Use-Wear Analysis (Other Keyword)
1-25 (70 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Coloring Outside the Lines: Re-situating Understandings of the Lifeways of Earliest Peoples of the Circum-Caribbean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the 1930s, scholars have examined variation in early lithic assemblages across the Caribbean archipelago. Long-held explanations for the genesis of these assemblages (and the differences among them) include cultural/stylistic factors, aspects of raw material...
Assessing Variability in Toolkit Functionality: Differential Wear Patterns on Projectile Technologies from Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Interior Alaska (2018)
Much of the early theoretical framework for our understanding of the colonization and occupation of interior Alaska has been established on technological variability in lithic assemblages of the region. This initial research has been limited in scope, focusing on the presence or absence of microblades. Recent research has sought to push beyond the significance of debatably diagnostic tool forms, microblades, in defining cultural complexes and has attempted to more fully address models of...
Beyond Projectiles: Experimental Study of Microblades as Cutting Tools (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The miniaturization of lithic artifacts indicates a significant shift in lithic technology and functions since the Upper Paleolithic, revealing a probable shift in subsistence strategy. Microblades are specific kinds of small stone tools that occur in sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic through Neolithic in many parts of the world. Although it is widely...
Bone “Awls” of the Southwest (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Through conducting a microwear analysis, I argue that the use wear of the bone tools examined will determine their functional use. The collections of bone tools for this study are from various Mimbres (AD 200–1130) and Chacoan (AD 850–1250) sites (located in the North American Southwest). Many bone artifacts with narrow, pointed distal ends are defined as...
Challenging Current Perspectives on Late Pleistocene Stone Toolkits across Beringia through Use-Wear Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Current Research and Challenges in Arctic and Subarctic Cultural Heritage Studies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Microblade technologies are a structuring component of the Late Pleistocene archaeology across the Bering Strait because of their wide chronological and geographical extension. To fully understand the technoeconomical strategies underlying the success of this innovative toolkit in periglacial environments,...
Determination of Use-Wear Evidence on Quartzite Tools: Experimental and Archaeological Studies (2017)
Use-wear analysis has become an essential method for functional study of archaeological lithic artifacts. Quartzite is one of the main raw materials for lithic tools during Paleolithic period in many sites in the world. However, use-wear studies on quartzite tools are poorly developed due to its poor quality and rough surface. In this paper, the objective is to provide some reference data of determination of use-wear evidence, including both of the experimental and archaeological studies. In...
Dispatches from an Archaeological "Backwater": Microwear as a Proxy Measure of Paleoindian Landscape Use in the Far Northeast (2024)
This is an abstract from the "American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have been examining and publishing on the fluted point period for over a century. However, the northeastern United States has received comparably less attention from the professional discipline, with one colleague describing prehistoric archaeology in New England as an archaeological backwater. This...
Diversity and Lithic Microwear: Quantification, Classification, and Standardization (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past decade, lithic microwear analysis has witnessed a shift in how data is collected, moving away from optical microscopy towards a more quantifiable practice. The adoption of surface metrology microscopes, including confocal and focus variation, allows for the measurement of surface roughness or texture, thus distinguishing...
Dry-Grinding or Wet-Grinding? Use-Wear Reveals the Grinding Technique Used for Cereal Processing in Early Neolithic Central China (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Different food processing techniques often shed light on the dietary habits and subsistence strategies adopted by prehistoric populations. Studies have shown that grinding cereals into flour took place since the Paleolithic age. Nevertheless, the grinding method employed in the prehistoric periods was often not investigated. This study discovered the different...
Early Holocene Leporid Processing at the LSP-1 Rockshelter, Oregon (2017)
Human occupation of the Little Steamboat Point-1 (LSP-1) rockshelter in southcentral Oregon began ~9,600 cal BP. Artifacts recovered from the pre-Mazama deposits include a faunal assemblage comprised primarily of leporid remains and a lithic assemblage dominated by informal flake tools. I designed and conducted an experiment using replicated obsidian flake tools to identify leporid processing strategies employed by Early Holocene occupants. I performed hide, carcass, and meat processing tasks...
Early Native American Prehistory on the Maryland Western Shore: Archeological Investigations at the Higgins Site, Vol. 1 (1992)
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El uso del adobe en el valle de Colima (600-900 dC) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La propuesta de trabajo abordará el uso del adobe en el Occidente Mesoamericano durante el periodo comprendido entre los años 600-900 dC, el cual representó para los habitantes del Valle de Colima, un movimiento transformador que modificó de manera radical la ideología y costumbres que hasta el año 600 dC fueron utilizadas alrededor de mil años; lo cual se...
Evaluating a Stratified, Prearchaic, Open-Air Site in Grass Valley, Nevada (2018)
Current views of the Prearchaic draw heavily from investigations of sites near pluvial lakes in the eastern and western Great Basin. The record from the Central Great Basin remains impoverished, largely due to the limited number of stratified archaeological sites containing well preserved material suitable for faunal analysis and radiocarbon dating. Recent investigations of an open-air site (26La4434) along the northern shore of Pleistocene Lake Gilbert in Grass Valley, revealed a buried deposit...
