Pech de l'Azé IV - Layers XYZ

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Bordes had originally considered the industries of these layers to be examples of Typical Mousterian, but our analysis of the complete series shows that all of them are much higher in scrapers than what was seen by Bordes, with “essential” Scraper Indices higher than 55. Most of the scrapers are single forms, followed by double and convergent types; transverse scrapers are rare. There is some Levallois (with average IL about 13 percent) and a relatively high degree of faceting. As with most of the Pech IV industries, the majority of the blanks exhibit uni-directional preparation, followed by sub-radial and radial. These various types of exterior scar patterns do not appear to be related to the degree of core reduction, as was the case with the Mousterian assemblage from Biache St.-Vaast. There are moderate degrees of both core reduction and tool production.