The Brochtorff Xagħra Circle assemblage

The assemblage of the Circle was collected during the excavations of the site between 1987 and 1994. It is an assemblage of 225 pieces and included artefacts which are made from a variety of rock materials (Appendix I; Table 5). Eight pieces are made from limestone, while one is made from calcite.

Furthermore, there is a group of artefacts (n=18) of an unknown rock source, but clearly not related to chert rocks. Finally, there are a few chert artefacts which are patinated. It was decided to exclude the latter from further investigation as they are fully covered with patina (white or coloured) and their macroscopic characteristics cannot be easily distinguished. The finds related with this excavation have initials BR (Brochtorff) and further explanation of their coding is found in the Appendix (Table 6).

Focusing on the chert members of the assemblage in terms of sources, they are divided mainly into three main groups. The first group of artefacts (Fig.5.19) is mainly characterized by brown colours (10YR 4/2, 6/2 and 5YR 3/2), fine grain size and the absence of translucency (i.e. opaque) and shine (i.e. dull). Some differences have been recorded, but they are not at such a level to suggest different rock sources. The only exceptions are the small, brown and translucent artefacts (e.g.

BR89/S395/L449), which always exhibit part of the cortex. The majority of the members of the assemblage are included in this group and are generally of greater size in comparison with artefacts of other chert materials.

Another important group included opaque, dull, spotted and grey coloured (e.g. 5Y 6/1) artefacts (Fig.5.20a). The artefacts of this group are described as spotted (Crandell, 2006) because they presented irregular shapes of white spots on their surface. The characteristics of this group are

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compatible with the ones found in the Maltese chert formations. Additionally, the size of the artefacts of this group is substantial, but not on the same level as the ones in the first group.

The last group consists of artefacts exhibits a high level of translucency and similarities in lustre, texture and grain size. However, the diversity in colours (e.g. yellow, red and brown) and the fluctuation in the levels of translucency suggest that they are from different raw sources (Fig.5.20b).

The artefacts of this group are actually fragments of bigger artefacts, which possibly explains their very small size.

Figure 5-19: Artefacts which have been allocated to the first group of chert source. They include finds with different forms and tool types.

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Figure 5-20: a) Artefacts included in the second group and related to local sources, b) Artefacts included in the third group and not related with local chert sources.

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➢ Types of tools

The artefacts reported in the assemblage from the Circle are flakes, chips and indeterminate pieces, while cores and debitage are not reported (Table 7; Malone, 2009). The indeterminate pieces category includes those that present insufficiently identified features and therefore are unable to be categorized accurately. The majority of the artefacts are flakes, with further categories of flake scrappers or blades (Fig.5.21). The flake scrapers are partly modified on one of their sides (unimarginal³) and most of the blades are parts or fragments of a greater artefact (e.g.

BR91/S611/L712, S110/L274). There are only some samples (Fig.5.22), which can be considered as scrapers, based on the extent of the modification (e.g. BR91/S745/L845).

➢ Manufacturing techniques

The examination of these artefacts has shown that percussion is the main technique used, especially to extract detached pieces from the original objective piece⁴. In addition, some samples have presented indications of flakes being extracted from their dorsal surface. Such flakes are considered evidence of the percussion technique and are called Eraillure flakes⁵. The sample BR93/S843/L4 constitutes an example of such a type of flake. There are artefacts presenting an arris⁶ feature which is created from modification or further flake extraction (Fig. 5.21). The pressure technique is used in the final or secondary flanking and especially for retouching the edges of the artefacts. All scrapers have some secondary modification on the edges, but no similar features are found on flakes and blades (e.g. BR88/S110/L274). The BR89/S291/L334 is a typical example of a microblade with secondary edge modification. The modification, where present, is only reported on the one side of the artefacts and classifies them as unimarginal flakes (Fig.5.21). There is one sample (Fig.5.22) which shows all the typical characteristics related with the Levallois technique⁷ (e.g. BR91/S745/L845). Furthermore, there are a few more samples that have similar characteristics to these artefacts, however safe conclusions cannot be drawn because of their small size.

3 A detached piece, mainly flakes, that have been modified only on one surface.

4 Objective pieces are stone items that have been hit, cracked, flacked or modified in some way (Andrefsky, 2005).

5 A small chip or flake on the bulb and it is produced during the original impact of the flake removal, caused from the striking force which results in the removal of a chip from bulb.

6 The intersection of flake scars produces a ridge, which is called an arris.

7 It is a distinctive type of stone knapping developed by precursors during the Palaeolithic period and creates lithic flakes from a prepared core. The striking platform is formed and then the core’s edges are trimmed by flaking off pieces around the outline. A strike is performed on the striking platform and a lithic flake is separated with a distinctive profile and sharp edges by the earlier trimming works. Most of the time the extracted flake would be a scraper or a knife (Andrefsky, 2005).

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Figure 5-21: Example of a blade made from the Circle. The modifications are found only on the one side (purple arrow) and it is characterized as a unimarginal tool. Flakes have been extracted from this side (yellow arrow) which have

resulted in an arris (green arrow) on its surface.

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Figure 5-22: A scraper from in Xagħra Circle. It has a flat surface from which a flake has been extracted (purple arrow) and the edges have been trimmed (green arrows). It is most likely to be created with the Levallois technique (Andrefsky,

2005).

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