Extracting residues from stone tools for optical analysis: towards an experiment-based protocol

Cnuts, Dries; Rots, Veerle

doi:10.1007/s12520-017-0484-7

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Once retrieval and storage compromise samples, it can be challenging to separate target and contaminant starches. Commonly used decontaminating methods such as airbrushing by compressed air and mild washing (Barton and Torrence 2015) can fail to remove recent intrusions even after several ultrasonic cleaning cycles (Pedergnana et al 2016;Cnuts and Rots 2017;Mercader et al 2017). …”

Section: Authentication Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria

Mercader

Akeju

Brown

et al. 2018

FACETS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ancient starch research illuminates aspects of human ecology and economic botany that drove human evolution and cultural complexity over time, with a special emphasis on past technology, diet, health, and adaptation to changing environments and socio-economic systems. However, lapses in prevailing starch research demonstrate the exaggerated expectations for the field that have been generated over the last few decades. This includes an absence of explanation for the millennial-scale survivability of a biochemically degradable polymer, and difficulties in establishing authenticity and taxonomic identification. This paper outlines new taphonomic and authenticity criteria to guide future work toward designing research programs that fully exploit the potential of ancient starch while considering growing demands from readers, editors, and reviewers that look for objective compositional identification of putatively ancient starch granules.

show abstract

Section: Authentication Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria

Mercader

Akeju

Brown

et al. 2018

FACETS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Failing to do so, strict quantitative studies will be limited in their impact, as many researchers are not able to assess them and therefore integrate them in their projects (Calandra et al 2019a). In parallel to this, additional standards and protocols need to be established, for example, concerning sample preparation procedures, including cleaning, archiving, and other processes such as molding and casting samples (Dunmore et al 2018;Cnuts and Rots 2018;Langejans 2010;Macdonald et al 2018). Although several protocols (e.g., cleaning solutions, Macdonalds and Evans 2014, Ollé and Vèrges 2014) have been published lately that seem suitable for the visual identification of use-wear traces, it still needs to be evaluated how these procedures affect the surface microtopography.…”

Section: Lack Of Standardization In Data Acquisition and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Use-Wear Analysis and Experimentation as Applied to the Study of Past Hominin Tool Use

Marreiros

Calandra²,

Gneisinger³

et al. 2020

J Paleo Arch

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In prehistoric human populations, technologies played a fundamental role in the acquisition of different resources and are represented in the main daily living activities, such as with bone, wooden, and stone-tipped spears for hunting, and chipped-stone tools for butchering. Considering that paleoanthropologists and archeologists are focused on the study of different processes involved in the evolution of human behavior, investigating how hominins acted in the past through the study of evidence on archeological artifacts is crucial. Thus, investigating tool use is of major importance for a comprehensive understanding of all processes that characterize human choices of raw materials, techniques, and tool types. Many functional assumptions of tool use have been based on tool design and morphology according to archeologists' interpretations and ethnographic observations. Such assumptions are used as baselines when inferring human behavior and have driven an improvement in the methods and techniques employed in functional studies over the past few decades. Here, while arguing that use-wear analysis is a key discipline to assess past hominin tool use and to interpret the organization and variability of artifact types in the archeological record, we aim to review and discuss the current state-of-the-art methods, protocols, and their limitations. In doing so, our discussion focuses on three main topics: (1) the need for fundamental improvements by adopting established methods and techniques from similar research fields, (2) the need to implement and combine different levels of experimentation, and (3) the crucial need to establish standards and protocols in order to improve data quality, standardization, repeatability, and reproducibility. By adopting this perspective, we believe that studies will increase the reliability and applicability of use-wear methods on tool function. The need for a holistic approach that combines not only use-wear traces but also tool technology, design, curation, durability, and efficiency is also debated and revised. Such a revision is a crucial step if archeologists want to build major inferences on human decisionmaking behavior and biocultural evolution processes.

show abstract

“…The nature of archaeological residues was interpreted based on their morpho-qualitative features (color, appearance, inclusions, consistency, biorefrengency, etc. ), spatial patterns of distribution [53,58], chemical characterization (in the current study, through two independent techniques: FTIR and SEM-EDX), and comparison with available literature discussing archaeological and experimental residues found on stone tools [57,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69]. We additionally compared the archaeological residues with two independent databases.…”

Section: Residue Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of ash at Late Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel—An integrated study of use-wear and residue analysis

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Employing an integrated approach to investigate the use of Late Lower Paleolithic flint tools found at the site of Qesem Cave (Israel), we revealed a particular trace pattern related to the employment of ashes at the site. Using a designated collection of replica items and combining use-wear and residue (morphological analysis, FTIR, SEM-EDX) analyses, we revealed the intentional use of ashes in preserving foods for delayed consumption as well as hide for delayed processing. Our interpretation, we believe is the most plausible one since we were able to delineate the specific use-wear fingerprints of the intentional use of ashes for such purposes, suggesting that our approach might be useful for the recognition of other similar functional-behavioral patterns. Lastly, in support of previous findings at Qesem Cave, our current findings present evidence for the processing of organic matters intentionally mixed with ash, leading us to suggest that the inhabitants of Qesem Cave were proficient not only in the habitual use of fire but also of its main by-product, ash. Hence, we call for a reassessment of the timeline currently assigned to hominins' utilization of ash for storing and processing vegetal foods and hide.

show abstract

Extracting residues from stone tools for optical analysis: towards an experiment-based protocol

Cited by 32 publications

References 53 publications

Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria

Exaggerated expectations in ancient starch research and the need for new taphonomic and authenticity criteria

Rethinking Use-Wear Analysis and Experimentation as Applied to the Study of Past Hominin Tool Use

The use of ash at Late Lower Paleolithic Qesem Cave, Israel—An integrated study of use-wear and residue analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About