SESSION 3 – Stone tool production and processing techniques
Technical ruptures in Abric Romaní Middle Palaeolithic site: a multidisciplinary approach to identify Neanderthal technology and socio-economic organisation

Technological rupture along Middle Palaeolithic sequences are attested in several multi-layers sites in Europe. The change in productive processes can suggest the presence of hunter-gatherers groups with different cultural traditions, sharing different technical knowledge. Traditionally the definition of the productive processes is based on the dichotomy between “expedient” and “predetermined” techno-complexes. Research of Neanderthal technological variability is mainly focused on landscape mobility strategy as a parameter that explains the human cognitive abilities, the productive strategies, and the changes in the organisation of technology. Little attention has been devoted to investigate the relation between technical ruptures and the changes in occupational strategies at a micro-scale of analysis.

These high-resolution approach allows us to discuss changes in productive strategies going beyond the classical “expedient-predetermined” dichotomy, including into the analysis several factors usually not considered into the technological analysis, such as (i) the flexibility of the technical systems, (ii) the temporal constraints within the activities carried out into the site (recycling behaviour) and (iii) the intra-site occupational strategy as effect of different social organisation during these two phases of human presence in the site.