Microwear and the Resolution of Post-Depositional Modification of Danish Underwater Mesolithic Deposits

Summary

It has been shown that the amount of rounding of a dorsal ridge of an unused flake is a good proxy measure for the amount of post-depositional modification by sediment movement. The technique has been applied often by the Lithic Microwear Research Laboratory to assess the suitability of an assemblage for study of tool use. Here, we report on the application of the technique to a unique problem. Orehoved is a port located in southern Denmark. The repositioning of a bridge carrying traffic between Hamburg and Copenhagen impacts on access of the port channel to ships. The channel is to be repositioned and an archaeological assessment was undertaken to assess the impact of different access routes to the port. The harbor and channel routes were test pitted with the sediment (2m3)from each test pit brought onboard the vessel to be sieved. Artifacts came from at least two distinctive layers. Ridge wear analysis demonstrates that the artifacts showed a variety of conditions from appearing extremely fresh to showing extreme rounding. Spatial and statistical analysis shows that there are horizontal and vertical differences in the quantity of high quality material. The analysis provides a guide for current underwater excavation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Exploring the Microscale: Advances and Novel Applications of Microscopy for Archaeological Materials

Keywords

Spatial Coverage