Chipped Stone Tools Research Articles

The Implements of the Blade House: The Function and Symbolic Significance of Laurel-leaf Bifaces from Caves in Central Belize

ABSTRACT The ancient Maya produced chipped chert and obsidian tools for inclusion in religious rituals as both symbolic and/or functional implements. In this paper, we discuss one particular form of these special chipped stone tools – the large laurel-leaf biface. Laurel-leaf bifaces recovered from the cave sites of Actun Chapat, Actun Tunichil Mucnal, Actun Yaxteel Ahau, and Je’reftheel in central Belize are analyzed in terms of context, lithic raw material, production techniques, symbolism, and use-wear in order to better understand their role(s) as ceremonially significant items. When combined with ethnohistoric and ethnographic information, these analyses allow us to see laurel-leaf bifaces as both functional implements for and powerful symbols of sacrifice within ancient Maya ideology and worldview.

An investment index for lithic technology: Implications for investment, mobility, and division of labor on the Colorado Plateau, USA

Changes in technological investment may shed light on human responses to social and environmental change, yet these changes are difficult to quantify archaeologically. Here we develop a new technological investment index for examining change in chipped and ground stone tool investment and apply it to understand human behavioral changes during the early Holocene at North Creek Shelter, southern Utah, USA. The findings of this study suggest continued investment in chipped stone technology across the early Holocene, consistent with steady consumption of artiodactyls. Findings also suggest increased investment in ground stone technology, consistent with increased low-return plant resource consumption. Additionally, application of a quantitative model for lithics and mobility demonstrates increased reliance on local toolstone across the early Holocene, suggesting decreased mobility and longer stays at North Creek Shelter. Our results have implications for the division of labor, as some individuals continued to invest in chipped stone tools for hunting unreliable, high-return prey, while others increasingly invested in ground stone tools for processing more reliable, though lower-return, plants, which may have tethered hunter-gatherers to the site.

Book Review: Understanding Chipped Stone Tools by Brian Hayden

Book Review: <i>Understanding Chipped Stone Tools</i> by Brian Hayden

A Simple Experiment Challenges the Inference that Macro-fractures on Chipped-stone Tools are Clear Evidence of High-Velocity Impacts

ABSTRACT The paradigmatic assumption that prehistoric chipped stone points primarily functioned as hafted armatures of composite hunting weapons is often tested with replicates that are hafted as armatures. Thus, the tests are whether they make good armatures, not whether they were armatures. This precludes systematic inquiry into possible alternative functions and inferences for these tools. We find the evidence marshalled to prove armature use is often equivocal. We demonstrate through experiment that most macro-fractures, which are often cited as the most diagnostic indicator of armature use because they are only caused by high-velocity impacts, can also be produced by low-velocity impacts. Our results emphasize the need to recognize the limits of functional inferences and the importance of multiple, testable hypotheses.

The best laid plans: Assemblage formation and abandonment at two house sites in the Central Plains

Systematic, fine-grained data recovery and spatial analysis facilitate interpretation of household assemblage formation and abandonment at two late prehistoric (AD 1000–1500) lodges in the Central Plains: the Scott and Phil sites in northeastern and north-central Kansas, respectively. This is based on patterns in lodge design, construction, storage, and domestic activities inferred from the distribution of burned wood, burned stone, daub, ceramics, chipped stone tools, and lithic debris. These reflect patterns of cultural material discard, displacement, clean-up, and gendered space utilization, as well as planned vs. unplanned abandonment that may compare to households of other sedentary, low level food producers in the Great Plains and other regions.

