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.

scholarly journals The Middle Paleolithic Ground Stones Tools of Nesher Ramla Unit V (Southern Levant): A multi-scale use-wear approach for assessing the assemblage functional variability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Paixao ◽  
Joao Marreiros ◽  
Laure Dubreuil ◽  
Walter Gneisinger ◽  
Marion Prevost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Technological Development ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Animal Material ◽  
Tool Types

In the archaeological record, Ground Stone Tools (hereafter GST) represent an important tool group that provides invaluable data for exploring technological development and changes in resource exploitation over time. Despite its importance, Lower and Middle Paleolithic (MP) GST technology remains poorly known and understudied. The MP record of the Levant constitutes a compelling case study for exploring the nature and character of GST technology. Especially the site of Nesher Ramla (Israel, end of Marine Isotope Stage 6/beginning of 5) has provided one of the world’s largest GST assemblages from MP contexts. Aiming at evaluating the variability of tool types at the site from a technological and functional perspective, this study follows an analytical approach which integrates different scales of analysis. Our workflow seeks to generate and combine qualitative and quantitative data allowing: 1) the identification of damage areas, and 2) functional analysis, based on the location, distribution, and characterization of use-wear traces. This study shows a substantial level of diversification in resource exploitation (e.g., mineral, hard animal material and likely perishable components). Results show the presence of several tool types on which diagnostic use-wear can be associated with different activities. Importantly, our analysis indicates the presence of various hammerstone types showing distinct wear characteristics. The variability observed within the hammerstones likely reflects different functions, including in some cases the processing of distinct worked materials. Ultimately, this study contributes to our understanding of the significance of GST technology for the ecological dynamics of MP populations.

A New Synthesis of Middle Paleolithic Variability

1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Rolland ◽  
Harold L. Dibble
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
Artifact Reduction ◽  
Correct Interpretation ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
New Synthesis ◽  
Functional Explanations ◽  
Tool Types ◽  
Material Constraints

The familiar debate concerning Middle Paleolithic variability has opposed stylistic vs. functional explanations based on the assumption that tool types and assemblage groups represent discrete, invariant entities. Middle Paleolithic variability, however, actually occurs continuously. Further, recent research shows that raw-material constraints and different degrees of artifact-reduction intensity constitute more basic and observable factors of variability than function and style. Thus, much of the variability in these assemblages appears to have been caused by toolmaking and tool-rejuvenation processes and/or by differential occupation intensity induced by environmental circumstances. The correct interpretation of these Middle Paleolithic assemblages must therefore consider these factors, as well as interregional stylistic drift, function, and diachronic change.

Raw-Material Availability and the Organization of Technology

1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Andrefsky
Keyword(s):  
Production Technology ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Formal Tool ◽  
Lithic Raw Materials ◽  
Tool Types

Ethnographic examples of stone-tool makers in Australia and archaeological examples from three different areas in the western United States indicate that the availability of lithic raw materials is an important variable conditioning stone-tool production technology. Attributes of availability such as abundance and quality of lithic raw materials condition the production of formal- vs. informal-tool types. Poor-quality raw materials tend to be manufactured into informal-tool designs. High-quality lithic raw materials tend to be manufactured into formal-tool designs when such materials occur in low abundance. When high-quality materials occur in great abundance both formal- and informal-tool designs are manufactured. Other factors, such as residential mobility or sedentism, are found to be less-important determinates of lithic-production technology.

scholarly journals Primary reduction technology in the Sukhaya Mechetka site assemblage

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-99
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Kolesnik ◽  
◽  
Aleksandr Otcherednoy ◽  
Kseniia Stepanova ◽  
Aleksei Danilchenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Complete Sequence ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
Lower Volga Region ◽  
Small Series ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Primary Reduction ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Geological Position

The Sukhaya Mechetka site in the Lower Volga region being widely known due to the unique preservation of cultural remains, their clear geological position and a rich set of tools has long become a kind of icon of the Middle Paleolithic of Eastern Europe. Improtantly the site was excavated over a wide area (about 650 square meters). During the excavation an assemblage of stone items including more than 350 tools, cores and about 10,000 flint and quartzite flakes of various types was collected. The neogene flint and the paleogene quartzite were used as raw materials approximately equally. According to our observations almost all available and suitable for processing stone rocks that were carried to the site as nodules, blocks, fragments and flakes were intensively used. Raw materials were collected in the immediate vicinity of the site. The signals of raw materials shortage and significant depth of its processing were detected. The distribution of the products of flint and quartzite raw materials on the site is irregular. Primary knapping was carried out according to typical Middle Paleolithic technologies. A small series of stone hammers display specific patterns of their use-wear. The cores and the flakes produced with these hammers were found. The complete sequence of preparation and flaking from the pre-cores to the residual forms has been documented. The shortage of high-quality raw material resulted in extremely complete usage of the most cores. Additionally many residual forms have been used for making tools. The cores can be divided into radial, cuboid and Levallois samples.

Notched Tool Reuse and Raw Material Availability in French Middle Paleolithic Sites

1996 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Holdaway ◽  
Shannon McPherron ◽  
Barbara Roth
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Middle Paleolithic ◽  
The Relationship

Based on the analysis of assemblages from the French sites of Pech de l'Azé I, La Quina, and Combe-Capelle has, a model of stone-tool resharpening is proposed for Middle Paleolithic notched tools. This model is based on the observation that tools with a larger number of notches have greater mean blank lengths irrespective of their typological designation. This pattern is then used to help investigate the relationship between raw material availability and tool reuse. Our results indicate that the number of notches found on a tool is a function of both the size of the tool blank and the availability of raw material.

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 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 Sandstone Ground Stone Technology: a Multi-level Use Wear and Residue Approach to Investigate the Function of Pounding and Grinding Tools

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Cristiani ◽  
A. Zupancich
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Plant Materials ◽  
Ground Stone ◽  
Use Wear ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Multi Level

Abstract Ground stone tool (GST) technology includes artefacts utilized in pounding or grinding activities and characterized by long life cycles and multiple uses. The introduction of such technology dates back to early prehistory, and for this reason, it is used as prime evidence for tackling a wide range of archaeological questions such as the origins of technology, patterns of daily subsistence and lifeways. In this paper, we contribute to the field of study of GSTs by discussing the application of a novel multi-level analytical approach combining use wear and residue observations at low and high magnification with residue spatial distribution investigated using GIS. We aim to assess the potential of a combined use wear and residue approach to (1) discriminate specific gestures and worked materials on sandstone GSTs and (2) understand the potential of residue distributions for reconstructing ancient GST functions and, more specifically, the role of GSTs recovered at Mesolithic sites of the Danube Gorges region in the Central Balkans. We identified diagnostic surface modifications associated with the use of GSTs in different activities involving both animal and plant materials. Morphological characteristics of residues have been described under reflected and transmitted light and characterized using biochemical staining. Finally, we mapped residues across the utilized surfaces of experimental tools to link patterns of residue spatial distribution to specific materials and gestures. We expect our methodological approach will be taken up by other researchers in order to produce comparable datasets on GSTs and improve our understanding of their ancient functional biographies.

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