Special Session 11

A way to know the relationship of human groups with their environment along prehistoric times is through the characterization of lithic raw materials and the identification of their procurement areas. This session aims to be a meeting point for specialists in the study of lithic raw materials with the objective of sharing techniques, methods and analyses used for the correct characterization of lithic assemblages during Prehistory. The study techniques and analyses used are macroscopic (visu, stereoscopic microscope), petrographic (thin section) and geochemical (XRD, XRF…) characterization.
One of the main objectives of these studies is to provide information on the procurement areas of abiotic resources, the territorial mobility of hunter-gatherer groups, the differential use of raw materials, the possible trade routes of agricultural-pastoral societies, as well as their possible symbolic connotations…
We hope that this session will create a debate forum where specialists working in lithic raw materials and source areas can contribute their points of view, methods, problems and scientific results.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Characterization of prehistoric lithic assemblages;
• Source areas of lithic raw materials;
• Terriotrial mobility or supply routes for hunter-gatherer and agro-pastoral groups;
• Differential use of lithic raw material according to its suitability for knapping and polishing;
• Symbolic use of lithic material: Ritual or functional ?

Alicia Muñoz del Pozo, is a postdoctoral researcher Margarita Salas at the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) ascribed at the Calalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CRECA). Bachelor in Geology by the University of Zaragoza, I obtain my MSc and PhD in Geology in 2020 at the same University. My research has been focused in the alabaster characterization in artwork and old quarries localization. Actually, I am working in Paleolithic lithic raw material provenance.

Bruno Gómez de Soler, is a research at the Calalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CRECA) (http://www.iphes.cat/staff) and associate professor at the University Rovira i Virgili of Tarragona (URV) (https://www.urv.cat/html/docencia-per-centre/index-professors-1228.php) . Bachelor in History at the University of Girona (UdG), I obtained my MSc at the University Rovira i Virgili and my PhD in Quaternary Prehistory and Human Evolution in 2016 at the same university. My actually research is focused on lithic raw materials, principally in the study of mobility patterns of the Neanderthals groups of the North east of the Iberian Peninsula through a multi-scalar approach.