Further Analyses of Southern French Flint Industries

In the Early Neolithic c. 4500 B.C. populations living on a few West Mediterranean sites – particularly in Italy – used obsidian from Lipari and other obsidian sources, and a couple of groups in the Rhone Valley area used translucent honey coloured flint like that from the source site at Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Others used flint of different colours, or stones described as cherts. Big bladeflakes, transverse arrowheads with marginal retouch, scrapers and a few burins and borers provided the bulk of the industry. Middle Neolithic industries, on the other hand, include a large number of fine blades and bladelets. The blades are often made in honey-coloured flint, as the map of sites with C14 dates around the turn of the 3rd millennium B.C. indicates (Fig. 1).