Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

Abstract:
The well-dated stratigraphic sequence of Willendorf II is a reference site for the Upper Palaeolithic in general and the Gravettian in particular. In 1993, a joint team from the Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique (Brussels, Belgium) and the University of Vienna carried out excavations at this loess site in the Danube Valley known since the end of the 19th century. During the excavation season, the team recovered 391 artefacts, the majority attributed to AH 6 and 8. We performed a technological study based on an attribute analysis of the lithic artefacts. This study demonstrates that the assemblages of AH 6 and 8 differ significantly in terms of technology and techno- economy. AH 6 has a high proportion of non-local erratic flint. The unidirectional reduction strategy aimed at the production of bladelets, especially on high-quality raw materials, to further modify them into backed elements that could be used as projectiles. In addition to the unidirectional, volumetric reduction strategy, burins were also exploited as bladelet cores. Apart from the manufacture of backed elements, the tool spectrum contains burins, end scrapers and pieces with edge retouch. AH 8 is dominated by local raw materials, such as quartzite and siliceous limestone. The unidirectional reduction strategy aimed at the production of blades. The toolkit includes a range of different tool types. Splintered pieces occur most frequently. Furthermore, pointed blades, burins, end scrapers, edge retouches, truncations, a borer with edge retouch, and a notched piece are among the tools. The differences between AH 6 and AH 8 and the similarities of AH 6 to AH 5 and AH 6 of the old excavations highlight that the AH 6 and AH 8 of the 1993 excavations do not belong to the same phase of the Gravettian technocomplex. The hunter-gatherers of AH 6 show technological, techno-economic and socio-technological behaviours more likely to correspond to the early Gravettian, while AH 8 shows diagnostic features of the Pavlovian, thereby confirming the dominant view among researchers that AH 8 of Willendorf II belongs to the Pavlovian.