A New Metaquartzite Refit from the Rhineland Middle Paleolithic Tells a Tale of Perseverance

A number of Middle Paleolithic surface sites have been discovered in the German village of Heidesheim am Rhein, which is located in the Upper Rhine Valley near the city of Mainz. All of these sites seem to have yielded assemblages belonging to a single lithic industry. The largest assemblage originates from the summit of the Höllenberg plateau. This assemblage contains over 750 lithic artifacts, fourteen of which can be rejoined in seven refits. Six of the refits are in metaquartzite, and one is in rhyolite. Now a second Middle Paleolithic site, known as FM 96-40, has produced its own two-piece metaquartzite refit. The new refit tells the tale of a blank that was broken in a knapping accident. The accident did not, however, stop the reduction process. Furthermore, on the basis of technological and typological features peculiar to the lithic industry, it may be possible to infer what type of tool the knapper had originally intended to make from the ill-fated blank. Finally, the refit also reveals that the knapper may eventually have made just such a tool.