Ricerc@Sapienza

Recent technological studies of Levantine and European lithic assemblages from the Late
Lower Palaeolithic show that the small unretouched and retouched flakes (small tools)
found in many sites of this period are relevant technological elements. Their presence
in the lithic assemblages of the Late Lower Palaeolithic allows us to reconsider the role
of bifacial tools as techno-cultural markers of this chronological phase. In this article we
discuss the relevance of experimental archaeology for the interpretation of the use-wear

The aim of this paper is to discuss the role played by small chipped stone tools as part
of the toolkit of Homo during the Lower Palaeolithic. These apparently negligible small
tools may have had an important role on the complex interaction between Homo and
Palaeoloxodon antiquus, which may have been masked by the general idea of a “biface-
primacy” during the Lower Palaeolithic. Data coming from use-wear analysis are
the primary source of this discussion, integrated with the suggestions offered by recent