P Schmidt

Biographic Data

ID3249
NAMEP Schmidt
GIVEN NAMESP
FAMILY NAMESchmidt
SIGNATURESCHMIDT P
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Tübingen
ORCID0000-0002-8727-6127
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS50
TOTAL CITATIONS365
AUTHOR COUNT49
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1984
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX11

  • Earliest Lithic Heat Treatment in Australia is the World’s Oldest Known Treatment of Chert

    Open AccessP Schmidt, Peter HiscockARTICLEJournal of Paleolithic Archaeology2026

    We identify the oldest known example of systematic heat treatment of chert in the world. The specimens come from the base of one of Australia’s oldest archaeological sequences, Nauwalabila I, in Arnhem Land, which is dated to at least 45–40 ka and probably older than 55 ka. The presence of this heat-based transformative technology in Australia has significance for reconstructions of technological evolution. One possibility is that chert heat trea…

  • Evaluating the Knapping Quality of the Japanese Early Upper Paleolithic Raw Materials

    Open AccessEiki Suga, Shuhei Suzuki et al.ARTICLEArchaeometry2026

    This study investigates the mechanical characteristics of lithic raw materials used during the Paleolithic in the Japanese Archipelago, focusing on Wada‐toge obsidian, Happusan andesite, and shale from the Akaya Formation. Although these sources have been well documented, few studies have examined their mechanical behavior. To evaluate the knapping quality (or fracture predictability), we measured several mechanical indicators on geological sampl…

  • On the Authenticity of Two Presumed Paleolithic Female Figurines from the Art Market

    Open AccessSibylle Wolf, Rainer-Maria Weiss et al.ARTICLEHeritage2025References: 10

    In March 2022, an auction house in Zurich sold two female figurines made from mammoth ivory, along with other prehistoric artefacts. This is a rare occurrence because the scarcity and value of Paleolithic figurines have limited their presence in the international art market. Researchers from the Archaeological Museum Hamburg and the University of Tübingen subsequently undertook in situ and non-destructive investigations to illuminate the authenti…

  • Characteristics of lithic artifact weathering at the Semizbugu surface site complex in semi-arid Central Kazakhstan

    Open AccessEmily Coco, P Schmidt et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2025Cited by: 1References: 73

  • Heat Treatment of Chert in the Early Mesolithic at Rottenburg-Siebenlinden (Southwest Germany)

    H Huber, Yvonne Tafelmaier et al.ARTICLELithic Technology2024References: 38

    Unambiguous evidence for heat treatment in the Early Mesolithic of Southwestern Germany is thus far restricted to one type of raw material and to cave sites of the Swabian Jura region. At the open-air site Rottenburg-Siebenlinden, heat treatment of an additional raw material was proposed. In this paper, we reexamine the lithic assemblage of horizon III, using the best available criterion for recognizing heat treatment: gloss contrast. Through tec…

  • Adhesive technology based on biomass tar documents engineering capabilities in the African Middle Stone Age

    Open AccessP Schmidt, Armelle Charrié-Duhaut et al.ARTICLEJournal of Human Evolution2024Cited by: 3References: 66

    The foragers of the southern African Middle Stone Age were among the first humans to adapt their environment and its resources to their needs. They heat-treated stone to alter its mechanical properties, transformed yellow colorants into red pigments and produced moldable adhesive substances from plants. Until now, only Podocarpus conifers have been identified as the botanical origin of Middle Stone Age adhesives. This is curious as these conifers…

  • The molecular composition of birch tar and its infrared spectrum

    Open AccessP Schmidt, Tabea J KochARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2024Cited by: 2References: 35

    Birch tar was the first substance made by humans that is otherwise not available in nature. The oldest artefacts date to ~ 200 thousand years ago in Europe but birch tar becomes more frequent around 45 thousand years ago and even more so from the Mesolithic onwards. Their study has important implication for our understanding of evolutionary processes such as cognitive capacity and cultural evolution. What remains unknown is the overall molecular …

  • Variability in Silcrete Heat Treatment at Klein Kliphuis Shelter, South Africa, and Its Role in Core Reduction

    P Schmidt, Peter Hiscock et al.ARTICLELithic Technology2023Cited by: 1References: 41

