion with a hard mineral material. Both the locations and nature of the polish and associated
striations are in many respects comparable to those obtained experimentally by obliquely percussing fragments of pyrite (FeS₂)
against the ‘flat’ sides of a biface to make fire. The striations within these zones are always oriented parallel or sub-parallel to the
long axis of the tool and are often cross-cut by subsequent flake removals, together arguing against a natural, taphonomic origin for
these traces [3]. Such a percussive method is effective at regularly producing sparks that can easily be directed towards flammable
tinder material while leaving the edges of the tool sharp for other tasks. These directional percussive and frictive use wear traces
are present on bifacial tools recovered from archaeological layers primarily attributed to the Mousterian of Acheulean Tradition
(MTA) technoculture (ca. 50,000 years BP) at multiple sites throughout France. Discussed here are the findings from two of these
sites: Chez-Pinaud/Jonzac (Charente-Maritime) [3] and Pech de l’Azé I (Dordogne) [4]. MTA bifaces are curated tools used for
relatively long periods of time, and therefore possess a higher probability of preserving traces from multiple uses, including more infrequent
activities like fire making. Regular evidence for fire use in the MTA layers at the two sites discussed lends further credence
to the conclusions outlined here. Moreover, powdered manganese dioxide (MnO₂) - a mineral encountered in multiple Mousterian
contexts, including hundreds of fragments recovered from the MTA layers at Pech de l’Azé I - has recently been shown to be a ‘tinder
enhancer’ by lowering the temperature necessary to combust vegetal matter by as much as 100o C [5]and may have been used as
such by Neandertals. While examples of pyrotechnic minerals like pyrite and manganese dioxide are both known from a number of
later Middle Palaeolithic sites, the bifacial strike-a-light tools described here were a technocultural feature shared among the MTA
peoples that likely represent the ‘smoking gun’ attesting to Neandertal fire making capabilities.

pp. 659-689: Approche technoéconomique et fonctionnelle des occupations de plein air du Paléolithique moyen récent autour de Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) = Technoeconomic approach and site function of open-air sites from Late Middle Palaeolithic near Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France) / Marianne Deschamps, Amy E. Clark, Émilie Claud et al. --- pp. 691-712: La fracturation osseuse : du fait technique à l’essai d’interprétation sociétale. L’exemple de l’antilope saïga du gisement magdalénien de Saint-Germain-la-Rivière (Gironde) = Bone breakage: of the technical fact to the social interpretation’s try. The case of saiga antelope of the magdalenian site of Saint-Germain-la-Rivière (Gironde) / Caroline Masset, Sandrine Costamagno, David Cochard et al. --- pp. 713-735: La Honteyre (Le Tuzan, Gironde) : une occupation de chasseurs-collecteurs magdaléniens en contexte de désert sableux = La Honteyre (Le Tuzan, Gironde): a magdalenian hunter-gatherer occupation in a sandy desert environment / Laura Gourc, Mathieu Langlais, Luca Sitzia et al. --- pp. 737-764: Life and death of Angoumoisin-type dolmens in west-central France : architecture and evidence of the reuse of megalithic orthostats = Life and death of Angoumoisin-type dolmens in west-central France : Architecture and evidence of the reuse of megalithic orthostats / Vincent Ard, Emmanuel Mens, Didier Poncet et al. --- pp. 765-784: Aires d’extraction et façonnage des stèles de l’âge du Fer de Cornouaille (Finistère, France) : apports de la pétrographie et de l’analyse structurale des roches = Extraction zones and shaping of the Iron Age steles from Cornouaille (Finistère, France): contributions of petrography and structural analysis of the rocks / Martial Caroff, Bertrand Grall, Marine Moysan et al. --- pp. 785-808: Étude archéométallurgique de parures hallstattiennes en alliage cuivreux du Rhin supérieur = Archaeometallurgical study of Early Iron Age copper alloy ring ornaments from the Upper Rhine / Laurie Tremblay Cormier & Benoît Mille --- pp. 811-813: [Correspondances] Rites funestes et mythes romanesques : la leçon de la sépulture A de Téviec = Grisly rituals and romantic myths: a lesson from Téviec burial A / Bruno Boulestin --- pp. 814-818: [Correspondances] Les vestiges de Montmacq (Oise) : une occupation discrète du début du Mésolithique moyen en rive gauche de l’Oise = The archaeological site of Montmacq (Oise, France) : discrete clusters from middle Mesolithic on the left bank of Oise River / Karine Raynaud & Gaël Barracand --- pp. 819-823: [Découvertes récentes] Données préliminaires sur la fouille du site du Paléolithique moyen de Montereau-sur-le-Jard (Seine-et-Marne) = Preliminary data on the excavation of Middle Palaeolithic occupations at Montereau-sur-le-Jard (Seine-et-Marne) / Frédéric Blaser, Christine Chaussé, Grégory Bayle et al. --- pp. 824-828: [Découvertes récentes] Retour à Solutré : Route de la Roche : fouille préventive d’un gisement de plein air magdalénien = Back to Solutré: Route de la Roche: Rescue excavation of an open-air Magdalenian site / Jean-Baptiste Lajoux, Romain Malgarini, Céline Bemilli et al. --- pp. 829-830: [Résumé de thèse] (2016) – Connaissances des sociétés insulaires armoricaines par l’étude archéométrique du mobilier céramique. Les réseaux d’échanges iles-continent : évolution du Néolithique à la période gallo-romaine. Thèse de doctorat soutenue le 22 avril 2016 à l’université Rennes 2 devant le jury composé de François Giligny, Didier Binder, Xavier Clop-Garcia, Guirec Querré et Marie Tuffreau- Libre / Benjamin Gehres

