González-Varas Marina, Lourdeau Antoine, Gonçalves Letícia, Lemos de Souza Rafael, Teixeira Mendes Diego, Beltrão de Oliveira Tatyana, Furlaneto Silva Gustavo, Forestier Hubert, Romero Rolando, Pérez-Balarezo Antonio
Département Homme & Environnement, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, UMR 7194 HNHP, Équipe PRÉTROP, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, France.
Institut Français d'Etudes Andines (IFEA), Lima, Perú.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 2;20(1):e0315746. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315746. eCollection 2025.
During the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene and in the early Holocene period, hunter-gatherer communities across tropical South America deployed a range of technological strategies to adapt to diverse environmental conditions. This period witnessed a rich tapestry of technological practices, from enduring, widely disseminated tools to local and sporadically utilized technologies, shaping a multifaceted landscape of technological traditions. Lithic technology during this period was mainly marked by localized sourcing of raw materials, the use of multifunctional tools, a variety of projectile point designs, and the frequently utilization of unifacial shaping technology. In tropical Central Brazil, the Itaparica technocomplex, with unique unifacial lithic tools like limaces, is a pivotal innovation from the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene. However, the factors influencing their morphological and structural variability remain largely unexplored, obscuring our understanding of their ergonomics and their role as mediators between humans and tropical environments. This study hypothesizes that the variability observed within and among unifacial tools from the GO-Ni sites in Central Brazil is a result of a combination of factors, including raw material availability and functional and ergonomic requirements. To test this hypothesis, a study of 67 unifacial tools from this region was conducted, employing techno-structural analysis and 3D geometric morphometrics. This approach was designed to precisely quantify tool geometry and uncover their functional potentials. The analysis revealed significant variability within the techno-structural groups, often intersecting with typological classifications. These results indicate that despite their production attributes, unifacially shaped artifacts demonstrate considerable morpho-structural diversity. The study delineated nine distinct techno-structural groups, each suggesting potentially different functional organizations and deviating from conventional typologies. These results indicate that unifacially shaped artifacts, while embodying a novel technological paradigm of production, exhibit a broader spectrum of variation mainly due to different tool functions. The combined approach adopted in this research highlights on the cultural significance of unifacial tools within Paleoamerican technological systems. It suggests probable unique tool concepts specific to the study area, challenges existing classifications, and enriches our comprehension of early lithic technology in South America.
在从更新世到全新世的过渡时期以及全新世早期，南美洲热带地区的狩猎采集群落采用了一系列技术策略来适应多样的环境条件。这一时期见证了丰富多样的技术实践，从经久耐用、广泛传播的工具到局部和偶尔使用的技术，塑造了一个多面的技术传统景观。这一时期的石器技术主要特点是原材料的本地化采购、多功能工具的使用、各种投射点设计以及单面成型技术的频繁应用。在巴西中部热带地区，伊塔帕里卡技术复合体，拥有像limaces这样独特的单面石器工具，是从晚更新世到全新世的一项关键创新。然而，影响其形态和结构变异性的因素在很大程度上仍未得到探索，这模糊了我们对其人体工程学以及它们作为人类与热带环境之间媒介的作用的理解。本研究假设，在巴西中部GO-Ni遗址的单面工具内部和之间观察到的变异性是多种因素共同作用的结果，包括原材料的可用性以及功能和人体工程学要求。为了验证这一假设，对该地区的67件单面工具进行了研究，采用了技术结构分析和三维几何形态计量学。这种方法旨在精确量化工具的几何形状并揭示其功能潜力。分析揭示了技术结构组内部存在显著变异性，且常常与类型学分类相互交叉。这些结果表明，尽管它们具有生产属性，但单面成型的器物表现出相当大的形态结构多样性。该研究划分出九个不同的技术结构组，每组都暗示了潜在不同的功能组织，并且偏离了传统类型学。这些结果表明，单面成型的器物虽然体现了一种新的生产技术范式，但由于工具功能不同，展现出更广泛的变异性。本研究采用的综合方法凸显了单面工具在古美洲技术系统中的文化意义。它暗示了研究区域可能存在的独特工具概念，挑战了现有分类，并丰富了我们对南美洲早期石器技术的理解。
