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METHODS OF CHIPPING FLINT

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TOOLS OF THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC

In the Middle Paleolithic, large groups of stone industries develop on the basis of regional traditions, giving shape to a considerable technological and economic variability: besides the persistent manufacture of bifacial and the Levallois method, other chipping methods appear, such as the Discoid and the Laminar. Their products, of various shape and size, are used thanks to their sharp edges, or transformed into tools such as scrapers and denticulates used in different activities, such as slaughtering and wood working.
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TOOLS OF THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC

With the arrival of Homo sapiens and the spread of major innovations of the Upper Paleolithic, we witness the development of exchange networks, even over long distances, the affirmation of new technologies in the production of lithic instruments, in its functional specialisation and standardisation, in the clear distinction between that of daily use and that of hunting. At the same time, new tools from animal hard materials such as needles, daggers, perforators and thrusters spread. Bow and arrows appear, attested by rare but exceptional discoveries.
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INDIRECT PERCUSSION

The indirect percussion technique involves the use of a chisel made of organic material (punch), usually a deer stage section, which is struck by a wooden or stone hammer. The precision in locating the point of impact on the flint core and the separation angle close to 90 degrees allow better control in chipping of blades and bladelets, which results in more regular, straight and standardized products. With good quality flint, this technique allows the production of blades to be optimised, obtaining a high proportion of functional margins per unit of raw material.
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THE MICROBULINO TECHNIQUE

The microburin is a retouching technique that allows the controlled segmentation of blade or bladelet. The resulting microburin is a processing residue which is almost never used, on the other hand a blade portion with an extremely sharp oblique truncation (piquant trièdre) is obtained, which can be further retouched or exploited as such. This technique is usually associated with the production of geometric arrowheads.
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LAMINATING METHOD

The laminar method is a predetermined chipping mode which, through careful preparation and management of the core morphology, allows regular and elongated blades to be produced in series. The first blades are detached following a natural guide rib or prepared by orthogonal flaking, and then the negative left by each blade serves as preparation for the next. If carried out accurately, with few and appropriate management adjustments, this method allows an almost uninterrupted production of regular blanks until the core is exhausted.
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THE GEOLOGICAL RESOURCES IN THE BERICI

The rocks of the Berici are mainly calcareous, of age between the Late Cretaceous and the Miocene (between 90 and 5 million years ago), with local basaltic intrusions of eocenic age. The rocks have settled in environments of open sea (Scaglia), carbonatic platform (Eocene, Oligocene) or for actions of erosion and transport of pre-existing rocks (Miocene).
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CREDITS

COORDINATION
Municipality of Barbarano Mossano

RESEARCH, TEXTS, CONTENT
Stefano Bertola
Nicolò Fasser
Nicola Dal Santo
Marco Peresani

ART DIRECTION, GRAPHICS AND VIDEO
Francesco Marangoni

D.O.P.
Alberto Marangoni

DRONE
Mauro Migliari

INVENTORY OF FINDS
Nicola Dal Santo
Rachele Discosti

SIGNATORIES TO THE SCIENTIFIC PROJECT
Stefano Bertola
Nicola Dal Santo
Francesco Marangoni
Marco Peresani
Ambra Tosetto

SUPERINTENDENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND FINE ARTS
LANDSCAPE FOR THE PROVINCES OF VERONA, ROVIGO AND VICENZA
Fabrizio Magani Superintendent
Gabriella Bologna
Giulia Pelucchini
Paola Salzani

MUNICIPALITY OF VICENZA
ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
Viviana Frisone

TOOLS OF THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC

In Italy, as in Europe, the middle Paleolithic shows a wide variability in manufacturing methods and type of instruments, especially between scrapers. The lithic industries develop regional differences often influenced by cultural (innovation) or economic factors or even linked to the function of the sites. In addition to the well-known Levallois, another chipping method is used, called Discoide, whose products are robust and short. The sharpest flakes are used directly, thanks to their ergonomic characteristics, or transformed into scrapers, denticulates or points. Scrapers and denticulates are used in slaughtering activities or for treatment of wet and dry skin but also in the scraping, cutting, sawing, engraving and thinning of wood, while points and other triangular flakes are ideal both as hunting equipment and as knives. The scrapers can be made in different stages of processing and have a single functional edge or two, even converging. In many cases these products are specially modified to be hafted. As a result of the use and loss of functionality of the active edge of the tool, it can be refreshed by repeated retouching operations that cause, however, the progressive reduction of their size until the definitive abandonment. This continuous re-employment cycle is carefully planned. Extremely rare, but of exceptional scientific value, are some wooden spears and sticks found in wet deposits in Europe and different types of bone tools that testify the rich technological baggage of the Neanderthals.