Techno-Typological Analysis of the Late Epipaleolithic/ Proto-Neolithic Chipped Stone Tools at Çemka Höyük

The Late Epipaleolithic period, also referred to as the Proto-Neolithic and dated back to the eleventh millennium BCE and early tenth millennium BCE, is closely linked with the communities located east of the Fertile Crescent that began to be settled during the Younger Dryas. This period, which started in the first half of the twentieth century and is defined by settlements in the northwestern Zagros region, has long been under the radar, but has been catching on again, especially since the 2000s, for the identification of a Younger Dryas layer found in settlements in the Upper Tigris Valley. The period in question has few architectural data for support and is represented by the chipped stone tool industry, which is thought to be observed in Zagros. It also appears that this period, which was primarily defined through its chipped stone tool industry, is no longer limited to the northwestern Zagros region, but also now includes the Upper Tigris Valley and the Eastern Jazeera (Eastern Fertile Crescent) region. The Younger Dryas layers, also found in the Çemka Höyük settlement during the 2019 excavations, shed new light on the chipped stone tool industry in the Upper Tigris Valley between the eleventh and tenth millennium BCE. The layers also contribute to redeliberating and redefining local and interregional relations.

Identifying the chaîne opératoire of club-rush (Bolboschoenus glaucus (Lam.) S.G.Sm) tuber exploitation during the Early Natufian in the Black Desert (northeastern Jordan)

Club-rush (Bolboschoenus spp. (Asch.) Palla) is one of the most common edible wild plant taxa found at Epipaleolithic and Neolithic sites in southwest Asia. At the Early Natufian site of Shubayqa 1 (Black Desert, Jordan) thousands of club-rush rhizome-tuber remains and hundreds of fragments of prepared meals were found. The evidence indicated that the underground storage organs of this plant were recurrently used as a source of food 14,600 years ago. To determine how Early Natufian communities gathered, processed and transformed club-rush tubers into food, we designed an interdisciplinary study that combined experimental archaeology, archaeobotany, and ground and chipped stone tool analyses. We conducted more than 50 specific experiments over three years, and based on the experimental materials produced we inferred that 1) the best season for club-rush rhizome-tuber collection in the region was spring-summer time; 2) that the primary method to harvest the plant would have been uprooting; and 3) that the most efficient approaches to obtain perfectly peeled and clean rhizome-tubers could have entailed drying, roasting and gentle grinding of the tubers. Overall, our work provides important information to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire for club-rush tuber exploitation in the past. The experimental data and modern reference datasets allow us to interpret the archaeological material found at Shubayqa 1, and start identifying some of the activities that Natufian communities in the Black Desert undertook in relation to the exploitation of this particular source of food.

Neolithic bone tool technology and typology from the region of four lakes, Western Macedonia, Greece

In the last twenty years the Archaeological Service of Florina has conducted extensive surface surveys and large-scale excavations in the Prefecture of Florina, situated in Northwestern Greece. This research has identified the establishment of a great number of prehistoric settlements in the area of the four lakes (Lake Chimaditis, Lake Zazari, Lake Vegoritida and Lake Petron) that date back from the Greek Early Neolithic (6700/6500-5800/5600 BC) to the Greek Late Bronze Age (1700/1500-1100 BC). One of the extended settlements of the region is the former lakeside settlement Anarghiri IXb which was situated on the north-eastern shore of Lake Chimaditis and was inhabited almost uninterruptedly from the middle of the 6th millennium BC to the end of the 5th millennium BC. Extensive investigation so far yielded thousands of wooden piles, thousands of figurines, chipped stone tools as well as antler and osseous artifacts. The bone tool assemblage from the Neolithic layers of the settlement forms one of the numerous assemblages in Greece and the Balkans. The present study of the material seeks to assess the raw material preferences, the typology and the technology of the osseous tools which seem to have played a significant role in the everyday activities inside and outside of the settlement.

Fish Processing in the Iron Gates Region During the Transitional and Early Neolithic Period: An Integrated Approach

Abstract It is well known that many Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites were uncovered during the past century in the Iron Gates region of the North-Central Balkans. The application of diverse analyses on the bioarchaeological remains and artefacts raised many questions, but also offered new ideas about the Mesolithic–Neolithic transitional period in the Middle and Lower course of the Danube. Communities in the Iron Gates consumed fish and exploited the riverbank in prehistory. The stable isotope analyses are implying that these human groups fed on aquatic resources in some periods more than others. Fish remains were also found in settlements, and based on fish-related imagery on sculpted boulders and other artefacts, the bond between the people, river, and the ecosystem was compelling. The idea of this article is to present the possible ways of fish processing at Lepenski Vir using chipped stone tools. Three integrated methodologies, with high levels of interpretation, were applied: use-wear, residue, and archaeozoological analyses. Use-wear and residue analyses were performed on both archaeological and experimental chipped stone tools. The results are considered together with the traces of butchery observed on archaeological samples of fish bones, creating a more coherent picture of the everyday habits of the Iron Gates populations.

