Contributions and Limitations of a Technomorphometric Approach for Cleavers: The Case of Lanne-Darré (Hautes-Pyrénées)

Résumé En

Research relating to cleavers can help to characterize the Middle Pleistocene European technocultural landscape, via a technomorphometric approach that provides insights into this tool’s composite involvement. A sample of 47 cleavers from the Lanne-Darré site were observed through two scales of technomorphometric analyses. When the studied entities are the entire tools, technomorphometric links are rarely perceptible; moreover, attributing them to specific usage is impossible given the current state of knowledge. Edge-scale analysis, however, is able to highlight significant relations between technical choices and shape. The transversal cutting edge specific to cleavers, directly resulting from the blank’s debitage, revealed recurrent morphologic and morphometric similarities, though differences remained in the nature and organization of other cleaver's parts. Four technico-structural tools groups were determined from these heterogeneous organizations, that differ from J. Tixier’s technotypology. Finally, the proposed technomorphometric approach provides new elements for understanding the structural place of cleavers in technical systems.