Stone-Tool Production and Exchange in the Eastern Maya Lowlands: The Consumer Perspective from Pulltrouser Swamp, Belize

1989 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. McAnany
Keyword(s):  
Distribution System ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Specialized Production ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Consumer Perspective ◽  
Metric Dimensions

Ongoing controversy over the identification of mesoamerican centers as the locus for specialized production of stone tools is addressed by reference to a consumer locality in the eastern Maya Lowlands. Lithic data from Pulltrouser Swamp are used to shed light on the production intensity and scale of a distribution system centered at Colha, Belize. Debitage analyses of technological attributes, use wear, and metric dimensions contrast two contexts of lithic procurement at Pulltrouser Swamp: direct procurement of raw material and indirect procurement of finished tools. Each procurement context results in debitage with different variable states. Characterization of the Colha chert lithic material at Pulltrouser Swamp as a consumer assemblage is supported further by the results of a discriminant analysis in which an experimental "consumer" assemblage is classified with the Colha chert. Such characterizations of lithic assemblages are more robust methodologically and more informative substantively than attempts at the quantification of production or usage rates. The implications of scalar differences in production systems are discussed.

scholarly journals Using mechanical experiments to study Ground Stone Tool use: exploring the formation of percussive and grinding wear traces on limestone tools

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Paixao ◽  
Antonella Pedergnana ◽  
Joao Marreiros ◽  
Laure Dubreuil ◽  
Marion Prevost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Comparison ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Reference Collection ◽  
Anthropogenic Alterations ◽  
Tool Types

Ground Stone Tools (GST) have been identified in several Levantine archaeological sites dating to the Middle Paleolithic. These tools, frequently made of limestone, are often interpreted based on their morphology and damage as having been used for knapping flint, and sometimes for breaking animal bones or processing vegetal materials as well. However, the lack of experimental referential collections on limestone is a major obstacle for the identification of diagnostic traces on these types of tools and raw material. In this sense, the understanding of the specific function of these GST and the association between tool types and activity often remains unknown or merely speculative.Recent discoveries at the site of Nesher Ramla revealed one of the largest Middle Paleolithic assemblages of limestone GST. Our use-wear analysis has identified several types of both macro and micro-wear traces on different tools. Such diversity highlights the need for developing an experimental reference collection that can enable detailed comparison between experimental and archaeological use-wear evidence.In this paper, we present the results of mechanical experiments specially designed to understand and quantify major characteristics of macro and micro use-wear traces on limestone GST as a result of three main activities: 1) animal bone breaking, 2) flint knapping and 3) grinding acorns. This study pursues three main goals: a) improving our ability to distinguish natural from anthropogenic alterations on limestone; b) identifying and characterizing differences between wear-traces (macro and micro) produced by different activities, and c) building a reference collection for thorough comparisons of use-wear and residues on archaeological tools.Our results indicate that it is possible not only to identify anthropogenic alterations but also to specifically distinguish the use-wear traces formed on limestone as result of percussive activities of bone and flint. This is shown by controlled experiments allowing variables other than the worked material to remain constant. This study aims to contribute towards establishing an experimental and multi-scale library of use-wear traces on limestone.

Raw Material Selection and Stone Tool Production: Limestone Bifaces in the Mopan Valley, Belize

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 198-204
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Horowitz ◽  
Bernadette Cap ◽  
Jason Yaeger ◽  
Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown ◽  
Mark Eli
Keyword(s):  
Material Selection ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Raw Material Selection

Stone tool producers in the Maya Lowlands had several types of raw materials from which to choose. Limestone, chert, and obsidian are the most naturally abundant, whereas chert and obsidian outnumber limestone in archaeological contexts. The presence of flaked-stone tools made of limestone is typically attributed to the scarcity of more suitable raw materials. Nevertheless, in chert-rich areas, such as the upper Belize River valley, limestone bifaces and production debitage are present. To understand their presence, we examine limestone biface production and use at Buenavista del Cayo.

scholarly journals Optimization of use-wear detection and characterization on stone tool surfaces

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Borel Antony ◽  
Deltombe Raphaël ◽  
Moreau Philippe ◽  
Ingicco Thomas ◽  
Bigerelle Maxence ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Quantitative Characterization ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Surface Alteration

AbstractDebates and doubt around the interpretation of use-wear on stone tools called for the development of quantitative analysis of surfaces to complement the qualitative description of traces. Recently, a growing number of studies showed that prehistoric activities can be discriminated thanks to quantitative characterization of stone tools surface alteration due to use. However, stone tool surfaces are microscopically very heterogeneous and the calculated parameters may highly vary depending on the areas selected for measurement. Indeed, it may be impacted by the effects from the raw material topography and not from the altered zones only, if non-altered part of the surface is included in the measurement. We propose here to discuss this issue and present a workflow involving the use of masks to separate worn and unworn parts of the surface. Our results show that this step of extraction, together with suitable filtering, could have a high impact on the optimization of the detection and thus characterization of use traces. This represents the basis for future automatic routines allowing the detection, extraction and characterization of wear on stone tools.