TOOLS OF THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC

Compared to the previous Middle Paleolithic, the Upper Paleolithic saw a radical change in tools, which can be interpreted as the abandonment of the priority given to multifunctional scrapers. The material culture represented by the flint, bone, and antler tools created by early Homo sapiens marks a significant evolutionary leap in Paleolithic technologies, which correlates with changes involving the economy, hunting strategies, and other aspects such as the use of ornamental objects and artistic production. An innovation is the systematic and often exclusive mass production of blades and bladelets, whose sharp and regular edges, as well as their sizes, appear standardized. These are tools that facilitate gripping and, with modifications, also allow for hafting, providing prolonged use over time. Other innovations relate to domestic tools, enriched and specialized for all types of processing through scrapers, burins, backed knives, perforators, and others. Scrapers are one of the most typical tools: made from blades, these tools have a retouched edge, which can be renewed, making them ideal for working leather. The burins have edges capable of engraving bone, antler, and stone, widening holes, or scraping hard materials. Retouched blades are equipped with regular, robust edges designed for cutting or sawing. Finally, remarkable is the range of armatures used in hunting activities. These are small objects of various shapes, such as points and geometric elements (triangles, rectangles, segments of circles), modified with marginal adjustments (retouches), aimed at improving their penetrating properties and fitting them into projectiles.

In-depth Analysis: Indirect Percussion

Indirect percussion emerged in Italy and the rest of Europe during the Late Mesolithic, between the end of the Boreal period and the beginning of the Atlantic phase (approximately 9,000–8,800 years ago). The introduction of this technique is linked to the cultural phenomenon of the “blade-and-trapeze complexes,” which characterize the Late Mesolithic across much of Europe. Thanks to indirect percussion, often combined with pressure flaking, the lithic industries of this period are distinguished by highly regular blades and bladelets with parallel edges. Notable examples include notched and denticulated blades used for working wood or other hard materials such as bone and antler. However, it is the transformation of arrowheads that stands out most prominently. These were typically geometric in shape, predominantly trapezoidal, though rhomboidal or triangular shapes were also less commonly produced. These geometric forms were crafted by selecting bladelets of optimal flaking quality and segmenting them using the microburin technique.

In-depth study:
The microbulino technique

The microburin first appeared at the end of the Upper Paleolithic and became quite common during the Early Mesolithic, coinciding with the spread of microlithic geometric arrowheads. In Late Mesolithic, the standardization of trapezoidal armatures made this technique even more relevant. In Northern Italy, the microburin technique was still present in most Early Neolithic contexts and persisted throughout the early phase of the Square-Mouthed Pottery Culture, until approximately 6,700 years ago. During this period, the microburin fell out of use, as geometric armatures were abandoned in favor of more elaborate flat retouched arrowheads.

INSIGHT: BLADE PRODUCTION

An occasional blade production is recorded in Middle Paleolithic contexts associated with Neanderthals. However, it is with the arrival of Homo sapiens that the laminar method spreads extensively across Europe. Since then, although sometimes accompanied by or rarely surpassed by other operational sequences, laminar working has been the main method of flint knapping until the end of the Middle Bronze Age, when the use of flint tools is largely abandoned. During this long time span, countless variants have been implemented, using different techniques with hard or soft stone hammers, deer antler, hardwood, indirect percussion, and pressure. Even within the same concept of laminar processing, there is a transition from the large direct percussion blades of the Magdalenian (Upper Paleolithic) to the microliths of the Sauveterrean (Early Mesolithic) or blades longer than 30 cm produced by specialized craftsmen using lever pressure in certain flint extraction areas of particularly high quality starting from the Early Neolithic.

NEANDERTHAL IN BERICI HILLS: Territory, supplies, movement of manufactured goods between and beyond the borders

The first human presence in the Berici Mountains dates back to about 200,000 years ago, when the Grotto of San Bernardino was frequented by Neanderthals. In the following times and up to about 43 thousand years ago, these groups settled in other caves and shelters, on limestone shelves, hunting prey of different environments also in relation to major climate changes: megaceres, deer, roe Elk, bison and aurochs, ibex and some wild boar, but also beavers in the river plain in front of it. For the full exploitation of these animal resources, as well as for the recovery and possible processing of plant tissue, Neanderthals used tools on splinters made by known chipping methods, like the Levallois, the Quina or the Discoide. These deep-rooted technological knowledge were integrated with precise information on the availability of flint in the territory between the Eastern Berici, the Western Euganei and the central Lessini Mountains, Repeatedly visited for the selection, processing and circulation of blocks, nodules and tools of various uses. The artefacts exhibited in the side showcase provide a representation, although partial, of these georisorse, attesting to the use of varieties contained in the carbonatic formations of the Mesozoic, mainly, and the Cenozoic to a lesser extent. The marked reduction in size of non-local flint tools, subjected to a greater degree of exploitation, with continuous revitalization of their functional edges.

GEORESOURCES IN THE BERICI HILLS

They have quite varied compositional, mineralogical, and mechanical characteristics. The stratified limestones of the Scaglia Rossa contain flint nodules that were sought after and exploited in ancient and recent Prehistory to make flint tools; in modern times, these limestones have been quarried for lime production. The Eocene and Oligocene platform rocks have characteristic fossil associations from shallow marine environments, with calcareous algae, bryozoans, echinoderms, and benthic foraminifera. These are studied by geologists for detailed paleogeographical and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. They are easily workable because they are soft and porous, and have been quarried since Roman times as building or ornamental stones. Commercially, they are known as Vicenza stone and Nanto stone, a brand recognized worldwide. In the hilly area, mineral deposits of bentonite, kaolin, refractory minerals, and silica sands have also been locally cultivated.