Transport wear and its role in understanding prehistoric lithic raw materials management strategies

Mobility is a crucial feature of the territorial exploitation strategies of hunter-gatherer groups. Generally, in archaeological studies, the reconstruction of the displacements of humans carrying lithic artefacts and materials relies on identifying raw material outcrops or indirect evidence of transportation, i.e. inferences based on the absence of expected technological categories. On the other hand, some specific wear patterns can hint at the processes that artefacts underwent and stand for potential direct evidence of transport. In this paper, we combine the traceological evidence with lithic technology and refittings to present solid proof of the use of a specific bulk transportation mode in two Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites of the southeastern Alps (Italy). We also present a detailed description of macro- and microscopic wear features that allow for the identification of this type of transport within a lithic assemblage and a comparison with the results of some experimental tests. By identifying which artefacts were transported and in which mode (e.g. as flaked blanks, as cores, etc.), it was possible to get a much deeper understanding of how the last Alpine hunter-gatherer groups managed the lithic resources and how they moved them within the landscape during their displacements. The use of this transportation mode seems consistent throughout time and widespread, at least in the Alpine area.