Tracking the emergence of the Upper Palaeolithic in western Asia and Europe: A Multiple Correspondence Analysis of Protoaurignacian and Southern Ahmarian lithics

Abstract

Reconstructing changes in human behaviour during the Pleistocene, particularly when based on lithic or other artefact types, is often hindered by the traditional categorisation of these materials into discrete entities. The Early Upper Palaeolithic of Mediterranean Eurasia – comprising the Protoaurignacian, Early Aurignacian, Northern Ahmarian, and Southern Ahmarian technocomplexes – represents the first emergence of a pan-European cultural unit. However, this conventional categorisation into discrete entities obscures a deeper understanding of the dynamics of Homo sapiens’ dispersal across Eurasia during this period. In this study, we apply Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to assess patterns of reduction processes, technological variability, and inter-assemblage homogeneity across technocomplexes. Using the comprehensive dataset provided in this paper, we analyse variability by grouping it into three domains: platform preparation, convexity management, and retouch. Solutrean Upper Palaeolithic assemblages from the Iberian Peninsula are used as an outgroup. We selected blanks, retouched and unmodified ones, and we focused on blades and bladelets, which are the typical end-product of the Upper Palaeolithic knapping. We excluded cores to avoid pitfalls of late or early reduction patterns, as our blanks cover most of the knapping sequence. We applied MCA  to Early Upper Palaeolithic blanks for the first time, providing a geographically widespread comparison. Our results show that the MCA of blank attributes, particularly those describing the preparation of convexities, is sufficiently robust to reveal the distinctiveness of Early Upper Palaeolithic technologies relative to Solutrean ones. Our analysis also confirms technological similarities between the Southern Ahmarian and the Protoaurignacian, particularly in bladelet production, reinforcing the interpretation of bladelets as a primary production target in Early Upper Palaeolithic lithic technology. This study contributes laying the foundation for open-access databases, standardised analytical protocols, and MCA to support efforts in understanding hominin dispersal and interaction during this pivotal phase of prehistory.