scholarly journals New data concerning “large blades” in Catalonia: Apt-Forcalquier chert in the Penedès (south of Barcelona) during the Late Neolithic - Chalcolithic

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Mangado Llach ◽  
Jean Vaquer ◽  
Juan Francisco Gibaja Bao ◽  
F. Xavier Oms Arias ◽  
Artur Cebrià Escuer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
The North ◽  
Lithic Assemblages ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
North Eastern

The study of large chert blades documented in funerary contexts from the Late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in the north-eastern part of Iberia has been addressed in recent works by the authors, in which 49 burial sites have been registered with more than 200 large chert blades. In this paper the recent data obtained from the study of seven archaeological sites located in the region of the Penedès (southwest of Barcelona) is presented.The macroscopic characterization of the knapped stone industries shows their great variety regarding the origin of the siliceous raw material, often coming from outside the analysed region. In some cases their macroscopic features link them to Apt-Forcalquier chert (Haut Provence, France), which was widely distributed in the form of large blades during these phases of Late Catalan prehistory.The absence of evidence of the chaîne opératoire production of this type of foreign chert in the lithic assemblages in Catalonia lead to the supposition that the dispersion of the blades was done as trade items, and only in a few cases were highly complex technological tools of this kind of raw material distributed (e.g., daggers). Use-wear analysis reveals that these blades were not merely luxury items in grave goods. Far from this idea, they have to be considered as functional, even multifunctional, items. All the same, it is thought that they must have had an important value because they moved from the domestic sphere to the graves. In fact, the pieces that usually remain are not small fragments, but whole or almost whole, large blades that normally remain effective. 

The contribution of use -wear for stone tool identification at the Upper Paleolithic site Shuidonggou Locality 2, North China

2020 ◽  
Vol 535 ◽  
pp. 29-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peiqi Zhang ◽  
Xiaoling Zhang ◽  
Nicolas Zwyns ◽  
Fei Peng ◽  
Jialong Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North China ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Paleolithic Site ◽  
Use Wear

The Transportation – Production Tradeoff in the Regional Environmental Impact of Industrial Systems: A Case Study in the Paper Sector

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 817-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis M Vanek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Distribution System ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Commodity Flow ◽  
Industrial Systems ◽  
Central United States ◽  
Product Manufacturing

The author presents a methodology which is used first to model a product-manufacturing-and-distribution system, and then to predict the resulting changes in environmental impact from changes either in taxation or in costs of inputs. A case study of the paper sector in the eastern and central United States is developed, derived from the 1993 US Commodity Flow Survey. From an analysis of five scenarios, two central findings arise: (1) the model is found to be unresponsive to even large changes in transport taxation, so an environmental policy which considers both transportation and production aspects at the same time is favored, and (2) fluctuations in raw-material costs can have an influence on environmental impact as great as or greater than that of changes in taxation levels.

scholarly journals Elephant bones for the Middle Pleistocene toolmaker

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0256090
Author(s):  
Paola Villa ◽  
Giovanni Boschian ◽  
Luca Pollarolo ◽  
Daniela Saccà ◽  
Fabrizio Marra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
General Idea ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Bone Tools ◽  
Lithic Industry ◽  
Taphonomic Analysis

The use of bone as raw material for implements is documented since the Early Pleistocene. Throughout the Early and Middle Pleistocene bone tool shaping was done by percussion flaking, the same technique used for knapping stone artifacts, although bone shaping was rare compared to stone tool flaking. Until recently the generally accepted idea was that early bone technology was essentially immediate and expedient, based on single-stage operations, using available bone fragments of large to medium size animals. Only Upper Paleolithic bone tools would involve several stages of manufacture with clear evidence of primary flaking or breaking of bone to produce the kind of fragments required for different kinds of tools. Our technological and taphonomic analysis of the bone assemblage of Castel di Guido, a Middle Pleistocene site in Italy, now dated by 40Ar/39Ar to about 400 ka, shows that this general idea is inexact. In spite of the fact that the number of bone bifaces at the site had been largely overestimated in previous publications, the number of verified, human-made bone tools is 98. This is the highest number of flaked bone tools made by pre-modern hominids published so far. Moreover the Castel di Guido bone assemblage is characterized by systematic production of standardized blanks (elephant diaphysis fragments) and clear diversity of tool types. Bone smoothers and intermediate pieces prove that some features of Aurignacian technology have roots that go beyond the late Mousterian, back to the Middle Pleistocene. Clearly the Castel di Guido hominids had done the first step in the process of increasing complexity of bone technology. We discuss the reasons why this innovation was not developed. The analysis of the lithic industry is done for comparison with the bone industry.

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