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2020-11-21 13:30:18   •   ID: 2217

A Rare and Precious Artifact: Bifacial Cleaver from Vienne

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This Bifacial Cleaver was made from "Silex Blonde"and was found at Saint Sauveur, a small village located in the department of Vienne in the region Poitou-Charentes in Western France.

Saint Sauveur has already introduced into the Blog for its Middle Paleolithic (MTA) findings-see: 2069 .

The Bifacial cleaver is made by soft hammer technique and carefully shaped from both sides (Figures 1 and 2). The distal transversal cutting edge has a threee dimensional sinusoidal design (Figure 2, 3 and 4). The Biface therefore has three working edges: Two on the lateral side for cutting purposes and one on the frontal circumference for chopping movements.

The twisted appearance on the third working edge, does not seem to be a production failure, as the chaine operatoire required the knapping from two sides to get a sinusoidal design. This allowed the use of the implement for screwing actions, maybe of advantage for some specialized tasks.

Cleavers may be produced from large Flakes, a technique common on Africa (Flake Cleavers) or may be formed from a Biface (Bifacial Cleavers). The designation of large Flakes and Bifacial tools as Cleaver results from the presence of a transversal working edge on the distal circumference of the tool.

The tool shown here has reached this goal by combining two principles, both common in the knapping of the transversal edge: Firstly a by Tranchet Blow which was continued secondly through some irregular lamellar removals.

European Acheulian Cleaver axes are much more rare than their African counterparts.

On the other hand, Bifacial Cleavers are rare in Africa and the Levant. Here Flake Cleavers are much more common.

One important exception is the Azraq Basin, already introduced in the blog- see 2203 , but Bifacial Cleavers are occasionally found in East Africa, too. One nice example is a small example from Melka Kunture (Gombore II)- see 1509 ; about 800 k.a. old.

Flake Cleavers on the other hand are rare in Europe but with some exceptions - see 2017 . Anyhow Bifacial Cleavers in European Acheulian ensembles are somewhat exotic, as they make up a maximum of 4% of inventories, not always excavated with up-to-date methods.

They have been found, possible dating to MIS 11 and / or 9 at several locations in the UK (D.A Roe: A Gazetteer of British Lower and Middle Paleolithic Sites (1968).

We miss as systematic overwiew about Bifacial Cleavers in France. Important examples come from the Middle Loire region.

Currently the most important location is the the Noira site-see: 1587 in the in the middle Cher valley. Bifacial Cleavers are present in low quantities both in the older strata (655 ± 55 k.a) and the upper stratum dated to 449 ± 45 k.a.

An evident concentration of heavy Bifacial Cleavers from the same region, mainly made by hard Hammer technique and possibly considerable old, is known from old collections amassed during the late 19th and early 20th century in the Creuse valley- see examples from my own collection here: 1096 and here: 1173 .

Occasional fidings of Bifacial Cleavers are known from the Grotte du Lazaret (Nice; France) from stratum UA 27, where they were associated with classic Handaxes, dated to MIS6 (ca 130 k.a. BP; Lumley 2020).

An important site, located in old dunes of the Mediterranean, is Terra Amata (Nice; Southern France) where a multilayered Acheulian was excavated, dating between 400-380 k.a. The non-biased count from the basal strata P4a-P4c revealed a low percentage of Bifacial Cleavers of < 0,1%.

Here rare Bifaces and Pics are associated with abundant Chopper / Chopping tools, flakes, which are sometimes covered with irregular retouches, denticulated tools and notches and some rare examples of Tayac points.

Regarding these data, even the 4% prevalence of bifacial Flint cleavers from collections in the UK seems to be the consequence of a sampling bias, while modern excavations show that Bifacial Cleavers in Europe are in reality precious exceptions in the Tool Kit of Homo Heidelbergensis and early Neanderthals.