The 'chaîne opératoire' approach to lithic
analysis
Roger Grace
Universititet i Oslo,
Sosial antropologi institut,
postboks 1091,
Blindern,
0317 Oslo,
Norway. r.d.grace@sai.uio.no
Summary
Chaîne opératoire, translated as operational sequence, has
been described as "the different stages of tool production from the
acquisition of raw material to the final abandonment of the desired and/or
used objects. By reconstructing the operational sequence we reveal the choices
made by ... humans."
(Bar-Yosef et al.1992,
511). Excepting that the individuals in a group have a number of raw materials and techniques available
to them; "identification of the most frequently recurring of these
choices enables the archaeologist to characterize the technical traditions
of the social group" (ibid).
Considering the lack of correlation of the environment with stone tools
and/or social structure, the role of 'human choice' has become more important
in understanding stone age sites. One way of studying 'human choice' is
through the chaîne opératoire approach. The operational sequence
is from raw material procurement to primary reduction techniques (the reduction
of nodules to cores), secondary reduction (the removal of blanks from cores
and the manufacture of tools with retouch), the use of tools and the discard
of the artifacts.
Schematic diagram of the chaîne
opératoire
The essential difference between this approach and a typological approach
is that it encompasses the whole process of the life history of the lithic
material, from basic nodules to the remains that archaeologists
excavate.
As Stringer and Gamble comment, "The typology of
stone tools has been
largely superseded by models of behaviour that concentrate more on the 'biography'
of the implement - how it was
made, used, resharpened, recycled, changed
shape and finally thrown
away." (Stringer &
Gamble
1993, 143). An
extension to this operational chain is the post-depositional
disturbance
of the site and even excavation strategy, as these
will have an effect on
our understanding of the human choices that
were made throughout the operational
sequence. Cultures, in terms of groups
that were ethnically or traditionally
similar, are
expressed by these choices.
Archaeological sites are the
product of dynamic interaction between individuals
within the social
group, rather than static structures to be simply classified
by typological lists or by measurement of debitage. This dynamic
interaction
can be studied with the chaîne opératoire approach that allows
for a greater understanding of the complex human behaviour that lies behind
the archaeological data.
