Towards an understanding of retouch flakes: A use-wear blind test on knapped stone microdebitage

Abstract

The retouching and resharpening of lithic tools during their production and maintenance leads to the production of large numbers of small flakes and chips known as microdebitage. Standard analytical approaches to this material involves the mapping of microartefact densities to identify activity areas, and the creation of techno-typologies to characterise the form of retouch flakes from different types of tools. Whilst use-wear analysis is a common approach to the analysis of tools, it has been applied much less commonly to microdebitage. This paper contends that the use-wear analysis of microdebitage holds great potential for identifying activity areas on archaeological sites, representing a relatively unexplored analytical resource within microartefact assemblages. In order to test the range of factors that affect the identification of use-wear traces on small retouch flakes, a blind test consisting of 40 retouch flakes was conducted. The results show that wear traces can be identified with comparable levels of accuracy to those reported for historic blind tests of standard lithic tools suggesting that the use-wear analysis of retouch flakes can be a useful analytical tool in understanding site function, and in increasing sample sizes in cases where assemblages contain few tools.

Neanderthals in changing environments from MIS 5 to early MIS 4 in northern Central Europe – Integrating archaeological, (chrono)stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental evidence at the site of Lichtenberg

“…This is achieved by systematically scanning the edges and surfaces of stone tools under different magnifications ranging between 0.63 X to 500x and plotting their location and distribution. The location and morphology of specific micro negatives, edge rounding, microscopic polish, micro scars and striations are compared to an experimental reference collection in order to establish the kinetics of stone tool use as well as the material transformed (Chan et al, 2020;González-Urquijo and Ibañez-Estéves, 1994;Keeley, 1980;Vaughan, 1985). For this study a Carl Zeiss Stemi 508 stereo microscope and an Olympus reflected light microscope have been used.…”

Life Around the Elephant in Space and Time: an Integrated Approach to Study the Human-Elephant Interactions at the Late Lower Paleolithic Site of La Polledrara di Cecanibbio (Rome, Italy)

“…The resharpening was confirmed by one microflake bearing traces of butchering (ID 21020) (Fig. 18a; see also Chan et al, 2020 for a discussion of the use-wear observables on micro-debitage). Resharpening was suggested in two other cases: a retouched flake (ID 20825) Fig.…”

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

“…This question of probability and its associated uncertainty is rarely acknowledged in the literature presenting the results of traceological studies. Also, a certain number of questions, already raised in the 1980s, related to the reliability and reproducibility of the method in particular, are still relevant today 2 – 8 . This is why the development and/or application of quantitative methods, which would complement the still fundamental qualitative approach, are essential for the future of the discipline.…”