Obviously sequential, but continuous or staged? Refits and cognition in three late paleolithic assemblages from Japan

Abstract The cognitive basis of technological behavior is of major interest in modern archaeology, although addressing ancient cognition in objective, material terms is difficult. Since refitted portions of lithic debris found together reflect the work done at one sitting, patterns of refitted material expose the cognitive basis of lithic technology by showing how stoneworkers structured their efforts. Analysis of assemblages of refitted materials from three Late Paleolithic Japanese sites—Iwato, Isoyama, and Mosanru—shows that although stoneworking was highly patterned and could proceed as a smooth continuum, stoneworkers regularly made use of convenient interruption points to divide the reduction sequence. Analysis also shows that diversity existed within patterns of production and suggests that established archaeological models that focus on highly patterned sequential activities may not expose the diversity that existed in the execution of technological activities.