Microscopic revelations: the forms and multiple uses of ground-edged artefacts of the New South Wales Central Coast, Australia

Abstract

Results of an exploratory study, that set out to investigate the types of use-wear that could be observed on ground-edged artefacts from the NSW Central Coast of eastern Australia, are presented. The main findings are the multiple activities for which the hatchets were used and the types of materials which they worked. Some of the activities and materials are not noted in historical accounts for southeastern Australia, and suggestions are raised about possible uses of hatchets by women. Among new results are uses for the unusual ground-edged hammer/pounders which are not recorded in the historical literature and which seem to be almost restricted to the NSWCC. Basic functional data about the actions undertaken and materials worked by the hatchets and hammer/ pounders were obtained using low-and high-power microscopy, and by comparing wear traces recorded in previous use-wear studies and on experimental basalt tools. The use-wear analyses, not only identified activities that created the 'battered' edges, but also revealed a greater multiplicity of uses of the ground-edged artefacts than hitherto identified. Eighteen wear-types document use of ground-edged artefacts for working wood, skin and ochre, abrading and polishing bone, and as hammers and anvils in working stone. Non-woody plant material was processed by both hatchets and hammer/pounders. The activities and processed materials identified by the use-wear analysis, especially those referred to as hammer/pounders, give new insights into understanding the diversity of forms and multiple functions of this class of implement in Australia.

Late Holocene technological provisioning at the Kings Table rockshelter, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia

“…Regarding the shelter's use as a hunting/gathering field camp, we note that the strong representation of backed artefacts, and to a lesser extent, axe reworking flakes in the Kings Table assemblage, are consistent with broader, regional archaeological datasets in attesting to the importance of both backed artefact‐bearing composite tools and edge‐ground axes in mid‐to‐late Holocene Aboriginal toolkits in the Sydney Basin (Attenbrow, 2006, 2010; Attenbrow et al., 2019; Jo McDonald CHM, 2005; McDonald, 2008). Clearly, the manufacture and repair of both types of tools, which are known to have had multiple uses (see Attenbrow & Kononenko, 2019; Robertson et al., 2009), were important activities at the Kings Table rockshelter during the late Holocene, with the concentrations of grinding grooves present on the tessellated sandstone platform above the shelter providing additional support for this observation with regards to edge‐ground axes. For the backed component of the assemblage, we consider it likely, drawing on the oft‐cited arguments of Hiscock (1994, 2002, 2006), that the backed artefacts made and discarded at Kings Table comprised elements of composite extractive tools whose portability, versatility, reliability and maintainability served to reduce the subsistence risks posed by the long distance logistical forays being undertaken by the late Holocene Aboriginal occupants of the Kings Table shelter.…”

Hafted stone tools in the Asia Pacific region

“…A use-wear study of Australian axes by Attenbrow and Kononenko (2019) suggests that these tools had several different functions, including woodworking and processing skin and bone items.…”