High magnification use-wear analysis of lithic artefacts from Northeastern America: Creation of an experimental database and integration of expedient tools

Chabot, Jacques; Dionne, Marie-Michelle; Paquin, Simon

doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.11.061

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…8) are very small in size, predominantly burnt and could be from tool use rather than knapping debris (e.g. 67,68 ). Future use-wear analysis could clarify this issue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire and brief human occupations in Iberia during MIS 4: Evidence from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Spain)

Mallol

Hernández

Mercier

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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There is a relatively low amount of Middle Paleolithic sites in Europe dating to MIS 4. Of the few that exist, several of them lack evidence for anthropogenic fire, raising the question of how this period of global cooling may have affected the Neanderthal population. The Iberian Peninsula is a key area to explore this issue, as it has been considered as a glacial refugium during critical periods of the Neanderthal timeline and might therefore yield archaeological contexts in which we can explore possible changes in the behaviour and settlement patterns of Neanderthal groups during MIS 4. Here we report recent data from Abric del Pastor, a small rock shelter in Alcoy (Alicante, Spain) with a stratified deposit containing Middle Palaeolithic remains. We present absolute dates that frame the sequence within MIS 4 and multi-proxy geoarchaeological evidence of in situ anthropogenic fire, including microscopic evidence of in situ combustion residues and thermally altered sediment. We also present archaeostratigraphic evidence of recurrent, functionally diverse, brief human occupation of the rock shelter. Our results suggest that Neanderthals occupied the Central Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula during MIS 4, that these Neanderthals were not undergoing climatic stress and they were habitual fire users.

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“…8) are very small in size, predominantly burnt and could be from tool use rather than knapping debris (e.g. 67,68 ). Future use-wear analysis could clarify this issue.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire and brief human occupations in Iberia during MIS 4: Evidence from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Spain)

Mallol

Hernández

Mercier

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…Certain features that are important for identifying and differentiating contact materials, such as micro-striations, micro-pitting on bone, surface cracking and poorly developed volume deformations are best viewed at ~100x magnification (Griffitts 2001;Legrand, Sidéra 2007). Some course-grained and reflective materials, such as quartz, may require very high magnifications (~500x) to observe usewear (Dubreuil et al 2015;Chabot et al 2017).…”

Section: Magnifications In Use-wear Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most useful mag-nification range for studying use-wear polishes seems to be around 100x to 200x (e.g. Keeley, Newcomer 1977;Griffitts 2001;Fullagar 2006;Scott et al 2005;Gates St-Pierre 2007;Bradfield 2015;Evora 2015;Marreiros et al 2015;Chabot et al 2017;Falci et al 2019;Hohenstein et al 2020). Polishes are perhaps the most relevant use-wear feature for identifying the nature of contact materials -that is whether the contact material was hard or soft, course-textured or fine (Vaughn 1985;Ibáñez, Mazzucco 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scales of Analysis: the Usage of Appropriate Magnification in Use-Wear Studies

Bradfield

2022

Arheologia

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The interpretative potential of microscopic use-wear polishes is a factor of the scale of analysis. Observational surface area decreases in inverse proportion to magnification. In this paper I present the results of polishes on bone tools that have developed from fricative contact with nine different materials. Microwear polish is viewed at five different magnifications. I show that 50x―200x magnification, or observational areas of 0.4―2.0 mm2, is the most appropriate scale of analysis of use-wear polishes regardless of whether one is conducting morphological identifications or relying on surface texture analysis software. The images presented here are meant to serve as an online reference collection to allow use-wear analysts to visualise how polish appearances change at different levels of magnification.

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“…Whereas I have resorted to either analogy or assumption to infer the diverse functionalities afforded by stone-using tool kits during the Greenlandic Dorset period, incorporating use-wear analyses into my approach would arguably have added more accuracy and interpretative efficacy to these inferences (e.g. Chabot, et al 2017;Dionne and Chabot 2006;Monchot, et al 2013). Furthermore, such analyses would also have allowed the identification of manufacture traces to bolster interpretations of the temporal relations between different materials during tool production and maintenance (Wells, et al 2014) Another method that would have benefitted the present approach is portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) analysis.…”

Section: Research Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembling Arctic Lifeways: a relational approach to lithic assemblages from the Greenlandic Dorset period

Roe¹

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A big thank you also goes to Arctic Centre colleagues Maarten Loonen, Annette Scheepstra, Frits Steenhuisen, and Sean Desjardins.xiv Acknowledgements Additional thanks to Sean for his generosity and patience through years of being barraged with impromptu queries on anything related to eastern Arctic archaeology. Whereas the Arctic Centre has been my primary base of operations, the Ethnographic Collection and Archives at the National Museum of Denmark holds a special significance as a second home of sorts for me through these years. My research stays and visits here have been rewarding and enjoyable experiences, to which I owe the colleagues working there. My sincere gratitude therefore goes to Martin Appelt, Ulla Ødegaard, Peter Andreas Toft, Anne Birgitte Gotfredsen, Ditlev Mahler, and the other staff members that have been present there during my stays. My thanks also go to Mikkel Sørensen and Jens Fog Jensen, who graciously shared their deep knowledge and experience in the study of lithic technology and the Greenlandic Dorset period with me. Your support was immensely helpful, especially during the early stages of my analyses in Copenhagen. During my years of PhD research, I have also had the additional privilege of participating in archaeological fieldwork both in Greenland and Norway. A big thank you to my friend and fellow PhD candidate Asta Mønsted who brought me along to assist her in the surveying of Thule Inuit sites near Ilimanaq in Qeqertarsuup Tunua during the summer of 2019. This gave me my first and memorable experience of archaeological fieldwork in Greenland. Much gratitude goes to Charlotte Damm and Marianne Skandfer, who kindly invited me to participate during the workshops and fieldwork of the Stone Age Demographics research project

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High magnification use-wear analysis of lithic artefacts from Northeastern America: Creation of an experimental database and integration of expedient tools

Cited by 8 publications

References 13 publications

Fire and brief human occupations in Iberia during MIS 4: Evidence from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Spain)

Fire and brief human occupations in Iberia during MIS 4: Evidence from Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Spain)

Scales of Analysis: the Usage of Appropriate Magnification in Use-Wear Studies

Assembling Arctic Lifeways: a relational approach to lithic assemblages from the Greenlandic Dorset period

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