Les Gestes de la Préhistoire

An audiovisual encyclopedia to discover prehistory

Side Scraper on a Levallois blade

Cutting meat and scraping hides

Middle Palaeolithic
300 000 to 45 000 years

 

Although these objects could be used to scrape hides, they above all served as knives.
M.N. Brézillon, Dictionnaire de la préhistoire. Larousse, Paris, 1969.

 

Commentary : 

A side scraper on a Levallois blade, is made on a blade blank chosen for its regular shape, and thinness.

The retouched edges of the blade ensure better efficiency and greater resistance when scraping or cutting.

During the Middle Palaeolithic, the expansion of side scrapers on Levallois blades, seems to be linked to hunting activities, and the need to finely cut meat, which played a major role in the subsistence practices, of Neanderthal societies.

 

Technical informations

Length: 05:04

Resolution : Full HD / 1920x1080

Video format : 16 / 9