Wear traces from some experimental chipped stone extractive tools

Summary

Experimental replicas of chipped stone sickle blades and both arrowheads and atlatl darts are used to evaluate (1) stages of sickle gloss formation as affected by moisture content of harvested wild grasses and domesticated rye cereal grains and (2) armature impact and penetration wear traces. Herbaceous plant moisture content was calculated along with the total time of harvesting by wooden sickles mounted with stone prismatic blades. High speed digital photography recorded projectile flight paths and details of shaft rotation on impact and penetration of a domestic hog carcass. Other chipped stone knives were then used to skin and butcher the hog. The respective results show plant moisture content affects sickle gloss formation, and armature rotation on carcass impact and penetration is equally apparent in the microscopic wear traces. Pig blood residues and contrastive skinning/butchery wear is apparent too. These results have broad application to both New and Old World archaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Integrating Functional Analysis: Contributions from Use-Wear Analysis within the Broader Context of Human Behavior in Prehistoric North America

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16018