Expedient Tools from a Functional Angle (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Expedient Technological Behavior: Global Perspectives and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In almost every culture of the world, expedient tools are present. They are “tools of the moment.” These flakes were crafted quickly with semi-improvised techniques, then used for a short period of time and discarded. The use of flakes as tools may not only indicate reuse or recycling of debitage waste, but also...
Explaining Shifts in Dalton Paleoindian Adaptations at the End of the Pleistocene through Usewear and Technological Organization Analyses (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Paleoindian period in North America approximately 12,000 years ago, Dalton hunter-gatherers substantially altered their hunting technology by modifying their point blades with teeth-like serrations and bevels. The functions of these attributes have been the focus of a long-held debate. Some argue that the variation relates to use as knives and...
Exploring Domestic Tasks at Kharaneh IV using Lithic Microwear Analysis (2015)
The use and division of space in the Early Epipalaeolithic gives insights into the nature of social interaction in the Southern Levant prior to the advent of permanent architecture. This presentation presents preliminary results from the microwear analysis of the Jordanian Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV to explore the nature of domestic tasks within a hut structure. Kharaneh IV is located in the Azraq basin, Eastern Jordan, dating to the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic periods. The site’s...
Exploring Obsidian Hafted Scraper Use-Wear Patterns Through Experimental Hide-Working in Southern Patagonia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnographically, three types of hafted scrapers are found in Patagonia: northern Tehuelche, southern Tehuelche, and Selk'nam. However, due to environmental conditions, hafting materials rarely survive in the archaeological record, hindering our understanding of these tools. To address this gap, we conducted experimental research to characterize the...
Feeding the Household and the Spirit During the Ubaid Period at Kenan Tepe, Turkey (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Households to Empires: Papers Presented in Honor of Bradley J. Parker" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Ubaid Period, a small village overlooked the Tigris River at the site we now call Kenan Tepe. Here, household members carried out activities both inside and around their houses, as well as utilizing roof-top spaces. During its habitation one of the structures burned and collapsed, preserving evidence...
Flint on Flesh: Creating an Experimental Comparative Collection for Use Wear Analysis of Holmul Region Lithics, Petén, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Use-wear studies have proven invaluable for understanding human interaction with lithic materials and organic materials that have not survived the archaeological record. Though recent investigations have begun to address gaps in Maya user-wear studies, archaeologists have not sufficiently explored stone tool use in the Maya area. This study includes an...
Foreseeable Tools: Lithic Use-Wear and Technological Organizations in Evolutionary Perspectives (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The paper explores some problems concerning the relationship between aspects of lithic technology and the cultural evolutionary theory. There are three fundamental realms in stone tool analysis, namely, typology, technology, and functional studies. These research phases are integrated into the study of "technological organizations" in the sense of Binford...
The Formation and Distribution of a Chindadn Component Tool Assemblage: Insights from Microwear Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of the Southern Yukon-Alaska Borderlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of an extensive use-wear analysis of the lithic assemblage recovered from the Chindadn component at the Little John site (KdVo-6). Within the context of Little John, this component dates from the Late Bølling Allerød Interstadial to the Younger Dryas (14,300-11,900 RCYBP). The study population...
Foxes in Retrospect. Unraveling Human-Fox Relationships Through Fox Tooth Ornaments in the Swabian Jura (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Personal ornaments play an important role in our understanding of human cultural and behavioral change during the Upper Paleolithic. Although small, ornaments are often well-preserved, occur in large quantities, vary across space and time, and can shed light on intangible aspects of human lifeways (e.g., identity, relationships, movement, status). However,...
Functional Perspective on the Evolution of Hunting Technology in Africa and Europe (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The development of hunting technology is a key aspect of human behavioral evolution. Many efforts have therefore been made to identify prehistoric projectiles and propulsion modes, especially to determine when long-range...
Functional Riddles, Chipped Stone Technologies, and Fiber Processing in the Late Sixth and Fifth Millennium BCE in Turkmenistan and Northwestern Europe (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Use-wear and residue analysis draws attention to complexities of technological processes that otherwise remain out of reach archaeologically. Enigmatic wear traces described by microwear analysts as “polish 23,” “polish 10,” and “polis non familiar” occur on distinctive chipped stone tools from Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites in...
Getting a Handle on Form and Function: Functional Analysis of Aurignacian Formal Tools from Abri Pataud (Périgord, France) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Examining Spatial-Temporal Variation in the Lithic Technology of the Early Upper Paleolithic" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Paleolithic Europe, the Aurignacian period marks the beginnings of the production of a multitude of formal tools, each with specific typologies that sometimes have been attributed to one or several functions and actions. Functional studies have shown that morphology does not suffice to infer...