Bone cuts-marks: the effect of inclination and lithic tool type on morphometric characteristics

Abstract

The study of cut-marks on bones from archaeological complexes is required to reconstruct many aspects of societies’ activities, including hunting, economic and food activities of ancient humans. The profile of cut-marks can be influenced by shape of the tool edge and its inclination to the bone. To determine this influence an experimental modeling was carried out. Experimental lithic tools were used to produce cut-marks at 90˚ and 45˚ to the bone surface of the cleaned from meat domestic cow’s scapula. Classical statistical methods were applied to analyze the metric parameters and the opening angle. To analyze the shape without dimensional characteristics, the 2D geometric-morphometric analysis was used. Cross sections for geometric-morphometric analysis were obtained using an industrial profilometer. The results reveal that the type of stone tool and its position in the hand during operation significantly influence the shape and size of cut-marks. Perpendicular cutting marks are on average deeper and have a smaller opening angle than those produced by oblique cutting for the three cutting edge types. Several groups of cuts made by different types of blades, but at the same angle, have similar opening angles, while when one tool is held differently, the opening angles differ significantly. The cut-marks made with one-sided and two-sided retouched tools differ in size and opening angle at different inclinations of the tools, but have the similar shape. The traces made with an unretouched edge have different shape and size according to the inclination of the tool. This study is the first step to create a digital comparative collection of experimental cuts that will be used for further studies of cut-marks.