About
71
Publications
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Introduction
I currently work at the Department of Human and Environment of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris (France) and in the Department of Archaeometry of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest (Hungary). My main research topic is tool use origin, modalities and evolution. I currently focus particularly on wear analysis and the development of quantitative methods to analyse the movement of the tool user, the tool grasp, the tool itself and the traces left on its surface after use.
Additional affiliations
January 2017 - present
January 2014 - January 2017
October 2012 - present
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Get more information about the Mictose project here: mictose.infos.st
Education
April 2014 - July 2014
National Research University Higher School of Economics, Coursera
Field of study
- Statistics
April 2014 - June 2014
Pennsylvania State University, Coursera
Field of study
- Geography
August 2013 - October 2013
Pennsylvania State University, Coursera
Field of study
- Management
Publications
Publications (71)
Long bone breakage for bone marrow recovery is a commonly observed practice in Middle Palaeolithic contexts, regardless of the climatic conditions. While lithic technology is largely used to define cultural patterns in human groups, despite dedicating research by zooarchaeologists, for now butchering techniques rarely allowed the identification of...
Polyhedrons, spheroids and bolas (PSBs) are present in lithic series from the Lower Palaeolithic onwards and are found in several regions of the world. Nevertheless, very little is known about them. We propose here to summarise, illustrate and discuss the current state of our knowledge about these artefacts. Based on the available data in the liter...
Debates and doubt around the interpretation of use-wear on stone tools called for the development of quantitative analysis of surfaces to complement the qualitative description of traces. Recently, a growing number of studies showed that prehistoric activities can be discriminated thanks to quantitative characterization of stone tools surface alter...
During the Paleolithic period, bone marrow extraction was an essential source of fat nutrients for hunter-gatherers especially throughout cold and dry seasons. This is attested by the recurrent findings of percussion marks in osteological material from anthropized archaeological levels. Among them some showed indicators that the marrow extraction p...
Az őskori régészeti kőeszközökön végzett nyomelemzés célja, hogy jellemezzük a felületi elváltozásaikat, s ezen keresztül meghatározzuk az eszközök funkcióit és leírjuk az egykori emberek technikával kapcsolatos viselkedését. A módszer megbízhatósága és megismételhetősége körül vannak viták, s a nyomelemzők számára a legfőbb nehézséget az jelenti,...
Wear analysis performed on archaeological stone tools from prehistory aims at characterizing their surface alterations in order to determine their functions and describe past human technical behaviors. However, the reliability and repeatability of the method is questioned and there is a major difficulty facing scientists analyzing wear, which is re...
During the Middle Paleolithic period, bone marrow extraction was an essential source of fat nutrients for hunter-gatherers especially throughout cold and dry seasons. This is attested by the recurrent findings of percussion marks in osteological material from anthropized archaeological levels. Among them some showed indicators that the marrow extra...
Currently, approximately 90% of the human population is right-handed. This handedness is due to the later-alization of the cerebral hemispheres and is controlled by brain areas involved in complex motor tasks such as making stone tools or in language. In addition to describing the evolution of laterality in humans, identifying hand preference in fo...
The essential relationship to fat in the Middle Paleolithic, and especially to the yellow marrow, explains the importance of addressing this issue of butchery cultural practices through the study of bone fracturing gestures and techniques. In view of the quasi-systematization of bone marrow extraction in many anthropized archaeological levels, this...
Despite its strategic location within the continent, Central Africa is rarely integrated into the reconstruction of population dynamics during the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Africa, especially in terms of the emergence, diffusion and behavioural patterns of Homo sapiens. However, hundreds of sites have been discovered in Central Africa during the 20...
In the last decades, a growing attention was paid toward the exploitation of other lithic raw materials than flint. In this context, the lithic assemblage of Payre level D, dated to the end of the MIS 6, offers the opportunity to make some considerations about the modalities of a discoid technology on various lithic raw materials. Payre is a very w...
In archaeological assemblages the presence of percussion marks, on the surface of long bones, is an indicator of long bone marrow extraction. The form, quantity and distribution of percussion marks are analysed to gain a better understanding of the marrow extraction process. Patterns of bone percussion damage in archaeological assemblages may highl...
The systematic long bone breakage to extract yellow marrow is a practice commonly observed in numerous Neandertal sites. Marrow was, indeed, an important nutritional resource to many human groups, particularly during glacial and periglacial periods. Current studies highlight butchering traditions in Neandertal groups (Bolomor, level IV, Eastern Spa...
To examine the effect of white patination on use-wear analysis, we produced replica artifacts and used them in wood scraping tasks. We then compared casts of these use- traces before and after experimentally induced patination. We found that patination does not always obfuscate microscopic use-wear traces dependent on lithic raw material type and i...
