«BULLETIN OF THE IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY. GEOARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY, AND ANTHROPOLOGY SERIES»
ISSN 2227-2380 (Print)

List of issues > «Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series». 2014. Vol. 7

Raw Materials Strategies in Paleolithic Practice

Full text (russian)

Author(s)
A. N. Sorokin
Abstract

The concept of "raw materials strategy of population" is one of the fundamental in geoarcheology. This direction is the most actively developing since the 1970s. in Western Europe, especially in France. The concept of "raw materials strategy" includes the exploring deposits of raw materials, the methods of transportation, the distance at which it is tolerated, and the methods of use. The raw material extraction refers to the "basic livelihood strategies". Application of natural science methods to study natural resources using petrography, X-ray spectrometry and phase analysis permit to determine the origin of the minerals, "fix" parking to specific fields, to clarify the lifestyle of ancient people and their migrations. All of this has brought discipline to a new level. Practice shows that the standard division of stone raw material for "local" (delivered from a distance of 2–5 km) and "brought" (bring a distance of 5 km) does not include the features of specific human behavior, seasonal cycles of its movements and the nature of dependence on raw materials. If a strategy is the production of conscious algorithm of behavior, the question inevitably arises as primitive population was typical of goal-setting in the selection of raw materials and fields, that is the strategy? Biological species survival practice involves natural character collection of raw materials during the seasonal migrations of the population, because for the Middle and Upper Paleolithic deliberate organizing special trips for the stone does not have to assume. That means in relation to prehistoric populations should be developed criteria to distinguish their natural seasonal shifts (nomadic migration) of conscious behavior or otherwise strategy.

Keywords
Mousterian, Upper Paleolithic, North-West Caucasus, raw-materials strategies, production and transportation of raw materials, geoarcheology theory, seasonal cycle, petroarcheology, spectrometry
UDC
903«632»