Lithic Palaetechnology Laboratory

Research line: exploitation of lithic resources (supply, types and strategies for manufacturing and using stone artefacts) in a both synchronic and diachronic perspective (combined with the following research lines: Spatial Archaeology and Experimental Archaeology).
The Lithic Paleotechnology Lab also offers a number of services and knowledge in this area either through Service Rendering (to municipalities, archaeology enterprises, funded research projects) or through academic training. The scope of action of the lab’s team and collaborators spans from research, through to conservation, safeguarding and dissemination of the Archaeological Heritage.

Lithic Paleotechnology

Among the different scientific domains of research on our Past, lithic palaeotechnology plays a significant role in the process of learning about ancestral human behaviours, thanks to the specific nature of the documents on which this science relies. Stone, transformed by mankind, was often the only document that survived over time given its resistance to natural factors of destruction. Technology applied to the study of lithic industries is an autonomous field of archaeological research aiming at reconstituting, not only the processes used by past human communities for manufacturing equipment for hunting and for domestic use, but also the artisan, the individual who operates through gesture, transforming matter according to particular mental arrangements based on his own tradition as a member of a group, a culture with its own timings and spaces.

Experimental Projetcs

Following preliminary studies on the occupation of Portugal’s Ancient Pre-History (Palaeolithic and Mesolithic), a number of issues were raised as to the interpretation of a specific type of vestige traditionally known as combustion structure or area. Bearing in mind the large scope of information available, namely in building architecture, the Paleotechnology lab embarked on an Experimental Archaeology project specifically focused on this area. The idea is to create a reference that may be confronted with archaeological contexts currently under study, where fire related vestiges were found or are likely to be found in future. This project involves the implementation of a number of experiences, to be conducted in different phases, in collaboration with the Archaeozoology lab. It also involves the construction and controlled use of different types of combustion structures, as well as monitoring and analysing stigmas or any other changes present in rocks and sediments.

The Lithic Paleotechnology Lab, in liaison with the Archaeozoology Lab, began compiling a collection of vestiges imprinted on lithic instruments used experimentally for treating soft and tough parts of animal carcasses (skin, flesh, bone and tendons). This collection will be used in comparison with the archaeological referential. This experimental programme is part of a post-doctoral project by Marina de Araújo Igreja (post-doc scholarship holder from FCT) with the support from Thierry Aubry (Vale do Côa Archaeological Park)), both being collaborators of the Lithic Paleotechnology Laboratory.