Thesis title: LICORNE : la production LIthique dans la CORNE de l’Afrique au cours de l’Holocène : origines, trajectoires et innovations des cultures et des sociétés préhistoriques
There has long been a dearth of research on the late prehistory (~11–3 ka) of the Horn of Africa. Save for a few studies in the 1970s and 80s, interest in Late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeology only resumed in the 2000s. Well-preserved and dated stratified sites in the region remain scarce despite a growing number of projects, and are distributed across a vast region characterized by significant climatic and environmental variability. To date, these constraints hamper a full understanding of technological systems and regional cultural traditions. New sites identified in the Central Ethiopian Afar by the VAPOR-Afar project provide a rich corpus of stratified contexts dated between ~11 and 3 ka, allowing for an investigation of socio-cultural dynamics in the Lake Abhe basin during the Holocene. This doctoral research focuses on the study of lithic assemblages from five recently excavated and dated sites, spanning nearly 9000 years during key hydroclimatic phases (the African Humid Period and the onset of aridification during the Late Holocene), thus providing a particularly suitable framework for addressing these issues. The analysis of the lithic industries presented here aims to characterize the specific features of lithic production from the Early to the Late Holocene (among LSA hunter-gatherer-fishermen and the first Neolithic herders) and to interpret elements of innovation, change, and continuity in relation to paleoenvironmental, economic, and socio-cultural dynamics. The diachronic study of technological changes in lithic production during the Holocene in the Central Ethiopian Afar constitutes the core of this research.
Three analytical approaches were applied: technological analysis, functional analysis, and geometric morphometrics. The results show the existence of lithic production belonging to LSA traditions during the Early Holocene, at a time of humid climatic conditions. These industries are characterized by blade and bladelet production, the presence of the Levallois component, and the absence of backed pieces, thereby contributing to ongoing debates concerning technological variability within the LSA. During the Middle Holocene, blade and bladelet production remains predominant. The production of geometric backed pieces reflects functional needs related to the hunting of large aquatic prey. Although these assemblages remain rooted in LSA traditions, some technical features, such as the exploitation of small obsidian pebbles, the use of bipolar on anvil technique, the increase in bladelet and flake production, and a trend toward miniaturization, anticipate technical choices that will become common during the Late Holocene. This latter period, marked by increasing aridity, witnesses the adoption of pastoralism and pottery in the region. The lithic production of Neolithic groups reflects both a discontinuity with earlier traditions and the persistence of elements inherited from the Middle Holocene, pointing to techno-cultural continuity and strong local traditions. Bipolar percussion on anvil became highly frequent and associated with the exploitation of pebbles to produce miniaturized flakes and bladelets used as blanks for the manufacture of microliths, including geometric forms. These industries share characteristics with contemporaneous sites in Djibouti and along the Yemeni Tihamah coast, while also displaying specific features (such as the persistence of Levallois reduction strategies). The existence of shared technical traditions on both sides of the Red Sea is further confirmed and expressed through miniaturized production of flakes, bladelets, microliths, and pièces esquillées. The results of this study provide new insights into the lithic technical traditions of the Afar region, and contribute to broader discussions concerning population mobility and the origins of pastoralism in the Horn of Africa.