Knapping before and after polishing: Technological evidence in the Neolithic polished stone tools from Hungary

The authors present the evidence gathered during the interdisciplinary study of several polished stone tools from some Neolithic sites in Hungary. In particular, the cutting-edged tool production (axes, adzes, chisels) involves knapping at several stages of the operational-chain within an artefact’s ‘life cycle’ - from raw material procurement, its manufacture, use, and discard. Some specific fine-grained and non-siliceous raw materials, among which are mainly hornfels, “white stones” and a few greenstones, show evidence of being worked by knapping as shown by the recovery of rough-outs, flaked similarly to biface artefacts, reworked pieces during retooling attempts, and several flakes detached before and after polishing the artefact surfaces. These latter demonstrate that re-sharpening and re-working polished cutting-edged tools was a common practice within the settlements during the whole Neolithic period. These small flakes, that sometimes look like true bladelets, have been often confused with, and published as, chipped stone tools. Therefore, it is important to get a holistic view of the whole stone industry during the study of the lithic assemblages. As in the case for chert and flint in N Europe, which have been intensively exploited for the production of polished axes and adzes, some other lithic raw materials could be easily worked by knapping for the production of polished tools, especially micro-crystalline rocks that have technical response and physical properties very similar to true flint and chert. Moreover, there are indeed implications regarding social organization among Neolithic communities, not only from the point of view of raw material procurement. Notably, the technical capability of producing and maintaining in efficiency the polished stone tools had to be acquired by individuals belonging to each household within the community, since stone axe-adzes were polyfunctional tools for mundane and multiple tasks. Therefore, as an important means for survival, the production of stone tools, both chipped and polished, was a knowledge certainly transmitted from generation to generation, although we still have to understand the modes and social implications of the transfer in details.

Distribution and sources of secondary deposit archaeological obsidian in Rio Grande alluvium New Mexico, USA

AbstractIn 2000, Tim Church published an excellent examination of the secondarily deposited obsidian in Rio Grande Quaternary alluvium for a relatively small section of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico. Here, the goal is to complement Church's study to include six secondary deposits of a portion of the Rio Grande hydrological basin nearly 400 km in length, coupled with a comparison to 11 archaeological sites on or near the river basin. Additionally, the compositional and metric data on obsidian sources from the Jemez Lineament sources have also improved since 2000, providing useful data on nodule dimension as well as compositional data at the primary sources. By recording both nodule sizes against source provenance at these points along the Rio Grande, scholars can compare the results of nearby archaeological contexts and the source obsidian available at various points along the Rio Grande. It is often difficult to determine whether the raw material used to produce a chipped stone tool was originally procured at the source or in secondary contexts. That, however, can never be achieved anywhere in the world without firm secondary depositional data. This issue is the focus of this study.

A new discovery of Neanderthal settlements in Turkey: Sürmecik open-air campsite in Western Anatolia

