060106 VU Raw material economy in the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic (2024S)

In this course, we will explore raw material economy in Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic communities, focusing on lithic raw materials. The course will give an overview of the concepts and theories as well as methods involved in studying raw material economy. Case studies will cover the long-term development of raw material use by hominins, including examples from early hominin raw material economy and associated landscape behaviour in Africa, early Homo sapiens in the African Middle Stone Age, Neanderthals of Europe, Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Homo sapiens as well as early and later Neolithic farming communities. We will discuss how we can use (lithic) raw materials to learn about landscape use and mobility, contact, trade and exchange, organisation of communities as well as regional and inter-regional socio-economic networks.

We will do this through a series of lectures exploring theories, concepts and methods of studying raw material economy and practical work identifying lithic raw materials in the Vienna Lithothek. The practical component will allow students to learn the basics of how to determine lithic raw materials under the stereomicroscope, their procurement and use related to the issues involved and discussed in the lectures.