The identification of the know-how transmission mechanism and social learning processes within Neandertal group is currently explored in the studies of lithic material, but not only. The patterns of long bone breakage for marrow recovering may represent a useful tool to identify butchery traditions. Identifying and comparing such breakage patterns...
The interpretation of microwear found on stone tools is mainly based on qualitative description of surface alterations, the unavoidable subjectivity of this method is problematic. Quantitative methods to characterize surface alteration on stone tools, can avoid some of the subjectivity Recently metrology and tribology have been the focus of few stu...
Proposer une synthèse sur la préhistoire d’un archipel et de ses assemblages lithiques n’est pas chose facile, d’une part à cause de l’immensité de l’espace concerné mesurant 2 millions de km2, d’autre part du fait que la notion de Paléolithique y est difficilement applicable et notamment celles de « Paléolithique supérieur » ou d’Epipaléolithique-...
Preliminary functional results obtained from the quartzite assemblage of the Early Middle Palaeolithic site of Payre (South-eastern France) are presented. In an area rich in flint, hominins at Payre also collected quartzite in their local environment, specifically along the Rhône River banks. Although the Payre lithic assemblage is largely composed...
Long bone breakage by Neanderthals to extract marrow is noticed in many archaeological sites. Indeed, marrow was an important nutritional resource to many human groups, particularly during glacial and periglacial periods. Archaeological experiments concerning long bone breakage could be useful for example to characterize percussion marks or to iden...
Objectives:
Humans are known to possess more complex manual abilities than other primates. However, the manual abilities of primates have not been fully explored, and we still do not know if the manipulative abilities we attribute to humans are unique. The aim of this study was to compare the manual function and performance developed by humans, go...
Different factors may have coevolved with hand dexterity such as bipedalism, brain enlargement, language, and the production and use of stone technology. Prehistoric stone tools are thus probably one of the key elements to examine the origin and evolution of these essential functions during human evolution. To gain a better understanding of the var...
Stone industries from the beginning of the Holocene of South-East Asia are difficult to characterize typo-technologically. We apply modern morphometrics to informal pieces to complement usewear analysis and gain a better understanding of the relation between forms and functions. Both the log shape ratio (LSR) based on linear measurements and ellipt...
The identification of social learning processes and knowledge transmission mechanisms in the archaeological record is a matter currently explored on lithic record but not very often on faunal assemblages. As soon as the Middle Palaeolithic, the uniformity and orientation of cut marks or patterns of bone breakage may represent very useful tools to h...
Several Western and Central European archaeological sites from the Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 5 to 3 yielded microlithic assemblages made by Neanderthals. The European Prehistory lacks a thorough study of these small artifacts to understand their meaning, potential function and to investigate Neanderthal capabilities, behaviours and conception of...
In general, quartz and most of non-flint rocks have not been extensively studied from a functional point of view. Very frequently the definitions of micro-features connected with flint surfaces have been used to describe those encountered on non-flint tools. This circumstance has repeatedly posed serious methodological problems for evaluating the a...
Archaeological discoveries suggest that human interest in odd objects emerged as early as the end of the Lower Paleolithic with Homo erectus, although it is still difficult to understand why early humans collected these objects. Several studies show that nonhuman primates are able to appreciate the physical characteristics of their tools, but their...
Different primate species have developed extensive capacities for grasping and manipulating objects. However, the manual abilities of primates remain poorly known from a dynamic point of view. The aim of the present study was to quantify the functional and behavioral strategies used by captive bonobos (Pan paniscus) during tool use tasks. The study...
Primates have highly developed abilities for grasping and manipulation that differ between species. In this context, the human hand is considered unique, based on its functional characteristics. However, the real dynamic manual abilities of primates remain poorly known. The purpose of this study is to compare the manipulative strategies in differen...
Characterizing edge-damage on stone tools is challenging. It has been shown that natural or taphonomic processes can mimic intentional or use re-touch. Some experiments showed that the distribution of edge damage resul-ting from natural or taphonomic processes are random but others demonstra-ted recently that they may follow specific pattern and ap...
The senses involved in food detection in primates in general, and lemurs in particular, remain poorly investigated. However, as lemurs include diurnal, nocturnal as well as cathemeral species they represent a good model to test whether prey detection is dependent on activity pattern. As both diurnal and nocturnal species have been investigated prev...
La main humaine est consideree comme unique au travers certaines specificites fonctionnelles comme l’individualisation des doigts et la capacite de saisir avec puissance un outil entre le pouce et le cote lateral de l'index. Cependant, les primates non-humains presentent de grandes capacites de manipulations. Ainsi, peut-on reellement affirmer que...
Among the many hand preference studies on nonhuman primates, several have demonstrated the effect of diverse action demands on the direction and magnitude of hand preference. However, few studies have assessed hand preference in the natural repertoire of motor behaviours in nonhuman primates, especially in actions that differ in velocity. Neverthel...
