Prepared-core technique: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Means of producing stone tools}}

[[File:Levallois Preferencial-Animation.gif|thumb|Animation illustrating the preparation of a Levallois core and the removal of a Levallois flake (of predetermined form)]]

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| image1 = Stone Core for Making Blades - Boqer Tachtit, Negev, circa 40000 BP (detail).jpg

| caption1 = <center>Flint stone core for making blades (reassembled from blades for illustration purposes), Boqer Tachtit, [[Negev]], [[Israel]], circa 40000 BP.</center>

| image2 = Kebaran culture microliths 22000-18000 BP.jpg

| caption2 = <center>[[Kebaran culture]] [[microlith]]s from a prepared core, 22000-18000 BP.</center>

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The '''prepared-core technique''' is a means of producing [[stone tool]]s by first preparing common [[lithic core|stone cores]] into shapes that lend themselves to [[knapping]] off flakes that closely resemble the desired tool and require only minor touch-ups to be usable.

In contrast to the production of core tools like [[handaxes]], where cores themselves were the end product shaped and trimmed down by removal of flakes, in prepared-core technique large flakes are the product and the core is used to produce them. This shift made it faster and more resource-efficient, as multiple tools could be struck from a single piece of starting material.<ref>{{cite web|title=Middle Paleolithic Tool Technologies|url=http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/stsmith/classes/anth3/courseware/LithicTech/8_Middle_Paleolithic_Tool.html|publisher=University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Anthropology|access-date=16 September 2017}}</ref>

Prepared core preparation techniques are grouped under the label [[Stone tool#Mode III: The Mousterian Industry|Mode 3]] technology.<ref>{{cite webjournal|title=Mode 3 Technologies and the Evolution of Modern Humans|date=1997 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/mode-3-technologies-and-the-evolution-of-modern-humans/EE5A558A051F3C0F60A43B0955A3464E|publisherjournal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal|doi=10.1017/S0959774300001451 |access-date=30 October 2020 |last1=Foley |first1=Robert |last2=Lahr |first2=Marta Mirazón |volume=7 |pages=3–36 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The most wellbest-known prepared core reduction method is the [[Levallois technique|Levallois]] technique<ref>{{cite web|title=Levallois technique|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100102137|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=30 October 2020}}</ref>

Prepared core technology was likely invented independently multiple times at different locations.<ref>{{cite webjournal|title=Early Levallois technology and the Lower to Middle Paleolithic transition in the Southern Caucasus|year=2014 |url=https://sciencewww.sciencemagscience.org/contentdoi/345abs/620410.1126/1609science.abstract1256484|publisher=Science Magazine|doi=10.1126/science.1256484 |access-date=30 October 2020|last1=Adler |first1=D. S. |last2=Wilkinson |first2=K. N. |last3=Blockley |first3=S. |last4=Mark |first4=D. F. |last5=Pinhasi |first5=R. |last6=Schmidt-Magee |first6=B. A. |last7=Nahapetyan |first7=S. |last8=Mallol |first8=C. |last9=Berna |first9=F. |last10=Glauberman |first10=P. J. |last11=Raczynski-Henk |first11=Y. |last12=Wales |first12=N. |last13=Frahm |first13=E. |last14=Jöris |first14=O. |last15=MacLeod |first15=A. |last16=Smith |first16=V. C. |last17=Cullen |first17=V. L. |last18=Gasparian |first18=B. |journal=Science |volume=345 |issue=6204 |pages=1609–1613 |pmid=25258079 |bibcode=2014Sci...345.1609A |s2cid=10266660 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> The regular use of Prepared core technology is associated with large-brained hominins such as ''[[''Homo heidelbergensis'']]'', [[Neanderthals]] and [[modern humans]]. Its widespread use is the defining characteristic of the [[Middle Stone Age]] period in [[Africa]] and the [[Middle Palaeolithic]] (~300.000 - 40.000 years ago) in [[Europe]].<ref>{{cite webjournal|title=Mode 3 Technologies and the Evolution of Modern Humans|date=1997 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/mode-3-technologies-and-the-evolution-of-modern-humans/EE5A558A051F3C0F60A43B0955A3464E|publisherjournal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal|doi=10.1017/S0959774300001451 |access-date=30 October 2020 |last1=Foley |first1=Robert |last2=Lahr |first2=Marta Mirazón |volume=7 |pages=3–36 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==References==