Knap & Keep

Abstract

The tradition of lithic caches illustrates a special strategy of storing lithics which were extracted from chaîne opératoire for some time to be kept/hidden in a special place with/without subsequent return and use. For the Palaeolithic – Neolithic/Jōmon of the Far East (Russian part and the Japanese Archipelago) within the frame of 35 000–2400 cal BP, this tradition demonstrates an impressive multiplicity (more than 400 cases), high diversity, duration, dynamics, and local variability. Such an abundant source of data opens rich perspectives for detailed technological analysis, functional interpretations, and interregional correlations, with analogies in the Stone Age cultures of the Near East, Europe, and North America.

Keywords

• Far East
• Late Palaeolithic
• Neolithic
• Jōmon
• lithic caches
• technology