In general, quartz and most of non-flint rocks have not been extensively studied from a functional point of view. Very frequently the definitions of micro-features connected with flint surfaces have been used to describe those encountered on non-flint tools. This circumstance has repeatedly posed serious methodological problems for evaluating the a...
Usewear analysis is now well established as a powerful means by which to identify the function of stone tools excavated from archaeological sites. However, one of the main issues for usewear analysts is still to provide quantified analyses and interpretations. Several attempts have yielded promising results but have not, as of yet, been widely appl...
Full paper free to download with this link: http://elsarticle.com/1ejh3ov
Stone artifacts are the most numerous remains provided by early Holocene sites in Southeast Asia. They are thus of prime importance to understand better human behaviors of this region. However, they are typo-technologically difficult to characterize and consist mainly of info...
Laterality package calculates Handedness index (HI) and z-score. It gives also absolute HI and mean HI at the individual and group level. The corresponding graphs can be plotted. Some functions based on the ade4 package perform correspondence analysis (package ade4 is needed).
Can be downloaded from the CRAN:
http://cran.r-project.org/web/package...
This research, centred on the Early Holocene (11,000-5000 BCE) lithic technologies found in and around the Song Terus cave (Gunung Sewu, Java, Indonesia) provides a new focus for insights into the behaviour of pre-Neolithic groups in a wider South-East-Asian context after the Last Glacial Maximum.
Preliminary use-wear analysis on the Holocene industries of the Song Terus cave (Java, Indonesia) has revealed the interesting potential of these chert artifacts for the study of wear traces. Contextual experimentation on local material has been carried out in order to better understand some of the possible human activities and their associated res...
Grasping is essential for primates in numerous behaviors. A variety of different grasping techniques are used for obtaining food. Among humans, several studies have shown that the properties of the objects such as the size or the form influence grasp patterns. In addition, other works have tested the individual variability through grasping strategi...
Résumé Les résultats des études appliquées sur les pièces en quartz et quartzite du site de Payre (stades isotopiques 7 et 5) attestent que ces roches, pouvant être récoltées à proximité du site et peu abondantes dans les assemblages, ont connu un traitement particulier. Ces deux roches ont été débitées à l'extérieur de la cavité, selon des méthode...
Le site de Payre a livré une industrie lithique abondante au sein de laquelle les pièces en quartz et quartzite semblent avoir joué un rôle particulier. Il est probable que la majeure partie des éclats ait été apportée sur le site déjà débitée, ce qui s'inscrit à contresens des tendances déjà relevées pour ces roches locales dans cette région. Nous...
Questions
Question (1)
I am currently doing the usewear analysis of artifacts from Hungary made of radiolarite. I would be very interested if some of you know references of already published referential or application with this raw material.
Projects
Projects (5)
Handedness is due to the lateralization of the cerebral hemispheres and is controlled by brain areas involved in complex motor tasks such as making stone tools or in language. In addition to describing the evolution of laterality in humans, identifying hand preference in fossil hominids can improve our understanding of the emergence and development of complex cognitive faculties during evolution. This project examine if hand preference can be identified from use-wear on stone tools through qualitative and quantitative wear descriptors. It aims at proposing a new method to reliably identify the hand holding the tool during use.
Intuitiveness, Breakage process, Experimental archaeology
"The aim of this study is to identify the mechanics of cultural transmission among Pleistocene human groups and to provide new ideas for the investigation of occupational dynamics through lithic technological approach. Social learning informs us of the cognitive abilities to acquire knowledge transmitted between generations as adaptive strategies. In the archaeological record, the transmission of knowledge and the skills are identified through repetitive patterns, but most of them only remain in the best preserved archaeological material: the lithic tools that hominins made to survive. This project aims to ascertain how hominins learnt through the study of the size of the lithic tools (since novices knappers tend to prouce more small flakes that experienced knappers), and the management and knowhow or “savoir-faire” of the knappers preserved into the archaeological collections. This will provide more information about the cognitive evolution of our ancestors. My goal is to study these mechanisms on the basis of two sections: The first part will consist in developing an experimental project to define morphotechnological characters that are crucial to learn the "appropriate" size of the tools to made . The second part will be dedicated to track these morphotechnological characters in the archaeological record through an inter-disciplinary study, including technology, spatial and refitting analyses. The data obtained from these analyses will be processed jointly using a multivariate statistical analysis in order to identify technological patterns. These patterns differ between levels and sites, suggesting the possible existence of cultural identities or behavioural predispositions according to each human group. The integrated analysis of these different and complementary aspects guarantees the interdisciplinary and the innovative nature of the project, since this kind of research has never been conducted before at this level."