PALEO - N° 8 - DECEMBRE 1 996 - p. 1 43 à 1 59
FLAKED BONE FROM A HYENA DEN
Paola VILLA"» and Larry BARTRAM<2)
The existence of flaked bone tools in the Lower/Middle Paleolithic has been confirmed since the early 1 980s and is now well-documented at several Italian sites in the Latium region, dated to the Middle Pleistocene, such as Castel di Guido (Radmilli 1985, 1988; Mallegni and Radmilli 1988) Fontana Ranuccio (Segre and Ascenzi 1984; Biddittu and Bruni 1987) and La Polledrara (Anzidei et al. 1989; Anzidei and Arnoldus Huyzenveld 1 992). The first two sites in particular have yielded highly modified Acheulian-type bifaces which show multiple
scars on both faces with clear negative bulbs of percussion in an orderly pattern; their shapes are symmetrical and naturally improbable. Although criteria used in the identification have not been made fully explicit, it is clear that their diagnosis, and its acceptance by other scholars, is based on the occurrence of invasive removals with the classic attributes of percussion flaking, on symmetry of form, on the regular shape of the worked edge in plan form and profile, and on extensive bifacial flaking (Villa 1991; Villa et al. in press).
(1) Institut du Quaternaire, UMR 9933, Université Bordeaux 1, 33405 Talence, France and University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0315, USA. (2) Department of Anthropology, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604-3003, USA.
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