Understanding woodworking in Paleolithic times by means of use-wear analysis

Abstract

Throughout prehistory, wood working was a frequent activity. The indices of this activity comes from rare found wooden remains, and the analysis of use-wear on them. In most recent periods, there are stone polished tools and metal tools, that increase the capability of wood transformation. This is not the case for older times, from which only knapped tools are available. The woodworking chaîne opératoire includes activities of selection and acquisition of raw material, but also the transformation and the finish of objects and structures. Use-wear analysis in many sites illustrates this. However, a systematic compilation of published traceological analysis has not been made recently. In this paper, we present a revision of the traceological data currently available, which guides a reflection on the methods of working ligneous vegetable matter with knapped tools. The relationship between this information, the morphological characteristics of tools and the necessary actions to elaborate the preserved wooden objects, tell us about the woodworking techniques that are more common in each period. The results allow us to draw conclusions about the performance of each type of tool, as well as the human technical capabilities for environmental transformation.