Lithic raw material diversification as an adaptive strategy : Technology, mobility, and site structure in Late Mesolithic northernmost Europe

• Formal technologies and intensified reduction are often seen as responses to increased mobility and low abundance of lithic raw material of good flakeability and controllability. Although patterns of lithic raw material availability and occurrence are in many ways analogous to those of subsistence resources, resource diversification, an adaptive strategy commonly discussed in relation to food procurement, is rarely discussed in connection to changes in lithic resource availability and technology. We present a case from northernmost Europe in which pronounced differences in raw material availability caused by a distinct geological setting existed within a relatively small area. We conclude that restricted availability of high-quality raw material due, for instance, to increased mobility or changes in the size or location of the foraging range does not necessarily lead to formalization and intensification and can, in certain situations, as in the studied case, lead to the application of an adaptive strategy that can be called raw material diversification. This strategy entails a widening of the raw material base to include raw materials of lower workability and a consequent alteration of existing technological concepts, often in the form of simplification and informalization.

Keyword

Lithic technology

mobility

site structure

diversification

intensification

adaptation

technological organization

lithic raw material properties

Fennoscandia

quartz

Arkeologi

Archaeology

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)