Researchers have explored how hearths were used and the composition of fuel to understand cultural differences and environmental adaptations. However, scant research has been conducted to understand and document methods for producing fires. Given the long-lasting durability of stone, the stone-on-stone method for producing fire with a strike-a-light will survive for thousands of years in
the archaeological record; hence it is important to recognize and document these tools. This paper will present an artifact used as a strike-a-light for producing fire in the subarctic region of interior Alaska
(middle Tanana Valley) some 5,500 years ago. The strike-a-light recognized at Goodpaster-IV is, to our knowledge, the most ancient example currently known in the American Subarctic. By reviewing the current state of research on European strike-a-lights from the French Mesolithic and Neolithic and describing use-wear analysis of the strike-a-light, we demonstrate important characteristics that reveal how strike-a-light tools were implemented in prehistory.

The use of fire by Neandertals and their predecessors is currently a hot-button issue in the realms of Palaeolithic Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology. By and large, research within this vein focuses on the origins of “habitual” fire use, inferred from morphological changes within the human lineage observed in the fossil record, or from discerning the presence of possible anthropogenic fire features on increasingly older sites. Our research, on the other hand, focuses on identifying direct evidence of fire production in the Palaeolithic record by looking for tools used to make fire, namely “strike-a-lights” made from flint or other siliceous material used in conjunction with sulphur- and iron-bearing minerals (e.g. pyrite and marcasite) to make sparks. While strike-a-lights have been regularly identified from the late Upper Palaeolithic onwards, this is not the case for the Middle Palaeolithic. In this light, the “expedient strike-a-light model” has been proposed, which asserts earl...

Two primary fire production methods are known from antiquity: wood-on-wood friction and stone-on-stone percussion. The more durable elements of the latter system (i.e. flint and pyrite/marcasite, aka sulphuric iron) are more likely to preserve in archaeological contexts. Yet, known evidence of fire making using flint “strike-a-lights” and sulphuric iron drops off precipitously the further back in the archaeological record one looks, especially as one enters the Palaeolithic. This is most true for the Middle Palaeolithic (and earlier), when evidence of artificial fire making is virtually unknown, though often assumed due to the regular presence of fire traces on Neandertal sites. Is this paucity of fire making tools attributable to an inability to make fire, taphonomic bias, or perhaps technological variability? We propose it is the latter via the “expedient strike-a-light model”, which asserts early fire-making tools were likely used on an ad hoc basis for only a short period of time prior to being discarded. This stands in stark contrast to the more “classic” curated strike-a-lights recovered from Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts that show very heavy use traces, indicative of multiple episodes of use. To lend credence to this model, we look to an a-typical Levallois point from the Middle Palaeolithic (MIS 5) site of Bettencourt (northern France), which is the oldest known tool described in the literature as bearing fire-making traces (after undergoing modern microwear analysis). Until now, systematic testing of the veracity of the interpretation of the Bettencourt piece as a strike-a-light against experimental data has not been performed. Our data show that the use traces observed on the Bettencourt piece can be closely replicated experimentally, both macro- and microscopically, by striking the lateral edge of an elongated flake against a sulphuric iron nodular fragment to produce sparks.

The use of fire by Neandertals and their predecessors is currently a hot-button issue in the realms of Palaeolithic Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology. By and large, research within this vein focuses on the origins of “habitual” fire use, inferred from morphological changes within the human lineage observed in the fossil record, or from discerning the presence of possible anthropogenic fire features on increasingly older sites. Our research, on the other hand, focuses on identifying direct evidence of fire production in the Palaeolithic record by looking for tools used to make fire, namely “strike-a-lights” made from flint or other siliceous material used in conjunction with sulphur- and iron-bearing minerals (e.g. pyrite and marcasite) to make sparks. While strike-a-lights have been regularly identified from the late Upper Palaeolithic onwards, this is not the case for the Middle Palaeolithic. In this light, the “expedient strike-a-light model” has been proposed, which asserts early fire-making tools were likely used on an ad hoc basis for only a short period of time prior to being discarded. This stands in stark contrast to the more “classic” curated strike-a-lights recovered from Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts that show very heavy use traces, indicative of multiple episodes of use. It implies that the traces on Middle Palaeolithic strike-alights may be less easily detected in the archaeological record and perhaps the gestures used differed from those in later periods. We present the results of an experimental program that was performed to test this model as well as preliminary results of our evaluation of microwear traces, interpreted as resulting from use as a strike-a-light, observed on the lateral edge of an a-typical Levallois point from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Bettencourt (75/85,000 BP; TL-IRSL/ESR) in northern France. To our knowledge, this is the only tool predating the late Upper Palaeolithic that has been described in the literature as bearing fire making traces after undergoing modern microwear analysis. The traces, as previously described, consist of moderately heavy edge damage (i.e. edge-removals and crushing), minor rounding, polish and striations consistent with short-term application against mineral material, as well as prehension “gloss” from handling the tool in the presence of mineral dust, characteristic of “dirty” tasks like fire making. A tool exhibiting this suite of traces would lend support to the  ‘expedient strike-a-light model’. Until now, systematic testing of the veracity of the interpretation of the Bettencourt piece as a strike-alight against experimental data has not been performed. Thus, we report the results of a battery of new fire making and non-fire-making experiments conducted in an effort to replicate the microwear traces observed on the Bettencourt piece.