Vlad Litov
Ph.D Student
Thesis Title: Lower Paleolithic Lithic Innovations in Response to Faunal Fluctuations in the Levant
Advisor: Prof. Ran Barkai
Paleolithic stone tool technologies were prominent means of human adaptation, allowing Lower Paleolithic/Early Pleistocene hominins to successfully expand over Eurasia and thrive in various biomes and latitudes. Animal acquisition, butchering and processing performed using stone butchery toolkits was a crucial activity continuum in the subsistence of Early Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, plausibly entailing practical and perceptual association between prey animals and the set of implements used upon them. This PhD research aims to investigate Paleolithic cultural evolution from a palaeoecological perspective by carefully incorporating data deduced from the Levantine faunal record, early human ethology and trophic interactions, as well as relevant inferences from the fields of ethnography and ethnoarchaeology into the study of lithic technologies.
The basic research objective of this PhD project will be executing a comprehensive techno-typological study of Levantine Late Acheulian lithic innovations: Quina-like scrapers, bifacial knives, blades produced by means of systematic laminar production, and other novelties rarely encountered in Acheulian contexts. Experimental and functional studies may supplement this study, potentially allowing to identify specific implements with certain butchery operations, or with other activities. The practical and possible cognitive roles of novel trajectories within traditional Acheulian technologies will be thoroughly investigated, leading to a better understanding of the long-lasting Acheulian.
Ultimately, I am interested in “big” issues concerning Paleolithic human cultural evolution, such as defining Levantine Paleolithic chrono-cultural dynamics and examining the role of prey animal exploitation and possible human-animal ontological relationships in bolstering technological stability and change in the Levant and beyond.
Projects:
Lab of Prehistory at TAU
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