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2014-04-06 15:26:44   •   ID: 1141

Fragment of a large Leafpoint (Laugerie Haute/ Dordogne)

Figure 1
Our imagination about the Solutreen is biased towards a large numer of intact Leafpoints, left in place by H. sapiens at the LGM. In reality most large Leafpoints from the Solutreen were found as fragments. This fragment of a non-finished Solutrean Leafpoint comes from Laugerie Haute/Les Eyzies (Dordogne).

This basal fragment broke during the manufacturing process, if we extrapolate from the data of the  open-air Solutrean site of Les Maitreaux (Bossay-sur-Claise, Indre et Loire), which was excavated by modern techniques. Finished large points are extraordinary finely bifacially worked by lithic reduction percussion and pressure flaking. This last step, which sometimes was preceded by heat treatment to improve the knapping qualities of the stone is not present on the piece shown here. Therefore production was interrupted quite early in the production process.

The most famous large leafpoints still are those from the Volgu cache in eastern France. These points reach up to 35 cm in length without exceeding the thickness of 1 cm (Schmidt et al. 2018).

Unfortunately a pdf copy of Smith`s  seminal work from the 1960ies disappeared from the web- but the colloquium: Le Solutréen 40 ans après Smith’66, Actes du colloque de Preully-sur-Claise, 21 octobre - 1er novembre 2007 is still online (last external link).



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