Western Anatolia is the poorest region in terms of Turkey's Palaeolithic finds. In the past years, only a few Palaeolithic artefacts were known from the surface in the provinces of İzmir, Manisa, Kütahya and Afyonkarahisar in western Anatolia. After the fossil Homo erectus skull fragment was found in the travertine deposits in Kocabaş (Denizli) in 2002, the importance of the region more increased. After this important discovery, Dr. Kadriye Özçelik started a Palaeolithic survey in Denizli and found a large number of chipped stone tools from the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods. Nevertheless, the last important Palaeolithic discovery in the region was made in Sürmecik (Banaz-Uşak) in 2015. This is an open-air campsite belonging to the Middle Palaeolithic period. Here is also a mining area where a mining operation is conducted. The chipped stone artefacts of the Sürmecik Palaeolithic open-air campsite come from a clay layer between hematite and limonite deposits under a travertine layer of about 4.5–5 meters in thickness. Faunal remains represent mostly by equids species. All stages of Mousterian culture are clearly visible in this open-air campsite. Sürmecik is the richest middle Palaeolithic open-air campsite in Turkey. The 83,002 lithic pieces were collected in the excavations carried out in 2016 and 2017. It is thought that the lithic assemblage will exceed 100,000 with the ongoing studies. The group of bifacial leaf points in this collection is seen in Turkey for the first time. Four master thesis studies started on the lithic material of Sürmecik. It is planned to take some samples for dating analysis along with ongoing studies.

From near and far: Stone procurement and exchange at Çukuriçi Höyük in Western Anatolia

The focus of this paper are the stone tools of Çukuriçi Höyük, a prehistoric site situated at the central Aegean coast of Anatolia. The settlement was inhabited from the Neolithic, through the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age 1 periods, a period lasting from the early 7th to the early 3rd millennium BCE. A long-term interdisciplinary study of the excavated lithics with different scientific methods on various stone materials (thin section analysis, pXRF, NAA, LA-ICP-MS) offer new primary data about the procurement strategies of prehistoric societies from a diachronic perspective. The results will be presented for the first time with an overview of all source materials and their distinct use through time.&#x0D; The lithic assemblages from Çukuriçi Höyük consist of a considerable variety of small finds, grinding stones and chipped stone tools. The high variability of raw materials within the different categories of tools is remarkable. In addition to stone tools manufactured from sources in the immediate vicinity of the settlement (i.e., mica-schist, limestone, marble, amphibolite, serpentinite), others are of rock types such as chert, which indicate an origin within the broader region. Moreover, volcanic rocks, notably the exceptionally high amount of Melian obsidian found at Çukuriçi Höyük, attest to the supra-regional procurement of distinct rock types. Small stone axes made of jadeite presumably from the Greek island of Syros, also indicate these far-reaching procurement strategies.&#x0D; The systematic and diachronic analyses of the stone tools found at Çukuriçi Höyük has demonstrated that as early as the Neolithic period extensive efforts were made to supply the settlement with carefully selected raw materials or finished goods procured from distinct rock sources.

Migrations or local interactions? Spheres of interaction in third-millennium BC Central Europe—ERRATUM

Increasing scholarly interest in past human mobility has provoked intense debate between archaeologists and archaeogeneticists. Explanations advanced by the latter have been criticised for framing explanations in terms of large-scale migrations, lacking underpinning social theory or interest in human behaviour; conversely, archaeologists have been criticised for supplying samples but no intellectual input. This article uses examples of ceramics and chipped stone tools to illustrate local interactions within regional Eneolithic Corded Ware culture in Moravia, demonstrating that what may appear as a homogeneous archaeological culture spread by mass migration can be understood as a more complex series of overlapping, local cultural changes.

A multivariate perspective on lithic technological organization at Housepit 54, Bridge River Site (EeRl4), British Columbia

The management of lithic raw materials is a significant concern to anthropological archaeologists interested in hunter-gatherer socio-economies. A wide range of studies have implicated quarry distance, work needs, occupational longevity, and consumer population to variation in tactics for reduction, use, and maintenance of chipped stone tools. Fewer studies have examined socio-political factors in the organization of stone tool technology. This study examines the interactive effects of population, occupational longevity, favored prey, and socio-political complexity on the tactics by which lithic raw materials were managed in a long-lived winter pithouse in North America’s interior Pacific Northwest. Results of bivariate and multivariate analyses implicate variability in toolstone economies as related to different classes of lithic items. Lithic cores and flake tools were more extensively reduced in contexts of productive subsistence economies, high populations, long winter occupations, and material wealth-based inequality. Bifaces were produced and maintained in relation to needs associated with intensity of deer hunting. The creation and maintenance of slate tools was affected at least in part by the intensity of salmon fishing. Combined, these data suggest that the organization of lithic tool technology responded to multiple factors across the lifespan of the house.

