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.
Highlights
Blind tests have been a central component in the development of use-wear studies for forty years [e.g. 1–6]
“good” does not mean they were interpretable, just that traces were present to enough of an extent that a potential for interpretation was provided. These results clearly highlight the fact that whilst the presence of wear traces on resharpening flakes may indicate that the flake comes from a used tool, the absence of traces does not unequivocally indicate that the flake is struck from an unused tool
These flakes may be struck from an unused part of an edge of an otherwise used tool, or have had existing wear traces obliterated by the hammer blow during resharpening
Summary
Blind tests have been a central component in the development of use-wear studies for forty years [e.g. 1–6]. To date, these blind tests have been conducted on a variety of both knapped and occasionally ground stone tools [7], and have been designed to address a range of research questions. These blind tests have been conducted on a variety of both knapped and occasionally ground stone tools [7], and have been designed to address a range of research questions One feature these blind tests have in common is that they have involved the analysis of complete or substantially complete tools.
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