The origins of recycling. A Paleolithic perspective

The study of lithic recycling in Paleolithic cultures throughout the Old World is increasingly becoming atopic of interest for many scholars. Technological analyses, refitting, and spatial analyses are disclosingthe“recycling behavior”of many contexts, especially those of Lower and Middle Paleolithic sites. Stilllacking, however, is a functional approach to the subject, which would certainly add new pieces to thisintriguing jigsaw puzzle.Use-wear analysis, one of the most powerful methods to reach functional interpretations in lithicfinds,can greatly improve our understanding of Paleolithic recycling behavior. Even in those cases where post-depositional alterations affected lithic items, use-wear analyses may produce important data despite thedecrease in detail or less than optimal conditions of preservation.At the late Lower Paleolithic site of Qesem Cave, the high degree of conservation and preservation ofthe lithic tools maximizes the inference potential of this method. In this article, functional data aresummarized following a study of a large sample of Amudian parentflakes (flakes from which wereproduced cores onflakes, termed COF-FFs) as well as recycled products (blanks produced from COF-FFs).Confirming the inference potential of use-wear analyses, this data allows for the delineation of functionalpeculiarities of the studied items, which, despitefirst impression, are anything but expedient. Moreover,the current use-wear analysis expands the scenario outlined by the technological study of the lithicrecycling phenomenon at Qesem Cave, confirming its own role in the complex techno-functional systempracticed by the hominins of Qesem Cave.