Bone retouchers and technological continuity in the Middle Stone Age of North Africa

PLoS One. 2020 Mar 30;15(3):e0230642. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230642. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Evidence for specialised bone tools has recently been reported for the Middle Stone Age of North Africa [one], which complements similar finds of slightly younger age in South Africa [two, three]. However, until now scant reference has been made to lesser known tools also made of bone ('bone retouchers') that were employed specifically as intermediaries for working or refining stone artefacts, that are sometimes present in these assemblages. In this paper we describe 20 bone retouchers from the cave of Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt in north-east Morocco. This is the largest stratified assemblage of bone retouchers from a North African MSA site, and the biggest single collection so far from the African Continent. A total of 18 bone retouchers was recovered in securely dated archaeological levels spanning a period from ~ 84.5 ka to 24 ka cal BP. A further two bone retouchers were found in a layer at the base of the deposits in association with Aterian artefacts dating to around 85,000 BP and so far represent the earliest evidence of this type of tool at Taforalt. In this paper we present a first, detailed description of the finds and trace the stages of their production, use and discard (chaîne opératoire). At the same time, we assess if there were diachronic changes in their form and function and, finally, explore their presence in relation to stone tools from the same occupation layers of the cave.

Publication types

  • Historical Article
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Archaeology
  • Bone and Bones / anatomy & histology*
  • Fossils / history*
  • History, Ancient
  • Humans
  • Morocco
  • Technology*

Grants and funding

Research at Taforalt was supported by the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP, Morocco) (AB) and Protars P32/09-CNRST (Morocco) (AB). Other major funding contributions were provided by NERC (EFCHED NER/T/S/2002/00700 (NB) and RESET NE/E015670/1) (NB), the Leverhulme Trust (F/08 735/F) (NB, LH), the British Academy (NB), as well as grants from Oxford University (Fell Fund, Boise and Meyerstein) (NB), and the Calleva Foundation (LH). This article is based on a paper presented at the “Retouching the Palaeolithic” conference in Hanover, Germany in October 2015, supported by the funding initiative “Symposia and Summer Schools” of the Volkswagen Foundation (Grant number: 89896) (ET). The funders had no role in design study, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.