ABSTRACT
The significant attribute may be a specific type of artefact, whose presence or absence confers a particular status. Alternatively, particular technological, or stylistic features on the artefacts may be chosen as the criteria for distinguishing an assemblage. The Clactonian is a series of stone tool assemblages that all share one common feature – they all lack a particular type of tool and the evidence of its manufacture. Thus, Clactonian sites/assemblages are all identified on the basis of a complete lack of handaxes or thinning flakes. Clactonian sites/assemblages are large, in most cases, many hundreds of artefacts, in some cases, many thousands. The Palaeolithic framework and the Pleistocene framework are complementary, just different ways of dividing up the same time period by focusing on different lines of evidence, human in the former, and the natural world in the latter. The hominins at Dmanisi are only associated with flakes and cores, though the assemblage is small.
