Provenance studies have been the object of a longstanding interest in western and central Europe, where the potential of such studies was recognized as early as the 1960s-70s. Research on raw material procurement was not initially developed along the same lines everywhere. In France, Belgium, and Germany, for instance, attention focused primarily on the site and the raw materials introduced into it. As a result, long-distance transfers were rarely recognized because geological surveys were conducted within the confines of a region, generally construed as the catchment area of a major watercourse or as a major sedimentary basin. More recently, a greater awareness of the need to exchange information and flint samples has led to closer interaction between researchers working in different areas, and consequently to the acknowledgment of transfers exceeding the confines of a region. On the other hand, in Poland, Hungary, and former Czechoslovakia, attention centered during the earlier phases on the deposits themselves and on the distribution from the sources of distinctive types of raw materials, resulting in an initial emphasis on longdistance and medium-distance movements of raw materials. Since the 1980s, when systematic regional geological surveys were undertaken, more prominence has been given to the characterization and identification to source of raw materials recovered at individual archaeological sites.
World History
