Quantification of Use-Wear on Experimental Shell Tools: First Results Using Focus Variation Microscopy and Surface Roughness Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Increasingly, archaeologists have adopted various approaches from engineering and materials sciences to quantify the surfaces of artifacts and ecofacts. Different microscope systems and surface texture/roughness parameters have been employed with various degrees of success. Although most studies have focused on chipped stone tools and animal bones, to date there has been no attempt to quantify use-wear on shell tools. In this study, a Sensofar S neox microscope was used to mathematically document the surfaces on the edges of shell tools both before and after use. The shells were used to scrape a variety of materials, including wood, hide, and bone. Texture/roughness was calculated from the surface measurements taken on the used and unused shell edges using multiple ISO parameters, including multiscalar analysis (relative area; area-scale fractal complexity). The results of this experiment indicate that the quantification of use-wear on shell tools is possible and that shell, as a raw material, may present challenges with regard to surface texture/roughness documentation. Discussion of the results includes an assessment of which parameters may be best for distinguishing used from unused shell tool surfaces and the surfaces of shell tools used on different contact materials, and possible problems resulting from postdeposition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36264.0