    Silcrete heat treatment was the earliest known transformative process enhancing the mechanical properties of materials. Its study has implications for our understanding of the cultural evolution of early humans in the Middle Stone Age and southern Africa. Here, we analyze a silcrete assemblage from the South African site Klein Kliphuis. We first investigate the relative prevalence of heat treatment in assemblage and then the position of heat trea…

  • Adhesive Strength and Rupture Behaviour of Birch Tars Made with Different Stone Age Methods

    Open AccessTabea J Koch, P SchmidtARTICLEJournal of Paleolithic Archaeology2023Cited by: 4References: 20

    Birch tar is the earliest adhesive produced by Neanderthals in the European Palaeolithic. Experimental studies have proposed a number of aceramic (i.e. without the use of ceramics) birch tar–making techniques, but to date, no archaeological evidence for any of these techniques has been brought forward. The likelihood of one of those methods being actually used in the Stone Age may be investigated by evaluating the method’s complexity, efficiency …

  • The evolution of strength, elasticity and rupture behaviour of birch tar made with ‘double‐pot’ techniques during tar cooking

    Open AccessP Schmidt, Tabea J Koch et al.ARTICLEArchaeometry2023Cited by: 5References: 15

    Birch tar was the first adhesive produced by humans. Its study has consequences for our understanding of human evolution and the development of specialised craftsmanship. One of the better‐documented birch tar making methods is the ‘double‐pot’ technique, where two containers are used, one containing bark, the other collecting the tar. Birch tar made with double‐pots has low viscosity and bad adhesive properties. To obtain a usable adhesive, it m…

  • C2.3 - Optical Metrology for the Characterization of Fluids Relevant for Hydrogen Storage and Transport

    M Kerscher, Julius H Jander et al.ARTICLELectures2023

  • Production method of the Königsaue birch tar documents cumulative culture in Neanderthals

    Open AccessP Schmidt, Tabea J Koch et al.ARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2023Cited by: 13References: 53

    Birch tar is the oldest synthetic substance made by early humans. The earliest such artefacts are associated with Neanderthals. According to traditional interpretations, their study allows understanding Neanderthal tool behaviours, skills and cultural evolution. However, recent work has found that birch tar can also be produced with simple processes, or even result from fortuitous accidents. Even though these findings suggest that birch tar per s…

  • Preference for Porphyry

    Abay Namen, P Schmidt et al.ARTICLEJournal of Field Archaeology2022References: 60

    Only a handful of stratified sites are known in loess, spring, and river contexts in the northern piedmonts of the Tian Shan, and the majority are dated to the Upper Palaeolithic. These sites have been studied from a geoarchaeological perspective; however, lithic procurement activities remain unknown. To address this deficiency, we present the results of the extensive field surveys aimed at locating prehistoric raw material sources in the Inner A…

  • Recognizing heat‐treated chert

    Open AccessJulie Bachellerie, P SchmidtARTICLEArchaeometry2022Cited by: 3References: 40

    Heat treatment of lithic raw material is used for the first time in Europe in the Solutrean of the upper Paleolithic. The study of which heating technique was used by these groups requires analytical methods to understand and recognize the chemical and physical processes involved. Roughness measurements were tested as a tool for recognizing heat treatment and to compare them to infrared spectroscopy. We also measured the surface topography of geo…

  • The unique laurel-leaf points of Volgu document long-distance transport of raw materials in the Solutrean

    Open AccessTabea J Koch, P SchmidtARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2022Cited by: 5References: 23

    The Upper Palaeolithic Solutrean culture that coincided with the last glacial maximum has become famous for documenting an increasing investment of time and effort in the production of tools. However, Solutrean lithic assemblages predominantly document local procurement of flint and only in rare cases, stones were transported over distances above 100 km. The perhaps most remarkable Solutrean artefacts are the large bifacial laurel-leaf points of …

  • What causes differences in fracture rates of silcrete during heat treatment? A near-infrared study of water-related transformations in South African silcretes

    Open AccessSara E Watson, Shezani Nasoordeen et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science…2021References: 17

    Discussions of heat treatment in the southern African Middle Stone Age often focus on the importance of this innovation to the development of complex technologies and the evolution of modern human cognition. Debates regarding the context of silcrete heat treatment typically include the amount of time and resource investment needed, and when the earliest occurrences of heat treatment appear in the archaeological record. However, silcrete is a hete…

