The presence of shaped stone balls at early Paleolithic sites has attracted scholarly attention
since the pioneering work of the Leakeys in Olduvai, Tanzania. Despite the persistent …

The stone artifact record has been one of the major grounds for investigating our evolution.
With the predominant focus on their morphological attributes and technological aspects of …

Flint tools exhibiting modified patinated surfaces (“double patina”, or post-patination flaked
items) provide a glimpse into Paleolithic lithic recycling, stone economy, and human …

Chop** tools/choppers provide one of the earliest and most persistent examples of stone
tools produced and used by early humans. These artifacts appeared for the first time~ 2.5 …

Quina scrapers are well-known components of the European Middle Paleolithic Mousterian.
A similar production process was detected within the lithic assemblages of the Levantine …

Biased skeletal part representation is a key element for making inferences about transport
decisions, carcass procurement, and use patterns in anthropogenic accumulations. In the …

Investigations of organic lithic micro-residues have, over the last decade, shifted from
entirely morphological observations using visible-light microscopy to compositional ones …

The presence of fast-moving small game in the Paleolithic archaeological faunal record has
long been considered a key variable to assess fundamental aspects of human behavior and …

Residue analysis is an established area of expertise focused on detecting traces of
substances found on the surface of objects. It is routinely employed in forensic casework and …

In this paper, we present a novel hypothesis as to what led humans in the Upper Paleolithic
to penetrate and decorate deep, dark caves. Many of the depictions in these caves are …