Identifier: TDX:2604
Authors: Marnaoui, Marwa
Abstract:
Beyond the standardized global model, the Mode 2 can reveal a very marked intra-site, regional and inter-regional typological and technological variability before its replacement by the Middle Stone Age cultures.
The site of Sidi Zin (Tunisia) is one of the major Acheulean sites in North Africa, which still retains a considerable archaeological potential to be exploited in the understanding and interpretation of variability within the techno-complexes of Mode 2 in the Maghreb. This site is one of the rare sites of North Africa that has delivered a Mode 2 industry in stratigraphy with cleavers interspersed between two levels, lower and upper, exempted from cleavers.
A reexamination of the old material, resulting from the old excavations carried out by E.G. Gobert, as well as the study of new lithic series from excavation and the surface, allowed us to better describe and analyze the morpho-technological characteristics of this industry and to distinguish and discuss the different levels of variability in terms of composition and technical strategies.
This variability is perceptible in terms of the economy and the modalities in which the raw material is managed.
The lithic industry of Sidi Zin is also marked by variability in the choice of the “façonnage” supports and techniques and types of production between:
- Two levels, lower and upper, without cleavers, characterized by the dominance of the total handaxes and pebble-tools;
- A middle level with cleavers and handaxes, mostly partials, in which the natural bases and pebble-tools disappear.
This variability is to be explained either by cultural or functional factors related to the accomplishment of specific activities by Sidi Zin hominins.
Keywords: North Africa, Maghreb, Tunisia, Middle Pleistocene, Mode 2, typology, technology, cultural variability, limestone, handaxe, cleaver.
Repositori URV