Comparative macro-archaeological investigations of the human deep past rely on the availability of unified, quality-checked datasets integrating different layers of observation. Information on the durable and ubiquitous record of Paleolithic stone artefacts and technological choices are especially pertinent to this endeavour. We here present a large expert-sourced collaborative dataset for the study of stone tool technology and artefact shape evolution across Europe between ~15.000 and 11.000 years before present. The dataset contains a compendium of key sites from the study period, and data on lithic technology and toolkit composition at the level of the cultural taxa represented by those sites. The dataset further encompasses 2D shapes of selected lithic artefact groups (armatures, endscrapers, and borers/perforators) shared between cultural taxa. These data offer novel possibilities to explore between-regional patterns of material culture change to reveal scale-dependent processes of long-term technological evolution in mobile hunter-gatherer societies at the end of the Pleistocene. Our dataset facilitates state-of-the-art quantitative analyses and showcases the benefits of collaborative data collation and synthesis.

1 U de Investigación en Arqueología y Patrimonio Histórico University of Alicante Alicante Spain

Archaeological Museum in Kraków Kraków Poland

CNRS UMR 5199 PACEA University of Bordeaux Bordeaux France

CNRS UMR UMR 8068 TEMPS Paris Nanterre France

Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies Aarhus University Moesgård Allé 20 8270 Højbjerg Denmark

Department of Archaeology Ghent University Sint Pietersnieuwstraat 35 9000 Ghent Belgium

Department of Geology Faculty of Science Palacky University Olomouc Olomouc Czech Republic

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche University of Ferrara Ferrara Italy

INRAP Centre Île de France Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives 18 rue Chapelle 89510 PASSY UMR 8068 TEMPS Technologie et Ethnologie des Mondes Préhistoriques Paris Nanterre France

Institute of Baltic Region History and Archaeology Klaipėda University Klaipėda Lithuania

Museum Lolland Falster Frisegade 40 4800 Nykøbing F Denmark

Natural History Museum Vienna Burgring 7 1010 Vienna Austria

Université Côte d'Azur UMR 7264 CEPAM CNRS Nice France

ZSBA Schloß Gottdorf Schloßinsel 1 24837 Schleswig Germany

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A pan-European dataset revealing variability in lithic technology, toolkits, and artefact shapes ~15-11 kya