Migrations or local interactions? Spheres of interaction in third-millennium BC Central Europe

Increasing scholarly interest in past human mobility has provoked intense debate between archaeologists and archaeogeneticists. Explanations advanced by the latter have been criticised for framing explanations in terms of large-scale migrations, lacking underpinning social theory or interest in human behaviour; conversely, archaeologists have been criticised for supplying samples but no intellectual input. This article uses examples of ceramics and chipped stone tools to illustrate local interactions within regional Eneolithic Corded Ware culture in Moravia, demonstrating that what may appear as a homogeneous archaeological culture spread by mass migration can be understood as a more complex series of overlapping, local cultural changes.

A multivariate analysis for enhancing the interpretation of infrared spectra of plant residues on lithic artefacts

The reliability in using chemical techniques for the characterization of organic and inorganic ancient residues has been proved by several scientific works in the archeological literature.Among the different proposed approaches, Fourier Transform InfraRed Spectroscopy (FTIR) demonstrated to be a valuable method to detect and interpret the use-related residues entrapped in lithic chipped stone tools after their use. However, FTIR is affected by some restrictions that could be partially overcome thorough a statistical treatment of its results. With this contribution, we propose a methodological study based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as a statistical method to analyze infrared spectra collected on experimental residues on stone tools used to process vegetal materials. Here we show the ability of the PCA multivariate analysis to cluster samples with similar characteristics and to mine subtle spectral differences. According to our results, we proved the technique to be very suitable to discriminate vegetal materials, especially if belonging to herbaceous plants and underground storage organs (USOs) species where the likelihood to be recognized account for about 86% of possibilities. Our results demonstrate how the application of statistical methods such as PCA may amplify the interpretative capacity of the InfraRed Spectroscopy, especially when applied to archeological materials. Moreover, we contribute to build a representative spectral database of vegetal residues useful for scholars dealing with infrared measurements focused on the interpretation of the function of the archaeological artefacts.

Human behaviour and stone tool function at Seokjang-ni paleolithic site: A use-wear analysis of chipped stone tools

선사시대 인간이 보편적으로 제작하고 사용하였던 도구인 석기는 인류의 물질문화와 진화를 파악함에 있어 가장 중요한 연구 대상 가운데 하나이다. 그러므로 현재 고고학자들은 선사인들에 의해 남겨진 석기를 바탕으로 그들의 생활상을 복원하는데 있어서 다양한 연구 방법을 적용하고 있다. 이 가운데 쓴자국 분석(use-wear analysis, traceology)을 통한 기능 연구는 당시 선사 사람들이 다양한 작업 활동에서 사용하였던 석기에 남겨진 미세 흔적들을 현미경을 통해 분석함으로써 선사 도구의 쓰임새를 유추학고 해석할 수 있다. 따라서 석기의 기능 연구는 당시 선사인들의 삶의 모습과 생계 방식을 재구성할 수 있는 단초를 마련해 준다. 공주 석장리 유적에서 출토된 석기 가운데 416점을 선별해 석기 쓴자국 분석을 하였다. 그 결과 47점 (약 11.3%)에서 사용에 의해 형성된 것으로 볼 수 있는 흔적들이 관찰되었다. 단단한 동물재료와 관련된 흔적들은 긁개, 밀개, 새기개, 격지 등 여러 종류의 석기에서 관찰되었으며, 부드러운 동물재료는 밀개에서 주로 확인되었다. 도구의 사용 방법으로는 긁기, 자르기, 다듬기 등 여러 형태로 사용되었다. 한편, 잔손질석기의 경우 장시간 사용되면서 흔적이 형성되는 반면, 격지의 경우 필요에 따라 단시간 일회성으로 사용되어 잘 발달한 흔적이 드문 것으로 확인되었다. 우리나라 및 유럽의 다른 유적에서 실시한 석기 쓴자국 분석과 비교한 결과 석장리 유적은 선사인들에게 장기간 점유된 거주 중심의 유적으로 볼 수 있다.The stone tool, produced and used by prehistoric human beings, is one of the most important research subject in understanding human material culture and evolution. Archaeologists are currently applying various research methods to restore their life based on stone tools left by prehistoric people. Use-wear analysis (traceology) can infer and interpret the use of prehistoric tools by analyzing microscopic traces left in stone tools. Therefore, the functional study of stone tools provides a clue to reconstruct the life and livelihood of the prehistoric people at the time. 416 stone tools excavated from the Seokjang-ri site, were selected for use-wear analysis. Among them, 47 stone tools (approximately 11.3%) showed traces that could be formed by use. Traces related to hard animal materials have been observed in several types of stone tools, including scrapers, end-scrapers, burins, flakes, etc. Soft animal materials have been identified mainly in end-scrapers. In the case of the retouched stone tools, traces are formed while being used for a long time. On the other hand, it was confirmed that the well-developed trace was rare because it was used as a short-term one-time use if necessary. As a result of comparison with use-wear analysis of stone tools conducted in other sites, Seokjang-ri site can be seen as residential site occupied by prehistoric people for a long time.

