Techno-functional Implication on the Production of Discoid and Levallois Backed Implements

The technological dichotomy between Discoid and Levallois reduction methods, which accompanies the Mousterian assemblages for most of the Middle Paleolithic, is a debated topic because of the implications for Neanderthals’ behavioral complexity. We here propose and discuss the possible reasons supporting the Levallois-Discoid shift. Among these include the strategies of resource exploitation and territorial mobility, and the productivity and effectiveness rates between the two methods. Though both highlighting differences, these cannot always justify a sharp change in production strategies. Looking specifically at the technological objectives, we compared a category of common products: the backed artefacts. This category includes tools seemingly similar in techno-functionality, with a cutting edge opposed to a thick and blunt edge useful for prehension, but morpho-functional differences suggest different degrees of efficiency for carrying out cutting activities. Here we investigate the Levallois-Discoid shift taking into account part of the late Mousterian sequence (units A11-A10-A9) of Grotta di Fumane, which attests a diachronic replacement between the two techno-complexes. The comparison helped to better define the Discoid and Levallois technologies in their functional and potential objectives, whose variations may have influenced the alternating pattern in the technological choices recorded in the Fumane sequence. The study thus brought new data to the debate of Neanderthal technological variability.