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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES School of Humanities Lithics and Personhood in the Lateglacial of north west Europe by Fotini Kofidou Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2009 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF LAW, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Doctor of Philosophy LITHICS AND PERSONHOOD IN THE LATEGLACIAL OF NORTH WEST EUROPE by Fotini Kofidou This thesis examines aspects of human personhood as expressed through lithic artefacts in north west Europe during the Lateglacial. The research sites are Hengistbury Head in Britain, Rekem in Belgium and a cluster of sites in the Neuwied Basin, in Central Rhineland. The case studies cover the period of the Lateglacial Interstadial complex, about 15,500 -13,000 cal years BP. The work aims at exploring the social practice of creating hunter-gatherer personhood in given social, temporal, spatial and material contexts. The discussion centres on the social and embodied nature of lithic technology as a means of negotiating the human person. In doing so, this study situates the discourse of the reciprocal and mutually constructing relationship between humans and objects at the core level of the individual. Placed within social archaeological theory, the research adopts an outlook of social practice as an active manner of involvement. Relational entanglements between humans and things can accumulate or enchain the physical and metaphorical resources of the world, consequently leading to stasis or transformation. Therefore this thesis demonstrates that continuity and change in the archaeological record are associated with expressions of self ontologies. Further, the work suggests that, in order to comprehend this material variability, it would be helpful to consider the Lateglacial as a dynamic process of hybrid engagements instead of a fixed chronological and cultural unit. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS .....................................................................................iii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................viii LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................ xi DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ...............................................................xiii ACKNOWLEDEGMENTS................................................................................ xiv CHAPTER ONE.................................................................................................... 1 Introduction...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 RESEARCH AIMS, QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES....................... 1 1.2 THE HUMAN-OBJECT RELATIONSHIP............................................ 2 1.3 REASONS FOR SELECTING THE LATEGLACIAL CASE STUDIES……………………………………………………………………………4 1.3.1 Problems with the European Lateglacial .......................................... 5 1.4 THE STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS.................................................. 10 1.5 SUMMARY........................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER TWO................................................................................................. 12 The social in archaeology: the case of the Palaeolithic............................... 12 2.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 12 2.2 THE SOCIAL AS CULTURAL (CULTURAL HISTORY APPROACH)........................................................................................................... 13 2.3 THE SOCIAL AS RATIONAL (PROCESSUAL APPROACH)......... 16 2.4 THE SOCIAL AS RELATIONAL (POSTPROCESSUAL APPROACH)........................................................................................................... 20 2.5 THE SOCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE PALAEOLITHIC............ 23 2.6 THE SOCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE LATEGLACIAL............. 27 2.7 SUMMARY........................................................................................... 31 iii CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................. 33 Theoretical framework: identity and the distributed self.......................... 33 3.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 33 3.2 HUMAN IDENTITY............................................................................. 34 3.3 INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS AND NETWORKS................................... 36 3.4 THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SELF: ASPECTS OF PERSONHOOD ................................................................................................................................. 40 3.5 EMBODIED IDENTITIES ................................................................... 46 3.5.1 Habitus, Performativity and Practice.............................................. 49 3.5.2 Social Agency and Practice ............................................................ 53 3.5.2.1 Agency and Structure .............................................................. 54 3.5.2.2 Agency, Objects and Life Cycles. ........................................... 55 3.6 IDENTITY, PRACTICE AND MATERIALITY ................................. 59 3.7 SUMMARY........................................................................................... 63 CHAPTER FOUR ............................................................................................... 65 Methodology................................................................................................... 65 4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 65 4.2. FRAMEWORKS AND UNITS OF ANALYSIS................................. 66 4.2.1 The concept of the chaîne opératoire: some remarks ..................... 66 4.2.2 A socio-technical context for lithic analysis................................... 69 4.2.3 Lithic Analysis................................................................................ 71 4.2.3.1 General Recording Criteria...................................................... 72 4.2.3.2 Primary Technologies.............................................................. 73 4.2.3.3 Secondary Technologies.......................................................... 73 4.3. AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MODEL FOR SOCIAL PRACTICE....... 75 4.3.1 A Matter of Microscale................................................................... 75 4.3.2 Archaeological social practice beyond the microscale................... 77 4.4. SUMMARY.......................................................................................... 78 iv CHAPTER 5 ........................................................................................................ 79 Personhood during the Final Upper Palaeolithic in Britain...................... 79 5. 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 79 5.2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ............................................. 79 5.2.1 Late Upper Palaeolithic: The Creswellian (single & double truncated backed pieces)...................................................................................... 81 5.2.2 Final Upper Palaeolithic ................................................................. 84 5.2.2.1 Curve-backed Pieces................................................................ 84 5.2.2.2 Long Blades............................................................................. 87 5.3 HENGISTBURY HEAD: WHY SELECTING IT AS A CASE STUDY? .................................................................................................................. 88 5.4 HENGISTBURY HEAD, DORSET ..................................................... 90 5.4.1.Location, dating, history of investigation....................................... 90 5.5 DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSEMBLAGE........................................... 94 5.5.1 Débitage and cores........................................................................ 103 5.5.1.1 Cores...................................................................................... 104 Blade Cores ....................................................................................... 105 Flake Cores........................................................................................ 109 5.5.1.2 Burin spalls ............................................................................ 109 5.5.1.3 Blades and bladelets, complete and fragmentary ............... 109 5.5.1.4 Intentional Breaks............................................................... 112 5.5.1.5