Under Fire: An Experimental Examination of Heat on Lithic Microwear Evidence

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Lithic microwear analysis provides important insights into stone tool function by identifying various polishes, residues, and striations that ultimately represent microscopic evidence of how these tools were used. However, recent archaeological analyses have recognized an interesting pattern: burned lithic specimens do not appear to preserve microwear traces to the same extent or frequency as non-burned specimens. With the use of experimental methods, the co-variation was tested to determine if the pattern was causal. The experimental design included fifty lithic flakes that were used to cut wood for long enough period to develop a strong microwear signal. Then, the flakes were exposed to different levels of heat to test this hypothesis.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25594