Recycling for a purpose in the late Lower Paleolithic Levant: Use-wear and residue analyses of small sharp flint items indicate a planned and integrated subsistence behavior at Qesem Cave (Israel) Flavia Venditti a, b, * , Stella Nunziante-Cesaro c , Yoni Parush a , Avi Gopher a , Ran Barkai a a Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel b Laboratory of Technological and Functional Analyses of Prehistoric Artefacts (LTFAPA) Department of Classics, “Sapienza” Universit a di Roma, Rome, Italy c Scientific Methodologies Applied to Cultural Heritage (SMATCH), ISMN-CNR c/o Dept. of Chemistry, “Sapienza” Universit a di Roma, Rome, Italy article info Article history: Received 29 October 2018 Accepted 15 March 2019 Keywords: Late Lower Paleolithic Recycling Small flakes Experiments Use-wear traces Residues abstract The purposeful production of small flakes is integral to the lithic variability of many Middle Pleistocene sites. Inhabitants of the Acheulo-Yabrudian site of Qesem Cave, Israel, systematically recycled ‘old’ dis- carded blanks and tools, using them as cores for the production of small sharp tools with distinct technological features. These recycling end-products were produced in significant quantities throughout the human occupation of Qesem Cave, and their outstanding state of preservation made possible a functional analysis with residue detection using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). An experimental program accompanying the study tested the efficiency of each tool category, and a reference collection of the organic remains was assembled. Our integrated results show that small flakes were used mainly to process soft to medium animal material through precise cutting activities that required accurate longitudinal motions. Several items show clear and exclusive contact with bone while others were used for designated steps in hide treatment processes. Plant and tuber processing are also evidenced although to a lesser extent. We show that the end products of recycling ‘old’ flakes reflect preconceived technological and functional char- acteristics produced in a targeted manner to obtain specific tools designated for anticipated practical tasks. We demonstrate the complementary role of the products of recycling within the Qesem Cave tool- kits alongside larger tools in assisting early humans in the different stages of processing animal materials. Moreover, use-wear and residue evidence indicates that Qesem hominins differentiated their activities across space in the cave. We argue that the meticulous realization of specific tasks and the deliberate, repetitive, and skilled production of tools of different sizes and shapes is one characteristic of the new mode of adaptation practiced by Acheulo-Yabrudian hominins in the Levant in order to better manipulate the available resources following the disappearance of mega-herbivores. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The production and use of flakes and tools of small dimensions at Middle Pleistocene sites are difficult to characterize due to the lack of a common methodological framework for defining these objects. The abundance of small tools in archaeological assem- blages starting from the Lower Paleolithic has been acknowledged by many researchers over the past 15 years (e.g., Burdukiewicz and Ronen, 2003; Barsky et al., 2013; Chazan, 2013; Zaidner, 2013; Agam et al., 2015; Gallotti and Peretto, 2015; Parush et al., 2015; Abruzzese et al., 2016; Alperson-Afil and Goren-Inbar, 2016; Aur- eli et al., 2016; Rocca et al., 2016; Santucci et al., 2016; Yang et al., 2016; Agam and Barkai, 2018; Tourloukis and Harvati, 2018; Tourloukis et al., 2018; Wojtczak and Demidenko, 2018). With the aim of better understanding the functional potential of small flakes and their practical advantages within the lithic toolkits found at Paleolithic sites, several experimental frameworks were also devised (Gal an and Domínguez-Rodrigo, 2014; Key and Lycett, 2014, 2015, 2017). Different reduction sequences and knapping techniques were practiced during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic to produce flakes * Corresponding author. E-mail address: flavia.venditti@gmail.com (F. Venditti). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.016 0047-2484/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Human Evolution 131 (2019) 109e128