End Scraper Reduction and Hunter-Gatherer Mobility

Abstract

Various lithic measures have been invoked to argue that human foragers moved over greater or lesser distances, or moved with greater or lesser frequency when compared with other foraging groups. This paper examines one of those measures—the reduction of blade end scrapers from early Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian and Perigordian occupations in southwestern France. Evidence of end scraper reduction is compared with faunal diversity and lithic material provenience, the former a potential catalyst of and the latter a potential reflection of mobility. A relationship between less-intense end scraper reduction, somewhat elevated percentages of distant raw materials, and reindeer-dominated fauna is noted during cold and apparently open environmental conditions. Less consistency in the extent of end scraper reduction is observed among assemblages associated with more diverse and at times less-mobile fauna. These observations argue for the importance of a fine-grained comparison of lithic and other data, the complexity of procurement strategies, and the recognition that greater or lesser reduction does not translate directly into greater or lesser mobility.

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