  • Molluscs of the Genus Glycymeris from Vogelherd Cave near Niederstotzingen (Lonetal, Southwestern Germany)

    Benjamin Schuerch, Sibylle Wolf et al.ARTICLEMitteilungen der Gesellschaft für…2021Cited by: 1References: 11

    The site of Vogelherd in the Lone Valley of southwestern Germany has become world famous for its many unique artworks made from mammoth ivory, personal ornaments, flute fragments, lithic artifacts, and antler and bone artifacts. In the study below, the molluscs from Vogelherd are presented, offering us new insights on the mobility and social behavior of Aurignacian groups in the Lone Valley. Some of the mollusc finds come from the 1931 excavation…

  • On the efficiency of Palaeolithic birch tar making

    Open AccessMatthias A Blessing, P SchmidtARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science…2021Cited by: 3References: 15

  • Steak tournedos or beef Wellington

    Open AccessP SchmidtARTICLEHumanities and Social Sciences…2021Cited by: 11References: 49

    Research into human uniqueness is gaining increasing importance in prehistoric archaeology. The most striking behaviour unique to early and modern humans among other primates is perhaps that they used fire to transform the properties of materials. In Archaeology, these processes are sometimes termed “engineering” or “transformative techniques” because they aim at producing materials with altered properties. Were such transformative techniques cog…

  • Heat treatment significantly increases the sharpness of silcrete stone tools

    Open AccessA Key, J Pargeter et al.ARTICLEArchaeometry2021Cited by: 12References: 63

    Humans were regularly heat‐treating stone tool raw materials as early as 130,000 years ago. The late Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Late Stone Age (LSA) of South Africa's Western Cape region provides some of the earliest and most pervasive archaeological evidence for this behaviour. While archaeologists are beginning to understand the flaking implications of raw material heat treatment, its potential functional benefits remain unanswered. Using silcr…

  • The formation conditions of birch tar in oxygen-depleted environments

    Open AccessTabea J Koch, P SchmidtARTICLEArchaeological and Anthropological…2021Cited by: 8References: 12

    Birch tar is the oldest manmade adhesive dating back to the European Middle Palaeolithic. Its study is of importance for understanding the cognitive capacities and technical skills of Neanderthals and the aceramic production systems employed in the European Palaeolithic and Mesolithic. Several methods may have been used to make birch tar, the most common proposition being dry distillation in oxygen-depleted atmospheres. One of the major impedimen…

  • Culture, Environmental Adaptation or Specific Problem Solving? On Convergence and Innovation Dynamics Related to Techniques Used for Stone Heat Treatment

    Open AccessP SchmidtCHAPTER2020

  • Are We Missing out on Half of All Heat-treated Pieces in the Solutrean

    P Schmidt, André MoralaARTICLELithic Technology2020Cited by: 3References: 14

    The European Solutrean has yielded one of the oldest chert assemblages documenting intentional heat treatment. Many questions about social and economic factors arise in this context. For example, did Solutrean knappers heat-treat only specific types of chert? Were specific heating techniques adapted to specific types of chert? We investigate these questions by analyzing 43 chert artifacts from Laugerie-Haute. We use near-infrared spectroscopy to …

  • Preliminary results of the first lithic raw material survey in the piedmont zones of Kazakhstan

    Abay Namen, Patrick Cuthbertson et al.PREPRINT2020Cited by: 1References: 18

    The study of raw materials focuses on different aspects of hominin behaviour such as mobility strategies, land-use patterns and raw material transfer. They were comprehensively studied in the Palaeolithic of Europe and Africa. However, systematic studies of raw material sourcing have not been undertaken for the Palaeolithic of Kazakhstan, such surveys being embedded in reconnaissance works aimed at discovering new Palaeolithic sites. Our study pr…

  • Experimentation preceding innovation in a MIS5 Pre-Still Bay layer from Diepkloof Rock Shelter (South Africa)

    Guillaume Porraz, J Parkington et al.PREPRINT2020Cited by: 6References: 86

    In southern Africa, key technologies and symbolic behaviors develop as early as the later Middle Stone Age in MIS5. These innovations arise independently in various places, contexts and forms, until their full expression during the Still Bay and the Howiesons Poort. The Middle Stone Age sequence from Diepkloof Rock Shelter, on the West Coast of the region, preserves archaeological proxies that help unravelling the cultural processes at work. This…