Conference session '‘Cores-on-flakes during the Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age: Technology, raw materials economy and/or functional purposes' at the European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meeting, 3–6 September 2025, Belgrade, Serbia.
The use of flakes as blanks for the reduction as cores to produce small elements is recognized as a significant technical choice and testifies to innovative behaviours in the Middle Palaeolithic and Middle Stone Age. Various strategies exist, with different concepts, methods, and techniques of blank production (e.g., Kombewa, Nahr lbrahim, Kostienki, Le Pucheuil, and even carinated burin-like). Some methods serve distinct production goals, such as Kombewa, which can yield both large flakes for shaping Large Cutting Tools (e.g., cleavers, bifaces) and small blanks with specific morphological features for direct use. The selection of debitage products may reflect an economic strategy, adaptation to the local mineral environment, or a specific functional purpose. This selection process has been linked to key concepts such as recycling, ramification (or branching economic strategy), integrative strategy, and the miniaturisation of production.
This session aims to discuss and compare this technical choice by situating it within different geographical, temporal and cultural contexts of the Middle Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic. Case studies employing a technological, techno-economic, techno-functional, and functional approach are welcome, as are contributions involving any experimental approach relevant to these research topics.