La production lamellaire et les armatures lamellaires de l´aurignacien ancien de la Grotte de Fumane (Monts Lessini, Vénétie)

In the Aurignacian sequence of the Fumane Cave (Lessini Mts., Veneto region), dated between 34 000 and 32 000 BP, bladelet tools are much more frequent (86 % for the lower levels; 58 % for upper levels) than blade and flake tools. Bladelet and microbladelet blanks were produced by direct organic percussion, starting from carenoid, pyramidal and prismatic unipolar cores. Blanks with subparallel edges and a rectilinear, curved or occasionally twisted profile were selected to prepare the armatures. The following types of armatures were distinguished: - points with the cusp on the blank axis obtained by two marginal abrupt retouches, sometimes tending to become deeply abrupt on the apical part. The cusp is nearly always situated on the distal portion of the blank; - bladelets with alternate or inverse abrupt marginal retouch. Analysis of use-wear traces suggests that over one-third of the armatures (37 %) were used as weapon points. The others were inserted in the blank in series to form composite instruments for cutting, scraping and singly for incision.