Use-wear Analysis of the Ground Stone Tools from the Jiahu Site

Summary

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Jiahu is one of the most important settlement sites of the Chinese Middle Neolithic Age (ca.7000-5500 BC) and is located in the upper Huai River Valley, China. During excavations, a number of ground stone tools were uncovered. Use-wear analysis and replication experiments were conducted in order to understand the functionality, usage and contact materials of these tools. Our experiments involved stone shovels, axes, adzes, gouges and other common stone tools from Jiahu site. Experimental results indicate that shovels at the Jiahu site were the primary digging tools. Axes and adzes were used to process wood, animal bones and fur. In addition, we found that gouges were used to contact wood, meat and animal furs. Based on these findings, we propose that quite a few ground stone stools at the Jiahu site were multifunctional composite tools and there is no direct corresponding relationship between the tool morphology and function.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Use-wear, Experimental Archaeology and Residue Analysis in the People's Republic of China, A Session in Memory of George H. Odell   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage