Paleontological tools, March 2004

Two casts of paleontological tools, 1 chopper (left) and 1 chopping tool (right) excavated at Terra Amata, Nice, France that are old of around 300,000 years were selected by a palaeontologist. These tools whose shapes are characteristic will be scanned in 3D by different systems and the results will be compared.

The database Paleontological Material, December 2003

The database Paleontological Material includes information about many French and foreign excavation sites, in particular the Caune de l'Arago one.

To store this material, some lexica have been set-up that allows not only to code the descriptions of the items but also to include them in a computerized database.

At the time, the database of Caune de l'Arago includes more than 250,000 items with 3D coordinates and between 30 to 300 descriptive attributes.

This database is more than an archive since it allows making requests and processing for the following tasks:

• archeometry, technology and morphology study of the lithics industry,
• stratigraphy, i.e. output of vertical profiles that emphasizes the different archaeological layers,
• study of fauna,
• paleo-ethnology, i.e. repartition of the items on the archaeological layer.

Thus, concentrations of items can be analyzed, showing the different activity areas.