Many days... - Part 1

It was simply by chance, pure luck, when in 1992, soon after that year’s excavation at Lapa do Anecrial (Zilhão 1995, 1997; Almeida 1998, 2000, 2001, Almeida et al. 2007), João, in between chatter talk about Sporting, asked me if I would like to study the artifacts from the site’s layer which, by then, was thought to date to the Epipaleolithic. Sure! And when I got to look at that small sample for the first time, it became almost instinctive. I grabbed two flakes and in seconds I had achieved the first lithic refit of Anecrial’s grey flint block, which was, of course, my “first ever” conjoint.
Then… then it became easy, automatic almost, to get into this weird addiction. Before the 1993 field season at the site started, several of the identified raw material blocks from Anecrial’s “Epipaleolithic” had reconstruction sets, with conjoints both in flint and in quartz – the majoritary raw material of the first year of excavation. In fact, it was this quartz predominance that supported the first chronological attribution to Anecrial layer 2 occupation, since there were parallels with the nearby cave site of Lapa do Casal Papagaio, excavated some years earlier by José Morais Arnaud (Arnaud 1988). Other refittinbg sets remained in stand by, since many of the artifacts had still a lot of limestone concretions on their surfaces. The field season finally started, and excavating at Anecrial became a wonderful dual experience: on one side, having the opportunity to excavate in a small cave site, with all that it implied in terms of learning experience for an undergraduate student (back then), and, on the other, to try to recognize in each of the collected artifact’s surface if it could refit with any of the previously collected stones. Since then, for 18 years, this search has never stopped.

Main Publications on Lapa do Anecrial available on line

Just Uploaded some of my main publications on Lapa do Anecrial (including my PhD Dissertation) to my academia.edu account. There you can find some of the advantages that lithic refitting brought to the interpretation of the site. Comments welcome!

ALMEIDA, F. (2001). Cores, tools, or both? Methodological consideration for the study of carinated Lithic elements: the Portuguese case. Em: Hays, M. A.; Thacker, P.T. (eds.), Questioning the Answers: Re-solving Fundamental Problems of the Early Upper Paleolithic, BAR International Series 1005: 91-98.
http://ualg.academia.edu/FranciscoAlmeida/Papers/164274/CORES--TOOLS--OR-BOTH--METHODOLOGICAL-CONTRIBUTION-FOR-THE-STUDY-OF-CARINATED-LITHIC-ELEMENTS--THE-PORTUGUESE-CASE

ALMEIDA, F. (2007). Refitting at Lapa do Anecrial: Studying Technology and Micro Scale Spatial Patterning through Lithic Reconstructions. In SCHURMANS, U. & DE BIE, M. (ed.) Fitting Rocks: Lithic Refitting Examined, BAR International Series 1596: 55-74.
http://ualg.academia.edu/FranciscoAlmeida/Papers/164321/REFITTING-AT-LAPA-DO-ANECRIAL--STUDYING-TECHNOLOGY-AND-MICRO-SCALE-SPATIAL-PATTERNING-THROUGH-LITHIC-RECONSTRUCTIONS

ALMEIDA, F. (2007). The Production Of Lithic Barbs In The Context of The Core Vs Tool Dichotomy: The Portuguese Upper Paleolithic Case. In MCPHERRON, S. (ed.) Tools versus Cores. Alternative Approaches to Stone Tool Analysis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle: 127-142.
http://ualg.academia.edu/FranciscoAlmeida/Papers/164315/The-Production-Of-Lithic-Barbs-In-The-Context-of-The-Core-Vs-Tool-Dichotomy--The-Portuguese-Upper-Paleolithic-Case-

ALMEIDA, F.; BRUGAL, J.-P.; ZILHÃO, J.; PLISSON, H. (2007). An Upper Paleolithic Pompeii: Technology, Subsistence and Paleoethnography at Lapa do Anecrial. In BICHO, N.F. (ed.) From the Mediterranean basin to the Portuguese Atlantic shore: Papers in Honor of Anthony Marks. Actas do IV Congresso de Arqueologia Peninsular. Faro, 14-19 Setembro de 2004. Promontoria Monográfica 07: 119-140.
http://ualg.academia.edu/FranciscoAlmeida/Papers/164324/An-Upper-Paleolithic-Pompeii--Technology--Subsistence-and-Paleoethnography-at-Lapa-do-Anecrial

ALMEIDA, F. (2000) - The Terminal Gravettian of Portuguese Estremadura. Technological variability of the lithic industries. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, EUA.
http://ualg.academia.edu/FranciscoAlmeida/Books/164278/The-Terminal-Gravettian-of-Portuguese-Estremadura--Technological-variability-of-the-lithic-industries-

Poster - Part 3

Poster - Part 2

Poster - Part 1

New Data on the Transition from the Gravettian to the Solutrean in Portuguese Estremadura

Poster Presentation at the Paleoanthropology Society Meetings - Saint Louis - April 2010

Download at:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxLktZTd0Q8ZNGQ2YThhYWItY2MzYy00NWI2LWE1MjYtOGZkMDFiYjVlNDE2&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

And of course I would have to start by the first of the first. The Grey Flint block from the cave site of Lapa do Anecrial... My first reconstruction, back in 1992. Photo by José Paulo Ruas (Instituto Português de Arqueologia)