Rethinking Use-Wear Analysis and Experimentation as Applied to the Study of Past Hominin Tool Use

In prehistoric human populations, technologies played a fundamental role in the acquisition of different resources and are represented in the main daily living activities, such as with bone, wooden, and stone-tipped spears for hunting, and chipped-stone tools for butchering. Considering that paleoanthropologists and archeologists are focused on the study of different processes involved in the evolution of human behavior, investigating how hominins acted in the past through the study of evidence on archeological artifacts is crucial. Thus, investigating tool use is of major importance for a comprehensive understanding of all processes that characterize human choices of raw materials, techniques, and tool types. Many functional assumptions of tool use have been based on tool design and morphology according to archeologists’ interpretations and ethnographic observations. Such assumptions are used as baselines when inferring human behavior and have driven an improvement in the methods and techniques employed in functional studies over the past few decades. Here, while arguing that use-wear analysis is a key discipline to assess past hominin tool use and to interpret the organization and variability of artifact types in the archeological record, we aim to review and discuss the current state-of-the-art methods, protocols, and their limitations. In doing so, our discussion focuses on three main topics: (1) the need for fundamental improvements by adopting established methods and techniques from similar research fields, (2) the need to implement and combine different levels of experimentation, and (3) the crucial need to establish standards and protocols in order to improve data quality, standardization, repeatability, and reproducibility. By adopting this perspective, we believe that studies will increase the reliability and applicability of use-wear methods on tool function. The need for a holistic approach that combines not only use-wear traces but also tool technology, design, curation, durability, and efficiency is also debated and revised. Such a revision is a crucial step if archeologists want to build major inferences on human decision-making behavior and biocultural evolution processes.

Characterization of stone artifacts from the Middle and Late Neolithic to the Chalcolithic deposits of Drakaina Cave, Kephalonia, Ionian Islands: a mineralogical-geochemical approach for determination of local and “exotic” raw materials and their sources

This work presents the results of the mineralogical, petrographic, and geochemical study carried out on representative samples from the large assemblage of the Neolithic stone artifacts found in Drakaina Cave, at Kephalonia island, western Greece. The aim of this study is the determination of the raw materials used for the manufacture of lithic/stone implements, as well as their possible sources. Of the artifacts under study, the chipped stone tools were manufactured on cherts from local sources, while the ground stone edged tools on gabbro and the discoid stone beads on talc, both imported in the Ionian Islands. Geochemical analyses indicate that the most probable source for the gabbro artifacts is the Pindos Mountains. Limestones and sandstones, used by the Neolithic stone workers for the production of various ground stone tools, such as grinding slabs, grinders, abraders, polishers and hammer stones, were acquired exclusively from local sources, as they are the predominant rock types of the island. The raw material for the manufacture of a zoomorphic vessel of white marble was most probably originated from Naxos, an island of the Cyclades complex in the south Aegean Sea.