Investigating the toolkit for building a Neolithic house: microwear and the missing majority

Summary

Many microwear studies focus on one material category. Instead we explored the technological and functional interconnectivity of different tools used in one chaîne opératoire. During the experimental reconstruction of a Late Neolithic houseplan excavated in the Dutch wetlands, we made use of a variety of implements: stone axes and adzes, bone and antler objects, and tools of wood. In total 120 tools were used for almost 20,000 minutes during the four week construction period. We recorded the entire biography of each tool, making Provil casts each time the object switched function. Relevant attributes of the contact material as well as of the tool user were noted. All of the tools were studied for traces of wear, the Provil casts allowing us to follow the history of wear development. Some tasks are well represented in the identifiable weartraces, whereas other phases of the building process are not reflected. Some tools, notably those of wood, are not likely to survive at all, yet they constituted 25% of the total worked time. In this paper the results of the microwear analysis will be discussed in the light of behavioural and taphonomical perspectives related to the chaîne opératoire of house construction.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Innovative Interpretive Approaches in Microwear and Residue Analyses

Keywords

Spatial Coverage