Table of Contents

LIST OF FIGURES; LIST OF TABLES; PREFACE; 1. INTRODUCTION; 2. METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES; 3. THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT: QESEM CAVE AND THE LOWER PALAEOLITHIC IN THE LEVANT; 4. THE RECYCLING PHENOMENON AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS AT QESEM CAVE; 5. THE EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMME; 6. POST DEPOSITIONAL SURFACE MODIFICATION (PDSM); 7. THE FUNCTIONAL AND RESIDUE ANALYSES OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIAL; 8. DISCUSSION; 9. CONCLUSION; BIBLIOGRAPHY; APPENDIX A; APPENDIX B; APPENDIX C

About the Author

FLAVIA VENDITTI is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Tel Aviv, Israel. She specialises in the functional analysis of quartz and flint lithic tool production and has a particular interest in Palaeolithic assemblages. During her MA studies, she started working in the field of use-wear analysis under the supervision of Professor Cristina Lemorini at University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’. She focused her research on the use-wear study of a quartz assemblage form the Middle Palaeolithic site of Coudouolous in Quercy (France). Subsequently, she attended a two-years Masters class in Archaeological Heritage at University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and completed her dissertation on the effects of the mechanical postdepositional alteration on quartz artifacts coming from Neolithic sites of the Sai Island (Sudan). Flavia completed her doctorate in 2017 with a research project on the functional analysis of the products of recycling from the Lower Palaeolithic Qesem Cave site in the Levant. She is a member of the Qesem Cave team project taking part in the annual archaeological excavations on the site.