Maglemosian in contact: The disruptive invention of stone pressure flaking on the curve crutch 7000 CAL BC

International audienceWhen looking at archaeological pieces identified as pressure-flaker tools, the means and waysof integrating a stone reduction technique into the production of regular lithic blades/bladelets, so called‘termed’ products, in Denmark at the end of the Early Scandinavian Mesolithic period are taken intoconsideration. In that, this paper examines the forms of interaction between territorially close populationsknown as possessing distinct technologies: in the Eastern Baltic regions, populations using percussionand pressure techniques in stone reduction as well as composite tools made of bone with lithic inserts,whereas, in the most Western Baltic regions (Denmark), populations using percussion techniques only,without having any knowledge of the composite tool. According to the lithic archaeological material,it is in this latter area of Maglemosian culture that pressure flaking in debitage appears ca. 7300/7000calBC, thus raising the question of whether this sudden new practice originated from the arrival of anew population bringing with them the new (Eastern) technology, from a technological transfer betweengroups of crafting traditions initially distinct, or from itinerant craftsmen?The research is conducted using several interconnected fields of analysis which form the structure of thispaper, as following: 1) the physical principles inherent to the practice of the pressure debitage technique;2) the ontology of the identified pressure technique as understood from a first experimental test; and,3) the compatibility of shapes and use wear obtained from the replicated antler pressure-flaker toolscompared with the corresponding archaeological pieces. Note that the patterns of wear observed onthe used antler tools, and from which the pressure technique was identified and reproduced, are notcompared by analogy with the archaeological pieces but, rather, are considered in relation to the tool’sdynamics in use, i.e. how the replicated antler tool is transformed from using it in pressure flaking. Thefirst field relates to the biography of archaeological pieces identified as Maglemosian pressure-flaker toolsrepresented by a sort of curve crutch made from removed red deer antler tine. The second field refers tothe experimental research presentation and an observation of flintknappers’ postures that vary duringthe replication of the pressure debitage with this type of tool regardless of the production of bladelets,extracted anyway on a regular basis. The third and last field are in line with the collected observationsand draw inferences based on the context of the findings for the Southwestern Scandinavian Mesolithic.Our investigation shows that these crutches were certainly used in pressure debitage. Appearing assuddenly as the pressure knapping, almost all the curve crutches derive from a single geographicalarea: the Danish Zealand region, where they also are found together in considerable numbers. They alsocome from archaeological dwelling sites which are markers of the beginning of the second great periodof the Maglemosian culture called the ‘Sværdborg phase’ dated around ca. 7000 calBC. It lasted severalcenturies starting from after, or soon after, the transition from Boreal to Atlantic chronozones in EasternDenmark, when the Baltic Sea started to take its actual shape.From a theoretical point of view, the study highlights the importance of the relationship to instrumentationwhen searching into technical change mechanisms to seek explanations of cultural evolution in Prehistory.In this paper, the appearance of a new (pressure) stone reduction technique seems to have no immediaterelationship with the flintknappers’ skills (social vector) nor with the profitability expected from the newtechnique (economic vector), but rather, to be depending on its operability (technical vector). It was bymeans of an experimental test and, when better considering material evidence with regard to the roleof the knapper in technical action—as a reflexive contra passive use of instrumentation regardless ofhis modus operandi—that records of body motion during the task and according to the tool employedgave new insights about transfer phenomenon: the actually possible inherent permeability in Stone Agebetween techniques apparently distinct. For what concerns the Mesolithic, the sudden appearance of thecurve pressure-flaker tool used in debitage on the Maglemosian territory and almost unknown otherwisethan in Zealand would be a consequence of a convergence of ontological order between different stoneknapping techniques acquired which were concomitantly or diversely transported within the SouthernScandinavian area between 7300 and 7000 calBC. As a result, the Danish technique—the pressure modeon a (shoulder or chest) curve antler crutch—appears as a disruptive invention that would have arisenout of an assimilation by impregnation or direct contacts with foreign neighbouring (technologicallyEastern-related) groups holding original techniques in stone reduction from a technological transferdeveloped in Zealand within the Maglemosian culture. In this, the Mesolithic pressure technique forflint reduction employed in Zealand and the culturally Maglemosian border-zone areas would haveresulted from using pressure mode on a reinvented punch tool: the antler tine was adopted for itsviscoelastic property while remaining long and curve in use, that is, adapted to pressure flaking ona flexible mode. Its appearance would have emerged at the end of the classic Maglemosian (transitionbetween phases 2 and 3 with respectively Ulkestrup-Hut 1 and Sværdborg-1917) from using the antlertine in reflexive motion as a flaking tool involved in pressure debitage for termed lithic production fromthe new knowledge acquired in both the genuine punch technique and the standing pressure, then onthe flexible straight crutch.It seems then that the driving force of human cultural evolution during this Mesolithic period in thispart of the Southern Scandinavia area might have arisen more from how things (pressure flaking) wereprecisely achieved, rather than just replicated in practice. As a future research hypothesis, it follows thattechnical change in the manufacture of common cultural products would arise only when techniquesare genuine adequate to regular behavior in technical task, although the ‘ignition’ factor for changecould have a social-origin. In this, how regular technical practices were conducted in intimate detailswould considerably pertain to issues relative to socio-historical scenario reconstruction. But, since theoccupation layers in the Danish context involved are still badly dated when this technical shift occurredin the Maglemosian transitional phase 2/3, scenario about specific, multiple or with multi-scale entryroutesbetween neighbouring territories and the presumed established populations needs to be refined,notably with the study of the lithic productions in its most conformity to such experimental records(aspects of the bulb, characters of the bladelets’ lips according to the various modes highlighted throughthe flexible contra the stiff used crutch, etc.)