Bidirectional blade technology in the Near East during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
[EN] Bidirectional blade technology (BBT) has traditionally been considered the most common formal component of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) material culture in the Levant during the ca. 9th-8th millennia cal. BCE. This paper provides an assessment of the current state of the art of the origins of...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2017 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/158950 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/158950 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Near East Pre-Pottery Neolithic B Lithics Naviform Bidirectional blade technology Proche-Orient Néolithique précéramique B Industries lithiques Naviforme Technologie laminaire bipolaire |
| Sumario: | [EN] Bidirectional blade technology (BBT) has traditionally been considered the most common formal component of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) material culture in the Levant during the ca. 9th-8th millennia cal. BCE. This paper provides an assessment of the current state of the art of the origins of BBT and its rapid diffusion throughout the Levant during the PPNB. Secondly, it summarizes the different regional and temporal variants (knapping schemes) of the bidirectional blade technologies identified in the region, based both on earlier studies which basically depended on core typology, and on more recent technological approaches oriented to deeply understanding the complete chaîne opératoire of this method of blade knapping. Finally, this comprehensive is also aimed at, hopefully, mitigating potential terminological and conceptual confusion caused by the abundance of studies, from different schools and approaches. The updated and chronologically refined picture of the origins, diffusion and regional variants of bidirectional technology during the PPNB constitutes a major tool for understanding a wide range of aspects of the first farming communities in the Levant (e.g., social complexity, craft specialization and productivity, inter-site and intra-site social interactions, knowledge transfer, exchange networks, etc.) as well as the Neolithization process of the western wing of the Fertile Crescent itself. Results confirm that BBT originated in the middle Euphrates valley ca. 8900-8800 cal. BCE. Its appearance constituted a marked change in local lithic traditions towards standardized production of large blades with very specific features (straight, naturally pointed and generally robust) which were transformed into projectiles and, in less numbers, sickle blades, knives and other tools. The marked increase in the size of the projectiles related to bidirectional technology constituted, when compared to Epipalaeolithic and PPNA assemblages of the region (dominated by geometrics and small projectiles such as Khiam points), a remarkable shift in projectile technology. Determining what led those Neolithic communities to produce significant quantities of large and standardized projectiles remains, however, little understood. The wide distribution in varied socioeconomic contexts (mostly farmers and herders but also hunters and foragers) using different raw materials (obsidian and a wide range of local and non-local flints) and the growing regional and spatial variability observed throughout the Levant suggests that BBT did not require the a priori existence of an economic infrastructure that supported craft specialization. Therefore, it is crucial to rethink whether bidirectional technology could be considered, and under what circumstances, a specialized production. |
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