Abstract
Microwear analysis is applied to reconstruct the function and social organisation at the Late Glacial site of Trollesgave, Denmark. As with Bromme Culture sites in general, the lithic assemblage consists of primarily three types of tools. There is a strong association between these types and their use: end scrapers for dry hide scraping; burins for working hard material, primarily bone; and tanged points primarily for projectile tips. Nearly all divergence from this pattern can be referred to as the activities of children, the products and workshops of which have previously been identified. Based on the combined information from microwear analysis, flint knapping and spatial distribution of artefacts, the assemblage is inferred as the traces of a single family hunting (and fishing) occupation.
Highlights
This paper summarises the results of the present microwear study and aims to demonstrate how lithic microwear analysis, along with analyses of refitting and flint manufacture, can contribute towards understanding of the economy and social organisation at a European high latitude LateGlacial site
Under the best of these conditions wear from cutting meat will remain identifiable and under the worst conditions wear from cutting silicious plants may still be identifiable
The expectation is that the more ephemeral kinds of wear will be much underrepresented at the site. These results correspond well with other derived information that a minor part of the assemblage was found in solifluction layers and most the rest was found in sediments where Late Glacial frost and thaw processes have probably caused some abrading
Summary
Initial attempts in the 1980s indicated that post-depositional processes of cryoturbation and solifluxion as well as soil chemical processes of bleaching and leaching had generally significantly hampered the effective use of this method on the flint assemblages available from settlements from this period of NW European prehistory (cf Fischer et al, 1984). Among these attempts were two preliminary microwear studies of the Bromme Culture assemblage of the Trollesgave site. This paper summarises the results of the present microwear study and aims to demonstrate how lithic microwear analysis, along with analyses of refitting and flint manufacture, can contribute towards understanding of the economy and social organisation at a European high latitude LateGlacial site
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